Need help placing cover

[ragingmako]

Hi everyone. I built some pvc structure and was going to toss it in to begin my personal crappie honey hole, but I’m new to this crappie thing. Where would you recommend I set my structure? I don’t have a map of my lake so I just made this one up from googlemaps:




This map is oriented like you would expect a compass to be oriented. North is up, west is left, east is right, south is down.
Area 1: The average depth of this is around 6 feet deep. The south edge of it borders an old creek channel where the depth drops off to a low of around 15 feet. Depth is fairly uniform with a gentle slope going northward from 7 to 5 feet deep up toward area 14 . Not much cover visible on the depth finder. The south edge drops pretty quickly to the creek channel going from 6 to the maximum depth of the creek, but the drop is a good 4 feet in less than 10 feet of surface distance.

Area 2: The east edge of it appears to be a continuation of the creek in area 6, but it isn’t nearly as deep here. East edge of area 2 is 10 feet max. The center of this area is at the edge of some trees hanging over the water. You can fairly easily fish under the trees because they were trimmed back off of the water’s surface 2 years ago. Lots of shade, and the bank drops sharply into the water. Within a couple of feet of the shoreline the water is still shallow (less than 2 ft), but another couple of feet dumps it down into 5 ft of water, sloping quickly down to the creek channel at about 10ft deep.

Area 3: It’s mostly a flat. The south side is a maximum of 5 feet deep. The north side is only about 3 feet deep. The west edge has a couple of old downed trees laying in the water with mostly just the trunks remaining, very little branches. There are some old smallish stumps in this area, but they aren’t clustered very closely. The east edge has rock lining the shore line and there is a larger downed tree in the water at about where the west edge of that house is. I catch a lot of bluegill and bass here, never any crappie. This would be considered the ‘headwaters’ on a large lake, fed by a creek.

Area 4: That tree that is partially circled isn’t in the water at all or even hanging over it. This spot is distinguished from the rest of the area around it because there is a point sticking out about 10 feet from the shoreline. On either side of the point there is a sharp drop down to 10ft plus of water, but the “ridge” of the point is in 3 feet of water. No cover to speak of, but the sharp edges and relative shortness of the point would make sinking anything substantial difficult.

Area 5: There are some trees growing down into the water. One sticks out 15 feet or so into the water and is easily fished due to there not being other trees around it creating a tangled mess of branches. The tree’s roots are partially in the water, partially on land, but its only in a few inches of water back there. The ‘top’ of the tree is partially submerged, partially hanging over the water in 11ft of depth. The shoreline is very steep here as well. It drops quickly into the creek channel in area 6.

Area 6: This is an old creek channel that runs most of the length of the south side of the lake. The west side of is about 11 ft deep, the east is 15 feet. The west edge of it seems to be where there used to be an old “pool” in the creek just south of the left-most 6 next to area 4. In that area the depth is fairly uniform at 11ft deep with the area 4 point and the area 1 flat bordering it. At times the channel is almost against the shoreline. This is the only area of the lake where I’ve landed a crappie (where it is near the shore). It eventually feeds out into area 8 where the deepest part of the lake is.

Area 7: This is sort of a little ‘cove’ that comes off the south edge of the creek channel. It is a fairly gentle slope up from 14 feet deep in the Area 6 channel to just a few inches near the shoreline. I’ve caught fish pretty much anywhere in this area, but its mostly been bass.

Area 8: Never caught anything out here, but I’ve never spent much time fishing this area. Only cover is an old tractor that is sitting in 20 feet of water, and I doubt there is much oxygen down there. I once put a sinker on and drug it across the bottom to see if it was mud or if there was vegetation. Only mud. I’ve marked fish suspended at the 15 ft level (about 5 feet off the bottom) numerous times, but its seems sporadic when that happens. Occasionally I will catch bass up against the dam on the east side of this area, but usually not much action here.

