My wife and I are going to have some time to fish this weekend, and I've been gearing up with trolling gear the past few weeks. I'm basically new to fishing "bigger" lakes in a boat but am doing my best to figure out how to bring fish home on our outings.

The crappie, to the best of my knowledge, should be close to spawning and in shallows here ( SE Indiana). Atleast thats where I have been looking for them. Should I not even bother trying to pull crankbaits until after they spawn? I really want to try out our new gear, sort of a practice run. But we also would like to catch a few fish of course!