Greg B.

Good job Lance. I got out Sunday. Caught 2 pretty nice crappie 6-7 feet deep in 10 fow in the first 30 mins and thought I was getting somewhere. Then the dang wind came and then the rain. Quit at the sound of thunder. Don’t want any of that.

Very nice, Lance. I’m waiting out the cold snap and hope to be after em sometime this week. Was cutting cane yesterday way up the white and saw a few folks chasing walleye. Im ready to get out there again now that work has calmed down.

Man, once again you’ve done it. These are cold temps and last weekend was tough conditions. Can’t believe how well you manage to stay on those crappie. Congrats. I’m tied up til the end of the month at work but plan to hit em hard after that. Built my home minnow vat and will soon stock up. Keep the posts coming. I enjoy them

Guess that’s what I was seeing then. Looked like crappie in the screen, but so tight to the bottom I wasn’t sure. I think I was fishing too high in the water column. Shoulda put a minnow in their face. Oh well, I still learned something. Thanks again for the report. I enjoy reading yours a lot .

Tried em for 2 hours yesterday but just couldn’t get on em. Could see fish on the graph but all were deep, like close to the bottom in 15-20 feet. Not much luck for me but congrats to you on a fine catch. Also saw a very nice 5+ pound walleye back at the ramp. Good to see things are warming up out there.

You are exactly right. I never intended to fish where I did. I saw a crowd and thought “hey, they must know something I dont” and I gave in. In the end I should have stuck with my plan. I did actually go graph another area, a new area, but didn’t see anything worth killing a minnow over. Thanks again for the advice. Time on the water is what I need.

Yep. Thought that was you. I was in the green g3 boat and you passed me on your way in. Now I know for sure you’re a much better fisherman than me. I was there from 11-3 and boated 2.

Ps, I think I saw lance out there. Lance, if you were out there Sunday in a tracker, I’m pretty sure we were in the same neighborhood for awhile.

Got the new boat, new rod holders, new sonar, etc all tuned up and finally made it it to the lake Sunday. Apparently the bite was early. We started fishing at 11 and it seemed most of the boats we talked to caught their fish before we arrived. Wound up with two fairly nice crappie and missed 3 more. Had one at the boat that was really nice. Learning to get em in the boat with those long poles has a learning curve, and she got the benefit of that curve. Returned the two we boated to catch another day. All in all, since all of the equipment worked and we boated two, I’d say that’s a good start! Craziest thing happened, decided to run the boat up into a cove we’ve never fished and check things out on the sonar. At the very back end of the cove, we ran into one very large and very mad water moccasin! In January! I can’t say I expected to see a snake in 45 degree weather this time of year, but I guess I learn something every time I go out.

I’ll get some and post em at some point. I’ve been working in the dark when I get off work so the pics just weren’t an option.

I’ve spent the last week or so fixing up a new to me g3 1860 and getting it ready for some serious crappie fishing. I still have the smaller Xpress boat, but now that I live a few minutes from Beaver lake I wanted a bit larger boat for safety when taking the kiddo out. I installed a Garmin side view, a new millennium double front seat, and two millennium spider lol rod holders in the front. This boat will work a lot better for spider rigging as the front deck is much larger than the old boat. Last Saturday was to be the maiden voyage, but the giant cold front and snow didn’t agree with my plan. Now I just need the weather to cooperate and I’ll be back out there trying to fill the freezer. Fried up my last batch of catfish over the weekend so the fish freezer is totally empty. Time to restock!

I’d probably say maybe a touch higher. I have the same boat in a 2001 model but with a nearly new 40 hp motor. I bought it a few years ago and gave 6200 but most of the money in mine is in the motor. I would have said 4K - 4500 on yours.

I’m gonna try it again soon. Still have a few family christmas visits to knock out, then should have a bit of time. Weather has been really nice the last few days.

Man, way to go! When you nab a limit in winter you’ve got it figured out! I’ll get there but it’ll take awhile. Good job and good eating .

