I never hear mention of crappies. Is the BWCA void of crappies or is it no one fishes for them? With spring around the corner dose anyone fish for them. They are good eating.

I know there are crappies in the Kawishwi river and in the gabbro area. I am taking my first trip there this summer and will be targeting crappies for sure.

Yes, they are good eating to say the least.

Other than this, I have not heard of any other places that have crappies.

Gabbro produces some very nice crappies as does Lake Agnes, the Boulder River and Boulder Bay in Lac LaCroix. And they taste marvelous. A 1/8 jig head with a rainbow chub has been my most effective presentation.

I have been amazed at the size of some of them in Agnes. We have caught two 14 in fish and a few between 12-14.

Crappies? Heck yeah big ones. Boulder Bay was mentioned above, but if your going in May, try the Boulder River. We caught them there as big as 15". I caught one there several years ago with a lamprey attached to it...a rather gross looking surprise.

Boulder Bay crappie

They are in the bw. I've caught crappies up to 15". It's fun when you don't know if you're pulling in a walleye or a big crappie.

Excellent pic Mr. Barley.

I may have to target a few crappies this year.

C

very nice Crappie Mr B

The rumor of Crappies in Agnes are certainly unfounded.
It is a total exaggeration.
Probably just rock bass. Yep rock bass, no crappies.

No crappies at all. :)

J

Jerry,

I presume this is the kind of Agnes "rock bass" you're talking about, correct? I really hate catching garbage fish like this :^)

Darn rock bass! ;>)

On another funny note, I was fishing at Red Lake years ago and a person from a larger metropolis from east of MN, not to name names, was raving about how he had never seen sunfish like we had.

I had never seen a pile of sheepshead fillets before, but he was doing a pretty good job.

J

A few years back while trolling big reef runners and shad raps in front of camp for Walleyes on Agnes we caught an amazing cappie. Didn't measure it, but I know it was the biggest I've ever seen in person. I never have spent any time in the BW trying to catch them, but we have, on occasion caught some nice ones.

my uncle caught some mid-teen sized crappies between gabbro and little gabbro last year by drifting leeches on the bottom.

About ten years ago we caught a 15" crappie on Iron. We fished in that area for a while trying to catch some more but we never did. Usually you won't catch just one, you will catch several.

ILikePike,

Those look just like the ones I released while fishing Gabbro last spring because they were too small. Glad to see that they grew up :^)

I will travel far and wide for crappies that size, nice fish !!

nothing better than a stringer full of crappies, hopefully early june will be on for them

we caught these in iron last summer

nice crappies on the north end of back bay on basswood lake

Back in the day my dad knew a spot on the North Kawishiwi that was just loaded. We would drift around dragging half a night crawler on a plain hook until someone got a hit, anchor, and catch our limit in about half an hour. Then we'd go fishing further up river for the rest of the morning and motor back (like I said, back in the day) to the resort for a fish fry. Haven't been able to find that spot since!

does anyone know about a rig with flu-flu's tipped with a waxie for crappies? this works great on the lakes that i fish near my home i imagine it would also work up there... any feedback on the idea?

Flu Flus are deadly anywhere.

caught one really nice crappie on gabbro (from camp) but couldn't find any of his friends. never caught one anywhere else in the bwca but never really tried.

tg

TG,

That's how I do it. I catch one crappie per year on all the lakes I fish on that hold them.