Crane Creek 2/22 report

[EYEHUNTER]

Went out Sun morning out of Crane. Glad I got there early..... it was a zoo. As many cars as I have ever seen there. Talked to a guy who fished Sat and hadn't done very well until they moved over by A can in the evening. They ended up catching a few. Guys that called them to come over had their limit when they got there.

We decided to start a little SE of the mob that was at A can. Caught 2 pretty quickly and then nothing. Moved a few hundred yards east and caught one then nothing. Moved close to a mile east nothing. Moved back about 3/4 of a mile SW of where we started caught 2 fairly quickly then nothing. Made a last move into about 4 miles straight north nothing. We did miss a few, but the bite was extremely light. Almost felt like lure was stuck in the mud. Fish didn't fight nearly as hard as they have in the past either. Caught 3 on Rapalas and 2on a lure similar to a buckshot. Talked to a group in the parking lot that had gone way west and they had an 8 man limit. A lot of people were moving around out near A can and everyone I talked to there said had 1 or 2 at most.

The good news is travel was still easy on a quad. Snow drifted up a little around shoves, but didn't have any issues. No problems with cracks or shoves, but you do need to look out for large chunks of ice sticking up away from shoves that are hard to see due to drifted snow.

Drilled holes close to shoves in a few places where I hit water at about 2' then another chunk of ice under that. Ran out of auger before I got through second chunk.

[bdrieck]

Hey all. I know its late but better late than never. went of out Crane on 2/21 about 5 miles out in area SW of Sister. Same report. Extremely slow. Fish didn't seem to want to "school up" crazy thing we found was that they wanted the smallest presentation we could give them. some guys were using pan fish jigs tipped with shiners. May have just been a coincidence but I didn't have much luck. I brought the big lures. Sunday we went out 7 miles in 27' of water. bite was better. Of course it wasn't until we had 2 hours of fishing left did I figure out the technique. remember to be aggressive. I was so afraid to chase of a mark on the sonar that I played soft with them too much. jig it hard up and suspend. if they come up a little to take a closer look and dont hit right away, snap jig it up and suspend it again. embarrassing to find out that way too late. seemed like #3 jigging raps was the ticket on Sunday.