Ice-Out Crappies

It’s been an odd spring, and for that matter, and even more peculiar winter.  Open water in the southern part of the state has been around for a few weeks, while in the north, there’s still ice, albeit a poor version of it, clinging to memories of a winter that wasn’t.  Early season panfish bites are a rite of spring, typically happening in mid-late April for most lakes in the state as a precursor to the May opener.  This year due to the unseasonably warm weather, I’m happy to say, we’ll probably have some bonus time, with crappies already snapping in the shallows of Southern MN.  Here’s a few things to keep in mind when tracking down a good spring crappie bite.

Water temperature is a key contributing factor to everything crappies in the spring.  Cold nights below freezing, cool-water runoff from melting snow, and heavy cloud cover can all contribute to the death of a seemingly un-killable bite.  As black-bottom bays and rock-laden shorelines store what solar energy they can, crappies flood to the shallows as water temps hit 45 degrees and above.  In most of the lakes I fish, this seems to be as close to a “magic number” as I can find in helping to predict not only locations, but mood of the crappies I’m after.  Anything south of that value, and shallow water crappies become much more rare and hard to find.  Even after locating them, you just don’t see the large congregations of fish that are willing to eat like you do in the 45-50 degree range and above.  That said, spring is a rollercoaster of conditions, full of false-starts, short intense feeding periods during warm weather, and then eventually spawn and post-spawn behavior.  Your best bet is multiple trips that allow you to track changes in water temperatures, such that you don’t hit before the front end, or after the spawn.

Regarding location, when warm water is scarcer in the early season, those shorelines that are even a few degrees warmer can be full of fish.  This is true even when they lack good cover, provided you’re fishing the warmest water in the lake and it’s still early.  Black bays on the north side of a lake are a good start, and don’t hesitate to fish shallower than 5 feet, especially in systems with poor clarity.  Even as water temps rise into the 50’s, fish remain shallow, feeding on baitfish drawn to the warm water and emerging life that’s brought upon by warm afternoons and an even more aggressive sun angle. 

Cover is king for pre-spawn crappies, and while any wood or timber is good for finding them, brush is better.  An isolated log or stump may hold a few fish, but large concentrations of fish will be found where they can bury themselves within and along brush piles.  Unfortunately, most anglers miss the bonanza by fishing only around the edges, rather than within the heavy cover.  Occasional fish are to be had this way, but to do well in these situations, you’ll need to be prepared to fearlessly fish inside of the heavy stuff, not just around the edges.  For that reason, especially in darker, more turbid water, I’ll fish 8lb test mono or heavier, as small jigs and small line are an exercise in brush-fishing frustration.  In northern natural lakes with broad and shallow shorelines, timber can be hard to find, so crappies focus on bulrush and pencil-reeds for cover.  Whether wood or vegetation, getting in the middle of it seems to pay dividends. 

What to use is an important factor during this time of year, with water temps again dictating presentation and lure selection.  Especially early, the temptation is to fish fast and cover water to find larger schools.  Just coming out of winter, locations can be a mystery, and bobber-fishing shallows is simply too slow for most anglers.  That said, especially during the early season, crappies will rarely chase to eat moving baits presented on the edges.  Fish with floats, and use meat.  Crappies are carnivorous little beings, and you’ll be surprised how savagely they’ll strike a minnow offered on a jig with hair, tinsel, marabou, or flashabou.  This larger profile requires some aggression, and hookups seem much more sure as crappies are required to fully inhale such a presentation.  Keep in mind however, that bluegills which can be found in the same areas this time of year, are less likely to be able to eat such baits.  I have been pleasantly surprised by large perch, especially when fishing backwaters bites, that will be more than happy to eat a 1/32oz jig with a minnow.

Plastics bites are still to come, but typically require warmer conditions yet.  It’s unfortunate that minnows are best fished when your freezing fingers would otherwise want you to use artificials-only, but it seems like warm weather and glove-less hands are about the best predictor on when to start looking to retrieved plastic presentations.  For this reason, bring bait until moving presentations readily out-perform more stationary live-bait options. 

It’s a great time of year to be on the water.  Wait till a warm afternoon, and pick apart the shallows until you find some fish.  Keep it simple, have fun with it, and save the ultra-serious stuff for later.                

