No boat, need fish

Hey guys I post stuff here very rarley, Im mostly a lurker just spending most of my time reading and learning and, since Ive come here Ive learned more in a year than I THOUGHT I knew my whole 29 years here on earth about fishing. Now I know you guys recommend using and or jigging for crappie, but The pond I regularly fish at is small 4.5 acres maybe, not a lot of cover, several docks, and depth varies from bank to maybe 12 foot in some spots. NO BOATS or WADING allowed. Now I have done well in mid spring say may and early june for crappie, but after that water is hot and the weeds are almost impassable. But Ive always waited till then to fish but I wanna fish now since Ive become more agressive about fishing. I live about an hour south of Chicago and temps here are around 40 degrees or so. I pretty much fish with a very small jig head with a green tail and a minnow on the hook with a slip bobber. any advice on where to start looking or what to use. and I dont know the water temp but I will check it tomorrow.

In the past some people have recommended ways to use a jig with big long poles etc but its just not in my budget right now. any help would be great.- and like I said I mostly use minnows.- Joel

On a pond that size I think your already doing the best thing by using a slip bobber. It allows you to fish different depths and cover allot of water. With a good rod & reel you should be able to cast to most of the pond.

I've started using different color plastic tubes in the last year that have really helped me to catch more fish. Try black/chartreause, red/ chartreause these are everyones favorites. But also try some subtle colors such as pumpkinseed, rootbeer, watermelon red.

Tubes with Crappie Nibblets are sometimes more effective than minnows.

Sometimes you can catch crappie on colors that are almost invisible in the water but the crappie will see them and will hit them.

Good luck

If you're close to Chicago and boatless, look these guys up:

www.geocities.com/fishcba/

They've got float fishing and bank fishing down cold.

This is a related site:

http://www.jjc.edu/clubs/anglers/