Ice Crappie in 2013 and River Update

Since I can't get walleye, crappie fishing on the ice will work! The Closer and I hit a secret spot in Perrysburg and NAILED 38 crappie in 2 hours on bladed teardrops and minnows. There was 5 1/2" of ice. I have a pic at the bottom right of my page. So scroll down and take a look. It's about time to get those floaters ready. Dr. Walleye likes to tie them up in advance. They are so much more effective than jig heads. YEAH RIGHT! Live and die by the lead. That's my motto. Plus it's way more effective to get walleye in the mouth early season. With raging water and unpooled fish, lead gets you more casts to maximize your time on the water. DoubleDip has been helping me track the winter river conditions. We had good chunked ice last week. The river was frozen up completely by the Andersons grain elevators in Toledo where it's deep for cargo ships. But up here in the spawning area there was still a small stream moving through the main current. The ice quickly melted with the rain early this week. The ice did not get to flow down and give the river a good cleansing that we like to see (it helps rid the river of tie-ups from old line and such. And the ice creates new places to fish of course, which we discover in mid-February when there is low water). This week we are expecting cold temps (as if you couldn't tell with this terrible, cold wind), but the river hasn't frozen up again due to the wind. In fact our crappie pond has no ice, darn it. We had a really nice spike in river depth about 2 1/2 weeks ago which had to have done some damage. But right now the river is at 6.14 on NOAA which is a nice swell that would prevent fishing if it were spring. So, we are still hoping for another ice-out on the river and then hopefully a steady rise in temps so that the ice from Ft. Wayne comes barrelling through. As I posted last time, I am trying to figure out Instagram. If you sign up for Instagram and look for #drwalleye you should find me. I am new at this and only have one pic of my crappie posted so far. If you are able to "Follow" me, I'll see it and will report who signs up here on my blog by your sign-in name. That way you also know that what you did worked. I hope to get this figured out prior to walleye season so that I can take pics of the river and also my fish and do reports on Instagram that are in real time, like RIGHT THEN. I just got what I call a "big boy phone" and am still learning. That's about the size of it Walleye Warriors. Thanks for visiting. Dr. Walleye