Area 9: To the south is the deep water in the ‘main’ area of the lake. To the north is a cove that is fed by a runoff drain. Usually not much flow. The interesting thing about this spot is that where the 9 is on the map seems to be a depression, sort of like an old creek bed, but its pretty short. Max depth is 10 ft, but east, west, or north it gets shallow fairly quickly. That ‘pocket’ the east is a mini flat.

Area 10: The east side of this is about 17 ft deep, but it rises to about 10 feet over the span of about 20 feet of surface distance. Where you see the #10 its about 10ft deep. There are a handful of old Christmas trees in the water here. They appear to be holding some fish. The edge of the dock to the north of area 10 is in about 5 ft of water. The cove to the west of the dock is pretty shallow, with an average depth of maybe 3ft.

Area 11: This is another small flat off of the deep water in area 8. There is also an old telephone pole submerged in there. The north side drops into the deep of area 8. The south side is only a few inches deep. The odd thing is that there doesn’t appear to be a drop-off. It kind of just slopes down at a constant angle so it must be a fairly steep grade.

Area 12: Its sort of like area 5 where it drops pretty quickly to deep water. I’ve caught a number of bluegill and bass close to the shrubs that are partially growing in the water. The edge of the shrubs are in about 5ft of water. It drops to 15 feet deep within a short distance.

Area 13: It comes off of area 10 at about 10 feet deep and slopes gently to the shoreline. The dock captured in the northwest corner of the circle holds a lot of minnows, bass, and bluegill. The shoreline is rocked. The south edge of the circle is about 8 ft deep.

Area 14: That’s actually my dock. I fish it relentlessly after work when I’m too lazy to drag the trolling motor and battery down to the lake. I’ve tossed a few things for cover out within casting distance of the dock, but this is mostly a continuation of the flat that begins in area 1. The maximum depth and can reach by casting is about 7ft deep. Holds lots of bass and bluegill, but definitely no crappie (I would know from fishing it so much).

Area 15: Very similar to my shoreline. Its shallow. Nice bass territory (actually the largest one I’ve caught on this lake was in that area). A number of partially submerged shrubs that I think my neighbor threw in are in this area.

So where would you recommend placing it? Thanks for your help. I know its a long post.

-RagingMako

[broharrell]

Pick a spot close to or down in the creek channel.

[NIMROD]

It will depend on what time of year you fish. I put cover in spawning areas , just out over the first drop out from spawning areas to catch pre spawn and post spawn fish, on humps and deepest for other times. Main thing is most of the year on depth contour lines (drops in depth even in some lakes as little as a foot or two change.) i have over 200 different structures I fish here on my home lake . Most are wood and range in depth at low pool from 4' to 12' with average of 6 to 9' of water. If I find one catches good , next I'll add one on same contour depth 100' each direction. Since this is a good sized lake I have added several each direction over time in some places that produce. Since it is a heavily fished lake , I favor stakebeds as they show up very little on low end depthfinders. GPS locations are named and placed in # sequince to make jiggin several easier. Nothing for me to fish 20 to 40 a day. When bigger fish don't bite or small ones do I just move to the next one. I might look at this post later and try to pick out some spots on your map.

[ragingmako]

Thanks for the responses. I fish pretty much year-round. The only time I generally don't fish is when its freezing outside (literally ice-cold) but before the lake freezes over and ice-fishing begins. One thing I forgot to mention is the lake is about 12 acres of surface area. I also forgot to mention that I placed a couple of large brush piles several years ago almost exactly on that gap between areas 6 and 7 on the northwest corner of 7. It hasn't produced much of anything. It seemed to me that would be a good spot sort of half in the channel and up the slope a bit toward the flat. I can mark it with my depth finder and almost always no fish are on it. Thanks again for the help.

[alexava]

i dont think i would sink cover in a 12acre lake?pond. but good luck.

[NIMROD]

Even on bigger lakes some spots just never produce, even some that look like they should.

[peepaw]

Their fish, no rules just chances. put in where you think may work and fish em'!

[Spawn]

i normally place mine where even if i get a new gps i can still rmeember where they are located