Ice Fishing for ND Crappie

[bink]

Hey everyone, I have been fishing Tschida and Audobon for Walleye the last few years. I have had pretty good luck but my fiance is a crappie fan. I have tried a bit in the summer and got a few in Tschida but have been failing when ice fishing. Now that We are starting to get a bit of ice I figured I would see what everyone had for recommendations for ice fishing crappie. I'm a Bismarckian and was thinking of trying Harmon since it supposedly has Crappie. Any opinions or suggestions would be hugely appreciated.

 

[Shockwave]

I haven't fished Harmon in a while, but the last time I fished it I was catching a lot of Crappie on the SW side. This summer we were catching Crappie on Beaver Bay, right off the rocks/road.

 

[Lapper]

I’ll second Beaver Bay. You’ll catch all kinds of things there including some nice crappie. Jamestown reservoir also has a nice population if they are allowing fishing there this year.

 

[Rowdie]

She likes Crappy ....gate that bitch...lol

 

[Vollmers]

Oahe

 

[johnr]

Pipestem

 

[Magpie]

I've had my best luck with crappies through the ice after dark.

 

[luvcatchingbass]

I have never fished those lakes but as far as fishing tips here is what I have found, obviously different bodies can have different patterns but this has done well for me the last few years on different bodies.
-Start your search in or just above the halfway point of the water column, example 20fow work the 8-12ft area
-If possible set a few minnows on plain hook and bobber and stage them at different depths.
-I like to have 2 setups ready. One with a smaller tungsten with either a plastic or live wax worms (spikes if you can find them) and another with a smaller jigging spoon tipped with wax worms normally (my favorite is a Lindy Frosty Jigging Spoon 1/16th oz). Obviously if you are somewhere with bigger fish you can up size your offerings, sometimes I will still do that just to see what makes them tick.
-Sometimes when just searching I will go up to bigger more aggressive tackle like jigging raps, rattle spoons, bigger flutter spoons, etc just to draw fish in and if they don't hit switch to my spare setup.
Good Luck

 

[bink]

I appreciate all the feedback, going to have to try a few attempts again this year.

 

[Deke]

Pipestem has some nice ones, including my pb. But for sheer numbers I would say Jamestown Rez is hard to beat, just lots of dinks from what I know.

 

[BRK]

Tons of 6-10" slabs in the Reservoir. I was killing Pipestem two years ago as well, but it winter killed two years ago.... not much other than pike in there. They are transporting crappies from the Res each year, but it'll take time to rebuild the panfish population.