Thread: Want opinions

Thanks for the offer Matt I do have a boat. But I understand busy my kids were little at one time

Seems staying out of the schmutz is the issue. I use the countdown method when faced with that. Cast once and count til it hits bottom. Clean the jig and start your retrieve one or two counts before the bottom. Might need to refine it some to the way you fish but you get the idea.

Do others catch fish in this pond ?Any idea how deep is this pond ?

The snot algae is usually on the banks or near them. Get out past that crap. Assuming you're in a boat, cast just short of that snot algae. You may be casting to 3-5' water. Find a flat or something with a gradual slope.

Let the jig drop to the bottom (where it's too deep for light to keep the algae alive on the bottom). Drag it on the bottom. If you think you're reeling too slowly, reel slower. Black jig with a chartreuse crappie nibble is what we have been using.

Have someone that knows what a bed smells like, show you a bed and remember that smell. I kept poking fun at trypman about "I can smell 'em", until he explained that he was serious.

Sent from my moto g(7) using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

First off - do you fish from a boat ? If so, location, location, location. Larger waters have different areas that potentially hold fish; smaller waters a bit less.

Time of day. How many hours on the water and what time of day you fish? Try getting out early say 8 am, but spend at least 4 hours or more. You gotta find them before you can catch them and they may be in one area or a few.

Lures. There's no such thing as a sunfish lure. Soft plastic lures, hair jigs, spinners, 2" crankbaits and many others catch anything that swims. Now unless you use a fish finder (sonar) and discover fish in an area, your lure is your fish finder. Cast, cast, cast anywhere you hope to find fish. Could be near the bank or over a mid lake hump or near weed edges or pockets in the pads or even in 3' of water near the bank. (Happened to me yesterday and I caught over a dozen sunfish in no time.)

Small soft plastics are my bread and butter for catching fish. Size, shape and action are key with unlimited combinations of all three possible. You got spike tails, curl tails, split tails, double curly tails, stubby tails as well as claw tails. Crappie Magnets have thin straight tails (2) side by side. But when choosing jigs to rig soft plastic on, you gotta match hook size to the body size. Jig weight is important. You have a range to chose from starting with 1/64 to 1/16 oz. Heavier jigs for faster retrieves. In warmer water I've been using a 1/16.

Floats. There are days when you may see fish on sonar or a school that you started catching fish from. By all means try using a float with a light jig and soft plastic lure. Just be sure the line under the float places the lure at the right depth which you experiment using different lengths. That float will disappear like no tomorrow when fish are schooled! (I use an oblong orange float.) Jig size is usually 1/16 oz or less and lures less than 2".

Like I said, there are a huge number of soft plastics that catch fish of all species. Here are just a few I know catch fish:
spike tail:


Crappie Magnet:


Trout Magnet tail attached to a grub body:



Curl tail with Beetle Spin (overhead blade):


Float and (my dog's) hair jig:



Tail end of a finesse worm:


Cone tail:


Wacky rigged grub stick:


Just remember that the speed of retrieve always matters as well as the depth the lure is retrieved. I mix it up with most of the above designs: pull the lure toward you with the rod tip or use 1/4 reel handle turns - pause - and continue at a slow pace. The strike becomes obvious no matter how light. But if felt, always cast to the same spot. Sometimes fish will strike 3 times and then hook itself !

Just a few tips based on personal experience and thousands of fish caught.

Yes I have a boat there is some 20 feet of water in the old channel of the lake 2 big flats that run up to less than 2 feet

Originally Posted by Eagle 1

Do others catch fish in this pond ?Any idea how deep is this pond ?

It gets tons of pressure it’s a public lake

Originally Posted by Spoonminnow

First off - do you fish from a boat ? If so, location, location, location. Larger waters have different areas that potentially hold fish; smaller waters a bit less.

Time of day. How many hours on the water and what time of day you fish? Try getting out early say 8 am, but spend at least 4 hours or more. You gotta find them before you can catch them and they may be in one area or a few.

Lures. There's no such thing as a sunfish lure. Soft plastic lures, hair jigs, spinners, 2" crankbaits and many others catch anything that swims. Now unless you use a fish finder (sonar) and discover fish in an area, your lure is your fish finder. Cast, cast, cast anywhere you hope to find fish. Could be near the bank or over a mid lake hump or near weed edges or pockets in the pads or even in 3' of water near the bank. (Happened to me yesterday and I caught over a dozen sunfish in no time.)

Small soft plastics are my bread and butter for catching fish. Size, shape and action are key with unlimited combinations of all three possible. You got spike tails, curl tails, split tails, double curly tails, stubby tails as well as claw tails. Crappie Magnets have thin straight tails (2) side by side. But when choosing jigs to rig soft plastic on, you gotta match hook size to the body size. Jig weight is important. You have a range to chose from starting with 1/64 to 1/16 oz. Heavier jigs for faster retrieves. In warmer water I've been using a 1/16.

Floats. There are days when you may see fish on sonar or a school that you started catching fish from. By all means try using a float with a light jig and soft plastic lure. Just be sure the line under the float places the lure at the right depth which you experiment using different lengths. That float will disappear like no tomorrow when fish are schooled! (I use an oblong orange float.) Jig size is usually 1/16 oz or less and lures less than 2".

Like I said, there are a huge number of soft plastics that catch fish of all species. Here are just a few I know catch fish:
spike tail:


Crappie Magnet:


Trout Magnet tail attached to a grub body:



Curl tail with Beetle Spin (overhead blade):


Float and (my dog's) hair jig:



Tail end of a finesse worm:


Cone tail:


Wacky rigged grub stick:


Just remember that the speed of retrieve always matters as well as the depth the lure is retrieved. I mix it up with most of the above designs: pull the lure toward you with the rod tip or use 1/4 reel handle turns - pause - and continue at a slow pace. The strike becomes obvious no matter how light. But if felt, always cast to the same spot. Sometimes fish will strike 3 times and then hook itself !

Just a few tips based on personal experience and thousands of fish caught.

Some days I’m on the water before 7 and fish until at least noon.