Plan "B" Property - Why You Need One!

If you’ve turkey hunted long enough, you’ve likely gotten settled in to a rut of sorts.  You hunt the same spots, the same way, and you do it because it’s brought you success in the past.  Far be it from me to ask anyone to fix what isn’t broken, but has your “honey-hole” ever dried up?  Has it let you down on occasion?  Even the best properties, loaded with birds, during the best times of the season can experience lulls in the action, for any number of reasons.  Here’s an argument for getting out there and securing another spot or two before turkey seasons are upon us and it’s too late.

I’ve been fortunate enough to grow up hunting the same ground I did when I was younger, but therein lies part of the problem.  Whether it’s land you own, or ground that you’ve had permission on for years, it’s too easy to get comfortable with the idea that there’ll be birds there in the spring.  You always seem to pull it off, but sometimes it’s with a stroke of luck, and why leave it to chance?  On numerous occasions, I’ve had prime spots of the past fail me when I seemed to need or rely on them the most.  For youth hunts, or when trying to help someone get their first turkey, it’s nice to have an “old-reliable” that you can stroll into with little scouting, show up, and drop right in on the game.  That said, no property or group of birds is a guarantee, and there’s a pile of reasons and scenarios which can change your turkey spot for the worse.

The first and most common culprit is usually just plain timing.  While I do have properties that hunt better earlier, mid-season, or later, we’re hunting birds that can at times be quite nomadic.  Especially in the early season when birds roam in larger groups, there’s simply a larger percent chance that the ground you’re on, is not the small area that most of the birds are frequenting.  Even if your scouting has been filthy with sign and sightings, unless you can scout right up to the day you hunt, birds can be here one day, and simply gone the next.  Don’t hold out hope that they may return, or keep trying to call them over from adjacent properties, have another spot or two in mind.

Another reason for reduced activity in your favorite spot is quite simply, change.  Spring is dynamic.  Food sources are changing daily as fields which once held waste grain, are plowed under the following day.  Birds and the progression of their breeding season, male pecking order, and population demographics can affect how often birds roost together, visit strut zones, and generally interact with other birds and ultimately, your calling.  Spring weather gives rise to even more variability in turkey behavior, with everything from wind and rain, to calm and sunny conditions driving them to frequent some places more than others.  Put these scenarios together, along with a whole bunch more and you’ve got a virtual Rubik’s cube of combinations to sort through in order to solve the puzzle. 

Lastly, pressure by other hunters can certainly change the game, and the unfortunate part is that the cause can be on neighboring property, and going on without your knowledge.  It’s rare in many areas for turkeys to spend an entire day or especially an entire season, completely within the confines of the property you have permission to hunt, so you need to be mindful of other hunting activity going on in the area.  When I see a truck parked at a field road or along a ditch, I assume it’s a turkey hunter, and adjust accordingly.  More than anything turkeys don’t like the disruption caused by people on-foot, walking around out in the open and spooking them out of strut zones, feeding areas, or loafing spots throughout the day.  They will naturally assume areas where this type of disruption is more rare. 

Perhaps I’ve convinced you to start looking into other places to hunt?  Well before you go and secure permission all over the county, keep in mind that this should be done within reason in order not to block your fellow hunter’s ability to get out and find some land as well.  Still, it’s a major part of the philosophy I have as a turkey hunter, in that I’m not too proud to pull off of a group of birds, and try my luck in another area.  What I look for is typically a few adjacent parcels, or a large individual one, totaling a hundred acres or more.  If I’ve got 2 or 3 of those, spaced at least a few miles apart, I hunt much more aggressively and confidently.  I know that if birds on Property A are henned up and uncooperative, the flock structure of birds on Property B is likely different, and toms might be more numerous and willing, while being less locked-down with their hens. 

