Anyone willing to help out a newbie?

I just started fishing a couple of years ago, and feel like I've hit a wall trying to figure out how to catch fish. I've only really had success during the spawn, but those few times have made me love catching Crappie. I've tried DVD's, Magazines, and read plenty on here and elsewhere but I feel like I'm missing something, because i can't seem to put it all together. And it's hard to keep going fishing when you never catch anything.

I've finally decided I'm hiring a guide for a day to help out, but am not having any luck finding one in NE Kansas. Does anyone know of guides around this area that are currently guiding?

Besides having a guide show me what I'm missing, I had some questions to help clarify the common advice I've been given.

-Everyone says to fish brush piles, but whats the best way for a beginner? Do you vertical jig, or cast near the brush pile? Do you fish every brush pile? Or do you only fish brush piles that you can see fish near on your fish finder? How long do you fish a pile before moving on to another if you don't get a bite?

-It's easy to get overwhelmed with all of the different Jigs, Sizes and Colors. Do you have a goto for NE Kansas that gets good results?

-I'm from Topeka, and mainly go to Melvern, Perry, and Carbondale East Lake. Does anyone have any tips for these lakes?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

Good luck. I vertical jig brush piles, start working the edges of it first and work your way into the middle of it. Either work work high to low till you find the fish. If after about 10 minutes not much luck I would move on. Especially with winter coming don’t let the shallow water scare you away from them. Anywhere from 4ft to 20ft is what I prefer to fish. Some days they like it setting still fun a while others a slow rise and fall. Just play with different styles each time out till they show you what they want. I prefer bigger baits 2 1/2-3 1/2” with 3/16 or larger jig head. (Preference only). Great is luck and keep trying. Don

Kansas try crappie chatt fished with him a couple times learned more about crappies in those trips than in my first 60+ years

I usually start shallow(4-10 ft) around brush and docks that has quick access to deep water. And as ragnar said start on the edges and work the entire water column and then move in. 5 to 10 minutes tops at any one place with no luck and I move on. After 4 or 5 shallow spots that I know should hold fish then I start going to deeper water. Where I fish I have around 100 waypoints of deep water tops marked. I will look at them on sonar to see if they hold fish....if not, move on to the next one. I strictly vertical jig and shoot docks. Single pole in shallow brush, 2 pole in deep tops if the action is slow. I also keep 3 or poles rigged up with different color combos of jigs. For example 1 will be chart/red/black, another will be smoke or shad color/chart, another blk/pink, last one some off the wall combo. Switch between the 4 nearly always produces some kind if color pattern. Usually it's a single color that triggers them. Such as anything with chart.
A descent finder with at least DI is a godsin.

Great info, Thank you! I will give it all a try and see what i can do

Quote:

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Originally Posted by springhillwantabe

Kansas try crappie chatt fished with him a couple times learned more about crappies in those trips than in my first 60+ years

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I gave him a call and he said he's not guiding at the moment but should be again in a few months. I plan on giving that a try, from what I've read I'm sure it would be worthwhile.