Originally Posted by
SnowBass23
Greetings everybody!
I've been bass fishing for a long time, and would like to think I do that fairly well, or at least with some regularity! I am in south Alabama and am trying to learn to fish for crappie. The lake itself is around 675 acres, on the south end is a retaining wall/spillway. The north 1/3 of the lake is nothing but standing timber from when they flooded the creek that feeds this reservoir. The west side of the lake is mostly flat areas with a lot of grass/lilly pads. The east side has several points where the hill sides used to look over the original creek (which now serves as the deep water channel). The majority of the lake ranges in depth of up to about 15 feet. The only exception is in the old creek bed which has depths of up to 35 feet just before the spillway/overflow.
Now, by dumb luck, a buddy and I happened to find a lighted dock on this lake a few years ago and in the spring and fall it can be some great fishing. The problem is that it also gets packed with people.
My wife and I just bought a bass boat and I wanted to try catching crappie. The problem, is now I have no idea how to find the crappie, or how to actually catch them. Under the dock lights we just cast out little white jigs (sometimes two on a single line) and reel it in slowly. Either the bite is on and we cast one (sometimes two) every cast, or we get nothing. Nadda. No in between, either red hot or ice cold!
When we went over some deep areas of the channel today (the water was 79 degrees) the fish finder lighted up showing fish anywhere from 7 feet deep all the way to the bottom. I have no idea how to even go about pulling fish out of deep water like that.
So, my overall question is where do you guys begin, or where do you recommend begginners start? We were using a few different types of jigs, but no live bait. I have never had luck with minnows, but again my only luck is from that dock so far. Thanks in advance for your help and any info you might have!
SnowBass