I was hoping to file a Banks Lake Crappie report on a planned crappie excursion, but time and unforseen occurance held me up. So I headed up to the I 82 ponds instead and concentrated on pond # 5 with my 10' Jon boat and electronics. At first it was pretty windy...water temp right at 58 degrees, water clarity-clear and off green. The water level had come up 3 ft at least since I fished it and slayed the crappie here on the 26th of March.
It actually made portaging my boat a little easier. I immediately began graphing fish on my Eagle Fish Easy color finder. Most were suspended 5' to 6' down in anywhere from 9' to 14 feet of water. I was pitching Smelt colored 2" Berlkey power minnow on a 1/32 oz lead head and was getting bumped constantly. My first keeper crappie was right at 9" and I mentally marked that spot and drifted primarily the east shore of the lake. The funny thing was I began catching just about everything on my minnow...Bull bluegill, yellow perch, a fiesty 13" rainbow and 6 Largemouth Bass. One spot, a 9' hump in 12' of water, provided nearly 30 crappie for me. Tightling my jig across the top of that small structure did the trick. I kept a dozen of the larger Crappie for the pan and let the rest go. Caught close to 50 fish in about 3 hours of fishing and I had the lake all to myself! (Numbers made up for the relative lack of size.) Hope to make it up to Banks Lake this weekend. Sad note...Broke the tip off of my pet G. Loomis 6' ultra light... thank God for a lifetime warranty! The Jigmiester

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