By: Gord Pyzer
O
ntario is such an incredible place to fish, not only because it offers the adventurous angler over 400,000 lakes of every imaginable size, shape and depth but also because of the variety of species you can target. Two days ago, for example, I was chasing mammoth muskies in Lake of the Woods, where there is over 14,000 picture-postcard islands, scattered amongst one million acres of water. Then, yesterday, I decided to catch black crappies in a much more modest hideaway, where I was serenaded in the evening by a lonely timber wolf howling to the moon on shore. Talk about the big and the small of it all. Gotta’ confess, too, that crappies and muskies are at the top of my fall fishing agenda because with both species, it’s a hide-and-seek hunting game to pinpoint them. Especially, crappies that you can find in so many dissimilar type lakes from Southeastern Ontario clear across to the Northwestern part of the province.
And they are typically moving around slowly. But – and this is an extremely important part of the location puzzle – there is almost always something that is attracting and holding the group of fish together, like the tip of an underwater point, a pile of rocks, or even something as subtle as a submerged log or tree lying on the bottom. When I find one of these bunched up schools that is ripe for the picking, I like to back away from the fish if it’s relatively shallow and calm, and cast a baby finger-size swimbait like a Z-Man Micro Finesse Shad FryZ or small rattling bait like a Rapala Ultra Light Rippin Rap. If I find the fish in deeper water, or if it’s wavy, on the other hand, I’ll get right over top of the school and
During the late summer months and into early autumn, for example, crappies are social animals that school up in large groups and move around together. This can make for feast or famine fishing: once you find a tightly bunched up batch it is like picking plump juicy grapes from a vine. Two of the most important things I’ve also noticed about locating crappies, in my Northwestern Ontario, Sunset Country part of the province, is that the schools at this time of the year like to cluster in deeper water.
hang a small jig tipped with a 2 1/4-inch Mister Twister Sassy Stingum in front of their noses. This is probably the most effective method
but be aware that your presence can alert the crappies and cause them to shift their position. You need to move along with them when the bite starts to slow down. If you’re fishing a relatively shallow featureless crappie lake – especially common in the southern parts of the province – you will find the fish relating to clumps of cabbage and distinct weed lines. They’ll often spread out a little more than the deeper water fish, but you will still find small clusters of crappies associating with weedy points and anywhere that a rock, boulder, clay or sand bottom creates a tiny opening-like oasis in the vegetation. I was fishing a weedline like this the other day and found the slabs a (Cont. on page 48.)
Just Fishing . 46
Fall 2023
