Some of you may have read my story.... I bought a boat about 6 weeks ago and I'm getting back into fishing with my son. I've never been a crappie fisherman, but I'm trying to figure it out. I have been crappie fishing in the past, several times, but never as the boat owner, driver, spot/pattern finder. Only in the spring too. As of now, I'm not having any success. I don't expect to be an overnight success but I don't want my son to get burned out on going before I figure out how to catch them. I have never been a fall fisherman, but I'm going to become one.

I've hit creek channels, bridges and boat docks on my first 5 fishing trips and so far ONE crappie has been boated. It was a 7" dink that a buddy caught yesterday evening. We're mainly casting jigs, or vertical fishing jigs. I did take some minnards yesterday and the one lone crappie was caught on a minnow tipped jig. It was caught in 14' of water, at the end of a boat slip, 2 feet down. I think it was trying to commit hara-kiri.

I've got a whiz bang Helix 9 depth finder and feel that I am fairly proficient at reading it, but I have not found a single thing that I would call a school of crappie. We fished for 3 hours yesterday and I only saw one school of baitfish. On previous trips I had been seeing large schools of baitfish, but they were simply gone.

Can some of you guys please give me some advice on what to do and what to look for? I'm not asking for any secret fishing spots, just an idea of how and where to proceed. Any help greatly appreciated.