Knapp: Uncovering crappies at Mosquito Creek Lake
We hadn’t trolled more than a hundred yards when my light spinning rod bent into a bow. In the shallow water the fish came quickly to the top, intermittently bouncing across the bumpy surface as I worked it in. Once close to the boat I flipped it in, a nice 11-inch crappie.
The setting was Mosquito Creek Lake, a productive body of water in northeast Ohio not far from the Pennsylvania border. My friend, Sid Brown, had joined me for a trip last week during a hot but cloudy, breezy day.
Though I’ve fished Mosquito many times over the years, this was the first outing targeted at crappies, though I’d had some awesome experiences taking the species during late fall when aiming for walleyes.
Motivated by recent social media posts showing great catches, I did some online research and located numerous brushpiles and other fish attractors placed by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. My game plan was to locate fish attractors to see if, indeed, they were attracting any crappies. Also, knowing that we are now in the post spawn period, and that crappies tend to be scattered, trolling was also on the agenda.
For those not familiar with the lake, Mosquito lies in a north/south orientation, the dam on the southern end creating a pool that covers around 5,500 acres. A causeway near the town of Mecca divides the lake into southern and northern basins.
Launching at the DOW’s access area near Mecca, even at 8 am the lake was rocking from a brisk south wind. I idled along the causeway and then did a hard right turn at the causeway bridge that accesses the northern part of the lake into much calmer water.
As planned, we spent the first hour or so looking over sites where Christmas trees had been planted but found little. According to the DOW’s website these brushpiles had been introduced over 20 years ago. I’m guessing the soft wood of the pine trees had deteriorated by now.
On to Plan B, trolling. Starting in the six to seven foot depths I pointed the boat to the south, so we could reduce the boat’s trolling speed by heading directly into the wind and modest waves. I rigged up with a small Rapala Shad Rap, Sid something similar. As noted at the opening, we didn’t need to go far for initial success. By the time we reached the end of the trolling pass – which was the causeway – we’d put several more crappies in the boat along with a couple yellow perch and hand-sized bluegills.
The great thing about trolling is that you can cover lots of water and a variety of depths. Since we’d covered relatively shallow water during the first pass our next move was to hit some deeper water. I motored the boat a mile or so north and set up a trolling pass near the old Mosquito Creek channel where the depth was 10 to 12 feet. Again, we headed directly south, into the wind, so I could keep the speed below 2 mph using my outboard. Crappies tend to not like fast moving lures.
The deeper passes were even more productive. As we trolled our way toward the causeway we ran over vast areas of stumps (visible on sonar) that rose a couple feet or more off the bottom. The crappies seemed to be relating to the stumps; doubles were common in these areas.
By the time we put the boat back on the trailer for the two hour drive home, we had boated a total of 49 fish, most of them crappies. Twenty-five crappies in the 9.5- to 11-inch range – both white and black – made the ice chest. Not slabs, but eating-sized fish nonetheless.
Mosquito has a 9-inch minimum length, 30 fish limit on crappies. The lake has no horsepower limitation though speed limits are in place. A one-day, non-resident Ohio license will set you back a bit over $27. If at some point you wish to upgrade to a full year, the cost is just under $50, the starting date going back to the original one-day purchase.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
