need help approaching a body of water

[tschneider]

Hello all,

I new to the board as a poster. Been lurking for some time now trying to understand the misterious crappie. I have been trying to find some information but using the search function does not always turn up the results you are looking for. I am having trouble finding crappies on a particular body of water. Some would call it a pond but I call it a mini lake. It is close to 30 acres. Sorry for the long post but I figured the more info the better.

Here is the situation:

I have been fishing this body of water for 2 years now and it has some good crappie that I have been lucky to find here and there. The avg depth is only 3 feet and the deepest is only 8 or 9 feet. I was able to find the fish like I mentioned from time to time but that was when the lake had a consistant weed growth. Well whoever maintains this body of water thought it would be a good idea to kill off all of the weeds. Ever since they did that It has been slim pick-ins. The weeds have come back a little but not like they once were. I only have access to this lake from shore (no boats allowed). I always throw a jig tipped with a minnow under a bobber. I used to have ok success by just chucking it out as far as i could and slowly bringing it back in until I stumbled onto some fish. I am looking to find some information on where these fish might be holding so I can make a better approach.

How would you approach a body of water like this. Your help is greatly appreciated. If you have any follow up questions let me know.

Lake Info:
close to 30 Acres
located in northern indiana
scattered weeds with no timber in sight
avg depth 2 to 3 feet
one long rocky shore where the spillway is maybe 100ft long
three small coves but really just large cuts with depths only 1 or 2 feet.

*takes deep breath* ok that is it.......:D

[stumpbumpers]

If it is only a few feet deep with no boats aloud... I would try wading. Be careful for holes and walk slow, but with the average depth of three feet... A floating basket or stringer, little box of jigs (beetle spins in white and chatruese are the best), or some miners... sounds to me like a old mill pond... I fish one that is about 27 acres back home... same problem with the algea. You say there is no cover or trees? If there used to be trees there, like the pond back home... there are probably stump beds every where and that is where you can find them. I would seriously think about wading it... start around the edges and venture out... if you need to use waders because of the cold, DO NOT FORGET your knife... I attach my knife to the top of my waders around the shoulder area... If you go down cutting the waders offf my be your only chance of survival... I lost a friend like that once, but he was tying up a boat while it was white capping in shallow water. Anyway be safe and think about giving it a run... Happy Fish'n

[tschneider]

any areas that you would target? Should I just bust out the waders and do a heavy search and rescue (keep) mission! Should I try and find the deeper water? Are they suspended in 2 foot even thought it might only be 3 or 4 foot in depth?

Thanks for the reply. I might just buy some foot warmers and venture out with the waders. And yes the knife is always a must. I never believed you could have trouble in shallow water until I was wading a creek for some smallies one time. Lets just say I dont like wading alone anymore and always have a way out of the waders.

Thanks again.

[stumpbumpers]

Yeh target the channels or any depth change especially if there isn't cover... is there? I wouldn't go too deep... LOL but I would search around... it isn't that big... I figure in a one man boat back home I can cover the little 27 acre pond twice in a day. So in a couple of trips you should get a prtty good idea as to what is out there. Suspention of crappie is going to take more depth, but remember crappies bite upwards so fish about 1 1/2 or 2'... assuming it is 3-4ft deep. I mentioned the spinners because scouting you can cover a lot of water, rather than sit and wait... once you find them and are comfortable you can always come back and play the sit and wait game.

[Matt Smith]

I would want to know what the dissolved oxygen content was before I wet a hook. With no weeds, I'd bet you don't have many fish to catch...

[tschneider]

I guess I should of explained it a little better. This pond used to be an old golf course pond. The course went out of business so now it is free game for all fisherman (at least for a number of years now). It has some weeds just not like it used to. Which in the summer it used to be covered. Throwing frogs for bass was the only option in the summer until things started dying off. As I mentioned they wiped them all out but they are making a comeback. I am sure they have some old stumps around. I will have to find them and then find the fish .....hopefully.

[stumpbumpers]

Sounds like it still has fish from your other post as well as weeds... since you had stated "not as much as there used to be" and if it is anything like the little mill pond back home that is a good thing... the only option during the summer is fishing top water there also... but it is fun as crap to catch 2-2 1/2lbs crappie on top water over the stump beds... whew a lot of fun here is a pic of the last stringer I caught there it has been a while.
[IMG][/IMG]

[chaunc]

I hope you're not eating those fish from the golf course pond. Remember that they use / used a lot of chemicals on the grass there and it all runs right into the ponds. A lot of fun to fish em, but be careful of feeding the women in your family those fish. Some of those chemicals may cause birth defects. I'm just passing on what i have read in a few mags.