Tough fishing. Any tips?

[thill]

The weather has been up and down and up and down. Cold, then warm, then cold, and today HOT. Tomrrow will be 90. Catching has been sporadic at best, terrible overall. Go out and find a few, mostly 6" long, but not sure where the decent fish are.

Found a pack of them briefly today, but they were gone minutes later:


This one was 14" and was the unicorn of the day. Most were tiny, then the little white perch swarmed in and that's all we caught after that.

Any tips for catching crappie at this time of year? Maybe they are about to spawn?

[SuperDave336]

They can be tough to catch sometimes. Best advice I was given….move, move, move. If they aren’t there keep moving. Cover the water and you’ll find them. That can be challenging but it’s good advice. I’m bad to find a spot and then spend to much time messing around there.

[skeetbum]

I agree with Dave. In my area when the fish get done spawning they scatter and I can find some on a deeper downed tree or similar structure. One I found years ago was a two foot ledge in 14 fow. Cast shallow and come down the incline of the bottom and got the thump. Still beats sitting at home wondering.

[Ketchn]

not being really sure about your current conditions makes it difficult to properly diagnose the situation .
if they are post spawn , we find them in similar conditions to prespawn , around 8 to 12 foot of water on "stuff"
if they are in the spawn it's a crap shoot , they will march in and be great one day and gone the next if the weather even sneezes a lil bit .
beyond all that moving around as stated might put you in a better stance to hammer em , people that think crappie are easy to ketch are those that have them highly dialed in and hit the water pretty much daily . the average weekend warrior crappie chasing crew will for sure have a hard time staying on top of them with a high level on consistency .
on a quick side note , black crappie here are much more difficult to stay on top of than white crappie in my opinion

[jjue1979]

I've been lucky enough to go between 1-3 times per week most weeks (got lucky with 4 times last week), and even if it is just a couple of hours, I still manage a few nice-sized crappie. I did get skunked a couple of times before/around Easter, but the last couple of weeks when the weather settled a bit have been productive, although not a limit. I think that some level of fishing consistency helps to watch the pattern helps, when weather, work, and kids' schedules allow, although a little luck to get started is useful.

My dad has been having the problem of getting skunked lately, despite me sending pictures of my pole setup, jig combos, etc. while he is fishing from his boat the exact same location that I'm fishing at the same time.