Due to permit availability and my grandson being in a wedding (not his) we had to secure a Mudro permit for a date a lot earlier than we have ever gone before. We will be entering on May 17 for 9 days and going to Crooked Lake for fishing. We usually go sometime around the second week of June. My question for you experienced with this area or time of year, what changes do we need to make in our preparation, gear, clothing, and fishing techniques, etc?

Bring your warm clothes it can be really cold both day and night.

Crooked is usually a bit slower to warm up as it is a large, deep lake with darker than average water, so keep that in mind. Might have to look for the warmer water when fishing. Too bad there are no Lakers. Can be wicked cold or very nice that time of year so prepare for both. Be careful, as dumping that time of year can be dangerous.

Find the shallower water and current as far as fishing. Pack layers, warmest sleeping bag, etc.

For me on the early trips, sleeping is the biggest concern. Make sure that you have a very good sleeping bad and bag. THe cold just radiates from the ground, up through your pad and into your bag. One trip was all it took for me to get a thicker sleeping pad with a memory foam layer.

bombinbrian: "For me on the early trips, sleeping is the biggest concern. Make sure that you have a very good sleeping bad and bag. THe cold just radiates from the ground, up through your pad and into your bag. One trip was all it took for me to get a thicker sleeping pad with a memory foam layer."

What Bombinbrian says is definitely the case. Even if the air temp is warm the ground is still cold and it will suck the heat out of you at night while sleeping. Bring a sleeping pad with an R value of 3 or more. A decent bag (20 deg F or better) will not keep you warm without the pad. Also a cap to sleep in. For clothes think layers and wool socks. It can be quite warm one day and the next morning you wake up to frost on the tent or a dusting of snow.

Shallow bays for Bass but that time of year it can be hit or miss. Saturday Bay on Crooked is your best best for Bass. The Bass spawn when the water hits 60 deg F or so...so you may find them on their beds. If this is the case, I have found that sometimes only a salamander type rig (as shown in the pic below) will work. The narrows where the current is flowing between Wednesday Bay and Thursday Bay are good for Walleye, see the pic of the marked up map.

mgraber: "Crooked is usually a bit slower to warm up as it is a large, deep lake with darker than average water, so keep that in mind. Might have to look for the warmer water when fishing. Too bad there are no Lakers. Can be wicked cold or very nice that time of year so prepare for both. Be careful, as dumping that time of year can be dangerous."

Darker water tends to warm quicker than clearer water.

It'll be cold like others said, so bring lots of layers. You may even want to have a change of clothes and a pack towel in a dry bag with you when fishing or on day trips, just in case you dump and need to get dry and warm ASAP.

As for fishing, I'd definitely focus on finding warm water in bays. If there are some areas where a swamp or pond drains into the main lake, that water is bound to be warmer than the main lake, and I'd put money on fish hanging out very near to the inflow. Walleyes are probably going to be very shallow, either spawning or just finishing up the spawn. Bass are probably going to need slower presentations so bring a few jerkbaits with you which you can jerk-jerk-pause and let them sit in place for a few seconds before moving them again. It gives bass time to find them and inspect them, which is important as they won't chase many fast moving lures that require a constant retrieve. I'd still bring a couple poppers and spooks for shallow bays just in the fish are hungry and the temps are higher than expected, but otherwise I wouldn't expect topwater to be on that early. See also QueticoMike's Zulu rig, fished slowly.

You could have an absolute blast with walleye - I'm not a big live bait guy, but they could be very active, and I'd want to capitalize, so I'd recommend a bunch of leeches. A good way to transport them is a Nalgene bottle with an additional cap attached, with holes drilled in it. You can leave the bottle in the water to keep the leeches alive (tied to the canoe with paracord while on the move) and when portaging you can use the regular cap to seal up the bottle entirely. You could easily fit 4-5 dozen leeches in a 1L Nalgene and you might want 1 bottle per person if you're going to be fishing a lot. I could easily see burning through 30 leeches in a day per person if the fish are on fire.

Have a good time! Be prepared but have fun.

Banksiana: "

mgraber: "Crooked is usually a bit slower to warm up as it is a large, deep lake with darker than average water, so keep that in mind. Might have to look for the warmer water when fishing. Too bad there are no Lakers. Can be wicked cold or very nice that time of year so prepare for both. Be careful, as dumping that time of year can be dangerous."

Darker water tends to warm quicker than clearer water."

I'm certainly not going to argue, as I'm no expert, but I read that in an article explaining why the clear lakes always warm faster than the dark ones, which is certainly true in my experience. It seems counterintuitive since dark objects usually absorb the most heat from the sun. It was about the depth of light penetration and the absorption of that heat energy in to the bottom, the weeds, floating particles or whatever other solid object it encounters below the surface, similar to sunlight coming through a window and heating whatever lies on the other side. The clearer the window, the more heat energy gets through. If the glass is dark, only the glass gets hot, and the only heat that gets in is through convection at the surface, which is not as efficient. We have some local ponds/small lakes that are pretty similar in size and depth, one is very clear and always warms up very fast compared to the others (very muddy and dark but a bit shallower) as long as it is sunny. I thought that it must be why I always find lakes like Crooked to be cooler in the spring than the clear water ones. The article may be bogus and I very well may be wrong, there may be other reasons for it. For whatever reason, Crooked still seems to run cool in the spring, at least according to my thermometer.

Find moving water that time of year. Look for windswept shorelines, channels between islands and the obvious inlets or outlets. I like salted minnows in may for walleye, i'll troll the shoreline. Never had much luck with smallies until June. Big pike are fun early as well. Watch your stringer, when trolling near the shore, more than once I've had a pike attack it.

Thanks for all your information. All of this will make for good talking points as our crew gets together to discuss our plans for May.