NORTH
Salamonie/Mississinewa/Huntington
(Roush) Reservoirs
As mentioned above, the ACA held a crappie tournament on this trio of reservoir-type lakes in 2006. These three reservoirs are located very close together, and this means you can target one of them or all three of them on a crappie-fishing weekend.

Each of these crappie-producing impoundments "hangs" off the Wabash River (or a tributary of the Wabash) and each of these are orientated in a north-to-south direction near and south of state Route 124 in the northern tier of the state. The largest city in the vicinity is Fort Wayne.

For the purposes of this article, we’ll examine Mississinewa in detail, but please remember Salamonie and Roush are both crappie producers as well.

Located in Wabash, Miami and Grant counties, Mississinewa Lake has a surface area of 3,180 acres during summer pool, and of the three reservoirs, it is often thought to be the best for crappie fishing. This is backed up (at least in part) because Thomas Nimrick and Robert Williamson won the Amateur Division of the ACA tournament in 2006 while fishing Mississinewa.

These slabside seeking angers took a total of 6.53 pounds of crappies (please note no more than seven fish total are allowed for weigh-in purposes). These fishing champions were fishing brush in 8 to 9 feet of water with the fish suspended 3 feet off the bottom. Nimrick and Williamson utilized a vertical-jigging technique with 1/16-ounce red and orange jigheads to come away in first place.

During the tournament, Deb and Dave Gregory won the Semi-Pro Division; they scored big by using black/chartreuse jigs. The big-fish award went to the amateur team of Nimrick and Williamson with a 1.64-pound crappie. The crappies caught were predominately white papermouths.

Water temperature at the time of the tournament was in the 62- to 64-degree range. When water temperatures start warming to 60 degrees (Fahrenheit), the crappie action can really pick up because the warmer temperatures stimulate the crappie’s metabolism. This is one of the main reasons that tournaments are held in the early part of the year when warming temperatures spark the crappie bite.

Mississinewa Reservoir is about 11 miles in length, and 3/4-mile wide at the widest point. It, too, is loaded with structure elements and fingers and coves that crappie fishermen look for. But in terms of why Mississinewa is such a hot crappie fishery, we have to thank the Army Corps of Engineers.