As is to be expected, the early season fishing on Crane has remained slow. With the fish scattered, the best strategy is to cover water with an intermediate line and leech pattern or wooly bugger. If you find an area that is holding fish, fishing chironomids or balanced leeches under an indicator will likely produce the best numbers of fish. Zebra midges and chironocones in black and red, sizes 16-18 along with an olive or black olive balanced leech will set you up for success once you’ve found fish.
Great early season alternatives to some of the larger still water fisheries are Lava and Little Lava Lake. Fishing either of the methods described above should produce decent numbers of fish, and both are certainly worth checking out while we wait for the weather to warm a little more. Little Lava typically has the added benefit of having more shelter and manageable conditions on windy spring days.