In the past, I would try to get permission on a large, contiguous group of parcels, but that strategy didn’t always serve me well.  Now, rather than putting all my eggs in one flock’s basket and securing as much adjacent property as I can, I’m looking for clusters, separated by space, such that I can hunt different birds with different attitudes when the going gets tough.  This way, I can much more effectively nullify the effects of timing and season, changes in food sources and breeding phase, as well as hunting pressure on that property and nearby ground.  It’s a luxury to have that much ground to hunt, but especially if you’re part of a group with multiple tags and toms you’re after, it can really pay dividends.  Keep it in mind as you prepare for your turkey season, as quality ground and multiple options is just as important as scouting and calling practice in my book.    

When to Shoot? - Why Your First Shot is Usually Your Best

Most shooting decisions when hunting turkeys come after many long weeks of preparation, days of scouting, hours of setup and calling, and long-minutes of heart-pounding; all culminated by the pulling of a trigger.  After all the anticipation, the most critical moments of the hunt can come down to rushed judgments, muscle memory, and “gut-feelings.”  Dynamics such as decoys, calling, and shooting pellets as if they were bullets make this an entirely different game than much of the hunting experiences in your current game bag.  Speaking of, experience has been a good teacher for this student, mostly in the form of countless hard lessons in frustration caused by these same last-millisecond choices, forever etched in infamy.  These unhappy endings come in many forms, from plain misses to no-shots taken, or worse, birds that pick you off and head the other direction with haste, alerting everything in the woods to your presence.

TV hunting shows teach us that all birds run to your calling, climb on top of the decoys, and crane their necks out at full length for you to simply point the gun and shoot them dead with ease.  I have found this not to be the case on most hunts.  On a more typical hunt, the bird responds then as part of a process over time, eventually makes his way to you and your setup.  Along the way are long moments of pause across multiple distances, many of them out of range, and each one of them make you want to jump out of your skin.  With each passing moment, you obsess over the only question that now matters, “when to take the shot?”

Turkey Body Language

It so happens that turkeys do have some tells when it comes to the strutting game, though many hunters go all-in and succumb to the haze that is turkey-fever long before they have the chance to recognize them.  The first of which is strutting itself.  A bird in strut is generally satisfied with the situation and not going any long distances quickly.  This is your safety zone.  It’s a chance for you to move, if only a little, to get situated, line-up on the bird, and generally buy some more time until ready to shoot.  Birds with heads held high are another matter.  They are often equally eager, but twice as wary as a strutting tom.  These birds won’t hesitate to turn on one foot and march away from you, but before they do, they’ll almost always perform the “double-wing-tuck.”  When you see a bird tuck one wing behind itself, then another in rapid succession, the only truth you need to know is that this bird is ready to move and you have mere seconds to shoot, especially if it’s already towards the edge of your range.  Birds with heads down walking almost always have a pre-determined destination in mind.  These are birds that you’ll also need to draw a bead on quickly, as once in range, unless they drastically change their mood/behavior, you’ll have precious few moments with which to take them down.

Open Field Setups

Birds coming across large openings present many advantages to you the hunter, but also quite a few challenges.  While you can see them and read their every move, you also can’t do much moving yourself unless tucked inside of a blind.  For young and inexperienced hunters especially, this view presents the optimum in planning and taking the shot.  However, especially with decoy setups, sooner or later you’ll get birds that hang-up in the wide open, temptingly flirting with the edge of your range plus 10 yards.  Here is where a rangefinder, where legal, is an invaluable piece of equipment.  I’ve seen talented bowhunters and other experts at judging distance convince themselves that an 80 yard shot on a longbeard is very possible because it “looks closer to 40.”  The biggest temptation in this scenario is shooting too soon, and a day at the patterning board will lock in a maximum range that you should force yourself to stick to no matter what.    

Obstructed Views

Most turkey scenarios that I encounter have at least some woods, brush, or other obstructions in play.  Birds notoriously come from the wrong direction, cross vast thickets they’re not supposed to, and generally use elevation to their advantage while periscoping up to get a quick view, then ducking below a rise, never to be seen again.  These instances, especially the latter, play out in the turkey woods constantly, and you need to be ready to address them to fill your tag.  Birds also do a good deal of using brush to screenthemselves, all the while enjoying a great view in the distance without you being able to see them very well.  While I’m not advocating hasty shotgunning and brush shooting, these are common happenings that require decisive action, specifically in the form of taking the first best shot you have within range.  Ever patterned your shotgun through brush?  It’s amazing what a swarm of pellets will go through and still hit the board with terminal velocity.  That said, brush thicker than your fingers will stop pellets better than you can imagine.  The trick is riding that fine line between taking the best opportunity you have within range, and waiting it out for a better one.  I’m here to tell you that most often, a better one doesn’t present itself.  Get too picky with the birds, and they’ll rarely reward that patience.  Instead, focus on the first good look that tom gives you, and as long as he’s in range, you identify your target, and know what’s behind it, you’ll be amazed at how many more birds you’ll kill from this point forward. 

