I have a couple of agricultural farm ponds that they use to water the fields with that I visit from time to time . they have been long forgotten by fishermen and sit there waiting just for me . The ponds are pretty shallow and stay fairly turbid most of the year . I hit these 2 ponds for at least 2 years before I even knew there were crappie in them . Never saw one until I managed a slab on a pc. of cut bait off a bluegill while I was ketchn catfish .
Of course the gloves came off at that point and I only target crappie in them now . So some 5 years later of chasing crappie in them still have me confused from visit to visit . Some visits you would swear there isn't a crappie in them , other times you ketch one or 2 lil bitty ones . The spawn time there isn't very productive and the winter is dead as a door nail . the summer visits are pretty tough as well most visits .
The one season that seems to be best there is the fall when the water gets just a little clearer and even then it can be very very tricky to ketch them .Now that said they get lock jaw most times on north winds and high pressure and it seems a strong south wind is best . This coupled with very early in the morning can be quite productive , but I never really get there early most of the time .
There are no bass in them and very few catfish , but they are some kind of loaded flat full of green sunfish and hybridized sunfish from them crossing with the native bluegill that are fairly abundant as well .
Float fishing is most of the time the most effective presentation and sometimes a vertical drop around the rocks and other stuff along the shoreline is good as well . the crappie will always be on the wind blown side when its windy and sometimes very close to the bank as well . So here I go , high noon windy and a float about 18 inches deep . the sunfish are driving me bonkers and tearing up my plastics and giving me fits . I hooked so many I wasn't even trying to ketch it wasn't funny . I have learned from past experiences that only really solid hard bites and pulls are worth setting the hook on and even then it might be just a larger greenie .
So I cast and drag along the shoreline this trip as this is where they seem to be and at one point one of the larger crappie ejects a partially digested green sunfish . So always keep in mind this , crappie feed on whatever the food source is that's available and in farm ponds it typically isn't shad . Earthworms sometimes work there and in many cases something that resembles a small bluegill size wise as well .
Hit it for about an hour at lunch time before the front blew thru last night and had a pretty good time . All the larger crappie were in about 2 to 3 foot of water near the bank and all the lil bitty crappie escaped the photos .Fish were really hungry though and even the small sunfish ate large offerings , no tipping of jigs this trip and all fish were left to swim on .
note expelled 3 inch green sunfish in the last photo
stay tuned but don't stay thirsty ....:cheers2
