Need some help

[Dockdabber]

I fish a 3 acre quarry in north west ohio and I know it has a nice population of crappie in it. The depth is a consistant 16ft. The gills are of nice size and I can usually find them with no problem. The crappie are hard to locate. I fish this place alot so I know they are in there. I am at my wits end because I cannot find them on a regular basis. Three times a year at the most. When found they are of good size. If anyone out there fishes quarries and can help please feel free to do so. Thanks

[foul hook]

Hummingbird has a side immaging unit that wont let them hide. The start at $1000 to $3000.00 . If you do a lot of fishing they are worth the money. That is a sur fired cure for your problem.

[crappiemax]

Are you bank fishing or using a boat? If you have a boat do you have a debth finder? Most of the quarries I have fished have a deeper and a shallower end. The equipment they used had to get in and out some how. Usually there is some type of transition some where. Are there any points or turns anywhere? Have you tried sinking some condos? I'm trying to get a picture of your approach.

It could be there that even though there are crappie, their population could just be low due to predation. I fish several ponds a few times a year. We don't catch many crappie but the ones we do catch are pretty nice. I suspect the healthy population of catfish in both of these ponds keeps their numbers down and there size up. Crappie can really overpopulate a small body of water. On one of the ponds the most consistent time to catch them is through the ice.

[Dockdabber]

I fish this quarry from a boat, have a small depth finder nothing hi tec though. It just seems like in early spring you will hit them a couple times in the shallow end and when they move off they are gone. It is easier to get a few of them with minnows once in awhile but they will not hit plastic jigs. I am sure the population is good and the size varies so that tells me they are producing well. Have yet to get them through the Ice though. God knows I try though. Bass and gills though is a different story. Good catches and good size. I have done the PCV in condo buckets at about 6ft of water, after a year still no sucess.

[SpeckWick]

If the water is clear like it is in all the quarrys I've fished, fish deep and stay back. Try natural colors, maybe even small hair jigs and make long casts. With the clear water they tend to hold deeper, and are really easily spooked. When they do move shallow, they are even easier to spook. I fished a quarry for a few years till they revoked fishing passes. I always did better for crappie at night there. But when I did catch them during the day, I used light line and small jigs and made long casts. Also, if you are allowed to sink cover, put some brush piles in deep water. I have "heard" the PVC thing doesn't work as well as wood.

[crappiemax]

Good advice from Speckwick.

As he said fish deeper water, crappie do like to suspend over deeper water at times. A debth finder should let you "see" them. I would use as light of line as possible. In clear water, I would try black/blue or blue/white tube jigs even though it takes forever to fish deep, I would try a 1/32oz jig head, just to get that really sloooow fall. Sometimes in deeper water, I'll fish double jigs, either two 1/32 or a 1/32 & a 1/16 or two 1/16 oz jig heads just to be able to maintain the debth I need to get to the fish. Switch things up, you'll eventually find something that works.

You could also try letting slip floats out of the back of the boat just easing along slowly with the trolling motor. Fish differnt debths until you start catching fish. You can cover alot of water this way, but slow is the key.

Well you have a few ideas, now keep us posted on how you do.

Good Luck