I wondered. It’s on both sides? Might just be interference. I’m still learning so I had to ask

On the side scan sonar pic, I see the crappie and brush on the top right. Is the bar across the middle a dock float?

Nice hog and congrats to the young man! He'll tell that story for the rest of his life.

I’m less worried about snow while fishing than I am getting back up my mountain pulling the trailer afterwards. During my duck hunting days I had a few of those days. I’m not as brave as I was then.

Hope you guys have better weather than me. Forecasters calling for snow here Saturday. They’re usually wrong but it would be my luck that it would snow 5 inches as soon as I’m on the water!

I’ve got 4- 14 foot bnm pro trollers right now and 2 12 footers. I know they’re somewhat short for rigging but I wanted to start on the short side. I’ve been using 1/2 ounce weights but will try heavier if I go deep again.

Lance, thanks for chiming in. I’ve read most of your posts about crappie in the area and was hoping you would jump in. Rigging deep deep is not going to be any fun, I can already tell. I did some at 18 feet a few weeks ago and didn’t care for it. If I can find some fish a little shallower I’ll be happy. It sounds like fish can be caught about anywhere, I just have to find em and start learning.

Thanks again to all that have replied. That's what I'm getting at I guess. Shrapnel catching a bunch of fish in 3-6' of water, others catching fish deep on brush. I figure this stuff is all very lake, temperature, weather specific and it takes a really long time and lots of experience to have much idea where to start on any given day, at least in the winter time. My gut seems to say that fish should be deep when the water temp is in the 40s, but I still keep seeing folks catching fish shallow. The temps here are miserably cold and the wind hasn't given it a break in several days. I guess when i get a decent day, I'll put the boat in and give it a try somewhere, most likely deep to start.

I’m using the Millenium holders and running 6 poles when spider rigging. I can long line out the back as I have separate bases back there. When long lining I usually try running poles out the sides as I have a standard foot control trolling motor. Kinda hard to get to the back of the boat to land a fish and still keep the boat running straight. I might be wrong but I assumed slower to be better in the winter. That’s why I was thinking pushing or single pole rather than long lining this time of year?

Thanks for the replies so far. As soon as I can get a warmer day with little wind I plan to give it a go. I think I’ll spend a good amount of time on the sonar at first. My Garmin unit will show the crappie if I can find them. Just have to find them I guess

I’m a new member but have been reading posts here for a few weeks. I live within 5-10 minutes of the blue Springs area of the white river and grew up catching crappie in this area of the lake during the spawn. We didn’t fish for them much outside of April back then. I’ve now got my boat rigged up and ready to try them outside of the spawn. Spider rig rod holders, side scan, etc. Last summer I told myself it was time to go learn the lake better and learn to catch crappie outside of the spawn. My son and I trolled cranks in July and caught a few nice ones (but not a lot). Also got to learn a bit about the side scan sonar and found a few brush piles I didn’t know existed. Unfortunately outboard troubles sidelined me until about a month ago. Im now ready to try some winter crappie. I tried rigging minnows on Sequoyah the last two trips because I wanted to make sure the outboard was in good shape before hitting beaver in November. I managed a few dinks at Sequoyah but again, not many. Im wanting to hit Beaver again and start learning. I’m thinking of running the sonar a good bit around the deeper channel edges north of the 412 bridge and trying to find a few fish to try spider rigging out there if the wind will allow. Heres the question. I see all of these posts about folks fishing deep, shallow, shooting docks, main channels, up the creeks, etc. As I have no idea where to start the learning curve, all of this is a bit confusing to me. It almost seems that crappie in the winter may be about anywhere? Some folks fish deep and some shallow. From where I’m at I can go deep or up the river to more shallow water. Is searching the channel ledges a good place to start? If I start looking North of the 412 bridge where the channel drops are pretty deep and severe will I at least be in an area where I can start learning at this time of year? Not looking for any specific locations, just want to make sure I’m starting in the correct hemisphere. Thanks for any help. Greg B.