Big Crappie On Late Ice

A buddy and I took a short road trip a couple weekends ago. We have been trying to make it work all winter but bad weather or life had always gotten in the way. Even though the temps were predicted to be below 0 with winds in the mid 20's it was go time. We left home and were on the ice shortly after 1. Between then and dark we only caught 2 small crappie and 1 small perch. It wasn't a great start but we were geared up to stay after dark. Literally minutes after sunset, the crappie started moving. We were targeting 35' of water but the crappie were moving though 6-15' of the bottom. The first decent fish brought topside was 15.5". We didn't get a weight but sent it quickly back down the hole. For the next hour, we caught a crappie about every 5 minutes. The majority of them were pushing the 2 pound mark with several well over! They wanted the jigs held perfectly still. Any movement at all scared them away fast! The next morning our first choice on lakes was a bust. There was open water everywhere so we scrambled to make a different choice. Not getting to our spot until around 8 meant we likely l missed the morning bite. After packing in the sides of my Clam Stealth flipover shack, I made my first drop. Seconds into jigging, I hooked up with the first and only crappie of the morning. A healthy 15.25" 2.35 pounder! We fished lake until noon catching only bass. While the bass were fun and abundant, they weren't what we were after. We made the nearly 2 mile walk back to the truck through 30 mph winds and sub zero temps. It was brutal! That evening we ventured back out for the night bite. Similar to the night before, the crappie showed up just after sunset and stuck around biting for only an hour. The quality of fish was once again spectacular! My buddy beat his biggest crappie ever... Twice! The heaviest he got was a 2.66 pounder that lived to see another day! The next morning, we hit the water an hour and a half before daylight to see what was up. The bite picked up as soon as we could get down to the bottom. Right up until day light, nearly every crappie brought into the shack was 2 pounds or better. It was a crazy weekend and we already have plans in the works for a summer trip!