When I was 6, I became a cub scout, and got a subscription to Boy's Life magazine, filled with articles about fishing. I was fascinated, and read every Field and Stream and Outdoor Life magazine I could find. Learning about this was amazing! Armed with all this information, I made a deal with my parents, made the honor roll, and got my first rod, a Zebco 33 combo, a daredevil spoon, a plastic cricket and a pack of 3" pre-rigged Creme worms. On my first trip, I used the Creme worms to catch 4 crappie in short order. My research had paid off! My parents praised me and grilled the fish for dinner, and I was hooked.

In the 44 years since then, I have never stopped learning about fishing. From catching trout on the fly to running offshore for wahoo and tuna, I have enjoyed every bit of it, especially the process of learning something new, and then using it to catch the target species.

But I'm getting tired of the time and expense of big boats, big fish and traveling for hours to catch them. So about 3 years ago, I decided that I wanted to learn how to target crappie right here in Lake Anna, 5 minutes from my front door.

I cobbled together a jon boat and started by dunking worms and minnows. I mostly caught bluegill, catfish and an bass, but I would occasionally catch a crappie. I was told to fish various bridge pilings, and I started catching more. Then, I started reading this forum, and heard about jigging. This was how I fished for most inshore fish, so it came naturally. Same game, smaller tackle. And that really changed things. I caught crappie almost every trip jigging the bridge pilings.

But that is where things started going south. I tried trolling, and I caught plenty... bass, white perch and bluegill, but no crappie to speak of. I tried spider rigging, and caught plenty of everything but crappie. Mini crankbaits? Bass, and even catfish, but not a single crappie.

I'm stuck. The only way I seem to be able to catch crappie is by dropping a jig around bridge pilings in 30' of water.

How can I break this cycle? Any thoughts?