Achieving your Full Patterning Potential

I can vividly remember the first turkey I killed, and the equipment I used to take it.  In the mid 1990’s, the idea of using special loads for turkeys was just catching on.  Most shells were just heavy upland bird load disguised as turkey ammo.  For my first bird, it probably wouldn’t have mattered, as low-brass #8’s through a full choke at 20 yards likely could’ve killed that bird.  Which of course, sums up the opposing argument: “How dead do you need your turkey to be?”  Point taken, as birds that strut into the 25 – 35 yard sweet spot probably won’t make it out alive provided your aim is true.  That said, anyone who hunts turkeys long enough can come up with more than their fair share of stories as to how very killable birds at reasonable ranges end up living to gobble about it at a later date.

Like most turkey hunters, I care a good deal about how my gun performs on any given day with the proper load and choke combination.  It just so turns out, I’m a bit obsessive about it.  So much so, that when new shells hit the market, provided they have the potential to best my previous top-performer, I’m buying a box or two to run through my gun.  From there, I measure the amount of pellets that perforate a 10” circle at 40 yards.  That’s right, I take a marker and simply touch the holes in the paper until I have a firm pellet count.  To turkey hunters, web bloggers, and internet turkey forum junkies everywhere, this is the ruler by which you measure a load’s performance.  Through experience, I know that with factory loads, I can achieve nearly 200 hits in that zone, and I’m constantly looking to best that performance. 

Why you may ask?  Because I consider the wild turkey to be one of the fairest critters in the land, surely deserving of the cleanest and quickest death possible.  That, and a fellow named Murphy likes to hang out around the turkey woods from time to time.  Anything that can go wrong, typically does when the moment of truth is near, and that’s before your nerves even kick in.  Unseen brush, low light, poor aiming, and improperly ranged birds, among many other variables, lead to poor shots.  However, you’ll not find me tuning up my gun in the hopes that I can get a bird to topple at the 70 yard line.  Heck, I’m not even curious as to what my pattern does past 50 yards, but I am interested in putting as many pellets in a tight window at reasonable turkey ranges as possible for the many oddball shooting situations you can get yourself into.

So maybe I’ve talked you into maximum pellets per square inch, but you’re not about to drop $25 for 5 shots?  Think again, as it’s been my experience that for the most part, pricier loads like the Mag Blends I use are worth their weight in turkeys.  When Hevi-shot and other tungsten, nickel, and iron alloys came out advertising their “heavier-than-lead” performance, I was lost on the downrange energy part (though improved) because I was so enamored with the patterns.  Many ammunition companies load heavier-than-lead alternatives now, and although the price is high, so is the performance.  Pellet counts don’t lie, and they’ve improved so much in the past few years, that I’ve got a 20 gauge youth gun for my son that patterns far better than many 10 and 12 gauge guns shooting 3.5”es of lead.  Also, with denser shot types, the finer shot sizes (#6 and #7) provide enough downrange energy to kill your bird, allowing more payload and punch than your average #4 or #5 shot of old.    

So if you’re still unconvinced, consider this.  I’m about to pattern some quite pricey handloads out of Missouri through a custom Rhino choke tube designed for my gun and that shell type.  What’s more is that I can’t wait to do it.  These loads have the potential to put 300 or more pellets in that magic 10” circle at 40 yards, and from everything I’ve seen while hunting turkeys, max-pellets downrange is the premium no matter when or where you hunt.  Do you need a target stills champion gun to kill turkeys?  Absolutely not, but you might consider all of the money you spend on gas, tags, calls, camo, etc. and think of your ammo like good fishing line is to an angler; the most critical link between you and your turkey this spring.