Seasonal Pattern Tip

[Nightprowler]

We all seem to struggle a bit, finding fish in there annual transistion from winter's deep water to the spawning areas of the shallows. One tip that has helped me is to pay attention to what the pro's are telling. Granted they ARE NOT going to tell everything exactally as it happens, but what you will discover, is that you can extract clues about what the crappies are doing at a certain time of year. Here is the linc for results from 4/19/2009 on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee. Crappie USA :: Tournament Results
I like to read the post and pull info that might lead me to finding some fish on my home lake...like, "All the teams agreed that it was tough fishing in all but the deeper water for the most part", and ""All the fish weighed in were prespawn crappie with 80 percent of them white crappie. The teams that were fishing shallow in less than 12 feet deep were weighing in male fish. There were some white female crappie spraying eggs that were noticeable at the weigh in scale. Semi-pro FIRST PLACE "spider rigging there jigs in Drakes Creek at 12-14 feet of water using jigs tipped with minnows. SECOND PLACE spider rigging deep creeks and drop off's in Drakes Creek with most of their fish coming from 20-30 feet deep using a variety of colors of jigs. THIRD PLACE Spencers Creek in 20 plus feet of water. "The color of the jig didn't seem to matter as long as you had it tipped with a minnow". FORTH PLACE spider rigging ledges and manmade cover 8 feet deep in Spencers Creek. Amateur Division Results 1st tightlining 19-25 feet deep in Spencer and Cedar Creeks 2nd Drakes Creek using jigs in 20 feet of water. 3rd spider rigging 12 feet deep in Drakes Creek using jigs tipped with crappie gems. 4th spider rigging jigs tipped with minnows in Drakes Creek. The team said, "The color really didn't matter as long as the jig was tipped with a minnow" SO, what did it tell me?[SIZE="1"]Crappie in my area haven't spawned yet since I'm north of the tourny site and the water here is a few degrees cooler. All the top teams were fishing in the creeks and were spider rigging or tightlinning 12 feet and deeper water. And most were using some sort of jig tipped w/ minnows.[/SIZE] Now I will use this information as just a guide on where, what, and how.
You can find alot on tourny results on the web and stay in tune with the general locations of what going on in your area. Hope this helps you fill your stringer.

[yankee doodler]

You are so right about picking up on the techniques and patterns that others are using to find and catch fish. The more you pay attention to the details, the more fish you put in the well.