Three Fires covers 93 acres in Taylor County. The entire lake, its average depth just 9 feet, is subject to a no-wake restriction.

Two ramps, both on the eastern side of the lake in Lake of Three Fires State Park, provide access to the water. For more information, contact the IDNR’s Mt. Ayr office at (641) 464-3108.

LAKE ICARIA
Sobotka gives high marks to this crappie lake as well. Icaria has plenty of growing slabs that should keep anglers busy this spring. “Icaria has had several new fish attractors added that should be ideal for panfish,” he said. “The fish are keeper-size and growing.”

These fish attractors act as excellent crappie cover. The IDNR has placed several groupings of cedar trees to create massive brush piles along the shoreline, near the fishing jetties and under the fishing pier.

Spawning crappies can be taken in the shallow bays near emergent vegetation in Lake Icaria. Drop a minnow under a bobber or use small jigs tipped with minnows or tubes.

Lake Icaria covers 670 acres in Adams County. The shoreline is more than 17 miles long and anglers will find depths averaging between 10 and 12 feet. Boat launch ramps are located off Kale Road on both the northern and southern shorelines, 160th Road on the northeast corner of the lake and Lake Icaria Road at the northeastern end.

Contact the Mt. Ayr office for more information at (641) 464-3108.

RATHBUN LAKE
One of Harvey’s top crappie picks is Rathbun Lake, where thousands of crappies are caught every year. “Rathbun is the No. 1 crappie producer year in and year out,” he stated, “though fluctuations in the water level determine how good the fishing will be from one year to the next.”

Big spawning crappies are most often found in shallow water here, but post-spawn fish tend to move out into deeper water. Harvey recalls a walleye fishing trip on Rathbun that turned into a crappie-fest.

“The walleyes were in 3 feet of water on a large point and we were trolling small crankbaits for them,” he said. “On one of our trolling passes we ran over water that was 20 feet deep in order to turn around to make another pass for the walleyes. We began to catch big crappies over this deep water and had found a school of 12- to 14-inch slabs that were suspended in 6 feet of water over the 20-foot depths.”

Rathbun offers plenty of fish attractors, bays, shallow stretches and good bedding areas. The lake covers 11,000 acres in Appanoose County. Call the IDNR’s Rathbun Fish Management Unit at (641) 647-2406 for more information.

INGHAM LAKE
Ingham Lake in Emmet County is one of fisheries biologist Jim Berquist’s top crappie picks for this year. “Anglers fishing the shallow water habitat during April and May will see an upswing in the crappie fishery as black crappies nearing the 10-inch mark will be caught,” he predicted. “The expected good growth of the crappie population through the summer months will provide us with a banner year.”