Humble Green

[Green Spider]

I live on a 'warm water' lake less than a square mile in surface, lots of inlets and bays, max 35 fow, deeper water doesn't get much oxygenation, muck bottom, sandy shores, good variety of native weed covers. Over the years I've heard it is one of the best crappie lakes in the area and that I could be doing better than the gills I've been chasing.

While I've caught a few slab crappie through the ice I've yet to hook one in soft water. I've tried the same spots I ice fish, and I think I've tried every brush pile in the lake... twice. I've done well on other lakes with beetle spins in the spring but I can't make it work here. Generally I've been pretty conservative in using grub/worm type meats, usually good for something, but not working out for the crappie. Surface temp of 71º last night.

Where would you go?
What would you use?
And how would you fish it?

Pretty sure nobody can steer me worse than I'm doing now. Humbled like I've never fished before. Please and thanks.

[Buckeyemusky]

Dynamite ALWAYS WORKS



Is the water murky, stained or clear? What's the depths in the inlets and bays? Shaded or full sun??

[majflyboy]

Green Spider, for your first post, this is not going well. I lived in MI for a couple yrs, but didn't fish at that time. This is a great forum and I'm sure someone will post some help for you. Good luck fishing.

[azslabber]

Fishing from the bank or boat?Either way I would try some kind of a minnow,live,jig.

[jeepguyjames]

If it were me I would throw ever technique I could think of at it until I learned the lake and what worked. Try jig and cork, or a slow vertical troll, maybe long line it if possible, slip cork and minnow,swim jigs. Best advice I ever got about fishing was "you can't fish the way you want to, you have to fish the way the fish want you to", so if what your doing isn't working mix it up and keep moving. I would also post this on your state message board or ask some bait shops in your area. Just be open to different methods, and keep moving like your bass fishing (I don't mean lure speed just areas) till you find em, good luck, keep us posted on your progress, keep at em you will figure em out. God bless.

[smoothlures]

Welcome aboard from SC!!

I would get you a couple dozen minnows, rig a slip float, with a #2-4 aberdeen hook for the minnow and a nice 1/16th oz jig. Keep changing up the jig color and depth by the brush piles til you find what they want...

Haven't caught many crappie on grubs/worms so this should put the odds in your favor.

[GCD]

Where would you go?
What would you use?
And how would you fish it?

1. Where would you go?... well at less than 1 sq. mile of surface area, you have them pretty much trapped!

2. What would you use?... I would use a 2" tri-colored curly tail grub on a 1/16 jig head. You have to experiment with the colors to find what they like, but generally dark colors for dark days and or muddy water and light colors for clear water and sunny days.

3. How would you fish it?... I have found that long line trolling the above mentioned jigs is one of the most effective ways to locate and catch Crappie.

I take it you have a boat, sonar, and electric trolling motor?

[skiptomylu]

With the water temp only 71 I would look starting shallow, maybe 6'-7' around the grass and if that's not good then I would move out to 9'-14'. If you have sonar you should be able to find them using it and just look for them to be in that water depth and usually will be grouped some and not on the bottom and not on the top. Long line troll a small 1/32 Oz. jig until you find them.

Skip

[ReelfootYankee]

Also fish prime time like you would hunt to better the odd's earlyiest in the morning and late evening if you have weed's/grass etc... hit the weed edge's early and try B moths! I have found that fishing later in the day for the spot's get's hard as it might be a 45 min to and hour thing and then you have to go to natural bait's.
now the actoin of the bait also comes into play when thing's get tuff they prefer flavor!
Clariety? Shallow/ you have any of that going on! and thats not really a bad surface temp. compared to some of our bodies of water! Heck iffen i can find 18 ft. when the water's up thats that!

[crappiemax]

if what your doing isn't working mix it up and keep movingtill you find em, good luck, keep us posted on your progress, keep at em you will figure em out. God bless.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Are you fishing from a boat? If so I would keep a slip float with a minnow and start fishing about 3/4 way to bottom to start. Maybe fish it 9' deep in 12' of water. Keep your debth finder on and move debth of bait up or down according to what you see on the electronics. if you can use 2 rods, maybe fish 2 different debths or work jigs on another rod. Longline trolling is a good way to find and catch fish. Like James said keep moving and changing, patterns will start to emerge.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Also, wecome to the site.