How do find the crappie?

[tcain38]

My home lake is a deep clear lake. It has standing timber in pockets and creeks. I can never seem to locate crappie on the lake. I do catch several at a marina dock where me and a friend of mine have hung trees in boat slips. I know the lake has a good number of fish and I've caught fish 16 inches or better in it. Just can't seem to find them on the lake. If you guys could please leave some of your opinions on what I can do to help find these fish. Thanks.

[scrat]

Welcome aboard. 2 ways- 1. Old school way build a honey hole drop fish habitat/structure. 2. New school way buy the

best

biggest screen fish sonar that you can afford.

Fish habitat "Build it and they will come"

["G"]

How big is this lake ? What state is it in ? Does it have white crappie or black ? Or both ? What kind of bait fish does this lake have?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[CrappiePappy]

How big is this lake ? What state is it in ? Does it have white crappie or black ? Or both ? What kind of bait fish does this lake have?

"G" ... the lake is 5600 acre Laurel River Lake in SE Kentucky, has both species of Crappie, and the primary baitfish would be Gizzard Shad.

Unfortunately for tcain, this is the KDFWR 2018 "forecast" for Crappie at Laurel Lake :

Fair - Low density population. Upper Laurel River Arm near city dam is the best area.

He'd probably be better served to make a little longer trek & fish Lake Cumberland. IMHO

[brettw]

You could try dropping some brush,
Pick a spot where there’s not any competing structure. Cove off main lake?
Channel water nearby,
Drop in 20-30’ deep
Make it 10 ft high if you can
Add to it now and then


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[river scum]

first off your fishing a reservoir not a lake. there is a difference between them. water level and flow can infuence the bite and locations big time! watch and note it on the internet scale.

thats a lot of water to search! do it fast with the finder. search wooded areas and look for suspended fish. drop a jig in them when you find some. looks like there is an endless amount of structure and contours in there! could take you a long time to develop a "milk run" of spots, but you will. just takes time man. take a print off of the areas you fish and mark them.

you can also troll around likely areas to find feeding fish. that takes the longest. imo

another option is to watch the other boats. this would be especialy helpful if they hold tourneys there. more boats to watch, not that they are better fishermen.