Easter Fishing Fun
My goal for the Easter long weekend was to spend some time tidying up my gardens, then hit the water in search of a good crappie bite.
Mission accomplished.
At this time of the year we are somewhat limited in our fishing options – trout don’t open until later this month, walleye and pike open next month, and bass don’t open until June. That usually leaves us choosing between heading to Lake Ontario for big fish, but the weather has to be just right for our tiny boat and my sometimes queasy stomach, or heading out for crappie. With the wind this past weekend the choice was easy – off to Fairy Lake for some crappie action.
It was hard to find a pattern at first. Tossing the same jigs that have worked the past few outings, in a weed bed that becomes a crappie mecca as the water warms up, produced little action. It’s possible the fish were just off after having been fished by a few other boats (which was a very welcome sight – more people out enjoying this wonderful lake) so we headed off to a bay with many underwater stumps and weeds that were starting to turn green.
While the wind was making boat control a little difficult, Darrell quickly landed some crappie which showed us we were on to something. As Darrell landed more crappie, and I had a sunfish come out to play, we realized the key was to fish the stumps that were in deeper water. Then it became obvious that we needed to fish them slow. If you could get a jig to drop right by the stump and leave it there for a few seconds, you could land a fish. That proved to be a problem for me as more often than not my letting the jig sit resulted in me getting snagged.
One of the nice crappie Darrell landed on the weekend. He measured one in at 12-inches and a few at 11-inches.
While we were slowly putting together a pattern for crappie, the quick bites were coming from everything that wasn’t in season. On Saturday each of us inadvertently landed a 5lb largemouth bass! The girls were hungry and try as we might, it was getting hard to target the crappie and avoid the bass. Now, I have to admit that playing that nice a fish on ultralight gear was a blast, but I really hate catching fish that are not open! I wouldn’t even let Darrell take pictures in case someone thought we were actually targeting bass. Of course, the pike didn’t want to be left out, and Darrell reeled in one of the nicer ones I’ve seen in that lake, while I caught one of the tiniest ones I’ve ever seen. While it was an absolute blast to catch those fish (every single one was quickly release), we decided it would be safer to head for an area less likely to be holding bass and pike at this time of the year, and finished the day with a few more crappie.
For Easter Sunday I had planned to head to Lake Simcoe for giant perch, but another windy day and my very volatile mood kept us close to home.
I had a terrible time with the line on my ultralight rod on Saturday, constant tangles and loops, and I really wanted some new line for Sunday. The unfortunate thing about holiday weekends is that stores are never open when you want them to be. However, I got incredibly lucky and happened to find the one tackle shop that was open for a few hours on Easter Sunday. Perfect! Darrell and I went into the store looking for a suitable, inexpensive line for my one ultralight combo…and walked out with two spools of NanoFil, some new soft plastics to entice the crappie, and a new ultralight combo for Darrell. Sheesh. Happy Easter to us, I guess.
With new fishing gear, and me in a much happier frame of mind, we headed back to Fairy Lake to continue our search for the perfect crappie pattern before heading off to Easter dinner.
One of the reasons I love Fairy Lake so much is that it is fairly sheltered. Wind can stir it up and make boat control difficult, but I have yet to find a day when our little tin can couldn’t handle it. Sunday was one of the windiest days I have spent on Fairy Lake (with the exception of the autumn day we took the canoe in there a couple of years ago – it wasn’t long before the waves crashing over the sides chased us back to land) and yet it was entirely fishable.
It's hard to tell in the picture, but these were some pretty good waves for Fairy Lake. I couldn't help but laugh at the little whitecaps all around us. It was crazy fun. We didn't stay in this bay too long since it was pretty difficult to keep the boat going in the preferred direction.
After a quick fish through Saturday’s bass and pike-filled bay, picking up a few crappie and a couple of sunfish, we headed back to a more sheltered area, and there we found a crappie bonanza.
Darrell was able to set us up so the boat would drift nicely across a weed bed. We took the pattern from Saturday – stumps in deeper water, and started fishing weeds in deeper water (8 to 10 FOW). The crappie were just waiting for us to figure that out. On each drift we were kept busy catching and releasing crappie. While they liked my white and chartreuse tube jig, they were really going crazy for Darrell’s pumpkin/chartreuse Berkley PowerBait micro power nymph.
Another crappie succumbed to the micro power nymph.
It was almost impossible to leave the lake after such a great afternoon. On each drift all we had to do was toss the jig out, only a few feet from the boat even (which was difficult for me since the NanoFil is an excellent casting line and I kept making longer casts!), let it fall beside a weed, give it a pop if you didn’t already have a fish, and next thing you know – fish on!
One of my playful sunfish from the weekend.
Once again, Fairy Lake proved to be an excellent destination and provided us with a weekend of fishing fun. I’m looking forward to the next few weeks as the nights are supposed to be getting much warmer and that will help bring the crappie in even more. Once the weeds are fully green and filled out, and the water temps warm up (the surface temps were 51F on Saturday and 47F on Sunday), the bite will only get hotter. If you’ve got a boat, you’ll soon be able to easily sight-fish crappie. If you’re fishing from shore, stay near the creek right now and you should get bites.
The best kind of weekend is one where I’m on the water and catching fish. This was an awesome weekend!
argosgirl
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Hi there,
After few stunk during ice fishing in Fairy Lake in Feb this year, I would like to try shore fishing again this week. Can you tell me whether I can get the pan fish near the boat launch Dock area?
Thanks in advance!
Ken
You could cast anywhere from the boat launch around to the bridge at the creek (by the dog park). This is a great weed bed that we regularly fish. From shore it would be good to try using a slip float set at 5 to 6 feet and hopefully that will get you on them. If you take your time and be patient, they should bite. Good luck!