Thank you for letting me come aboard ! Been lurking for a few weeks, and have many questions and comments about this wonderfully addicting sport. But before I get into all that, here's some details about myself …..

I am a retired, 57 year old HVAC guy, who lives about an hour west of St. Louis MO., on a nice 140 acre lake, in a pretty rural setting. I've fished for as long as I can remember, and still fish almost every day. I have some physical disabilities, and rarely leave my home lake to experience other waters.

Everyone around here calls me "Sonar" because I used to have a $50 flat bottom john boat, with a $2,000 Humminbird SI setup on it ! The old boat was
nicknamed "the submarine" because of it's propensity for ending up on the bottom after a good rain !!!

That was many years ago, and have recently upgraded to a new, 16' Grizzly, with a 900 series HB, with SI, and DI. I thought I knew how to use the electronics, but after taking the sonar quiz, I realize how little I really know.

The lake I'm on is around 140 acres, 40' at the deepest point, and fairly clear. Bass are very (too) plentiful, in fact we have permission from our local MDC agent to keep all bass between 8" - 12" as they are over populated. I've personally
cleaned well over 300 of these smaller fish, just in the last 2 months. Even with the overpopulation, there are some very nice largemouth in here ….. My personal, and as far as I know lake record, is 12 pounds, 2 ounces, caught in 2006. There was an 11 pound 15 ounce monster caught last year as well.

Bluegill are plentiful as well, and some of the gills are in the 12 - 15 oz range. The redear (which are stocked yearly with fingerlings) on the other hand are some VERY NICE brutes in the 1 to 2 pound range. My personal record for a redear here is 2 pounds, 2ounces.

Channel cat are stocked yearly as well, and seem to top out around the 12 pound mark. My personal record cat at this lake weighed in at 9 pounds, 10 ounces. I've heard tales of a 20+ pound heavyweight, but have no confirmation on that. There is also a population of yellowbellies, but in my opinion they are just an annoyance.

On to the crappie ….. This is where I'm having trouble ….. There is a fair population of specks here, and can be caught in numbers at the spawn, but they seem to disappear when the water warms into the high 60's to 70 degrees. My goal, with your help. is to find, and catch these elusive critters, well into the summer months.

The lake used to have a very large population, but about 15 years ago, the lake was lowered, and took 18 months to refill, thus killing most of the vegetation in the shallower areas. It has never been the same since then .....

My personal record crappie was a 14-1/4", fat, egg laden female earlier this year, that was released back to the spawning beds where she was caught. I had no scale with me at the time, so I don't know the actual weight. The lake record was 15-1/2" caught a few years ago. No weight was recorded.

Once again, thank you, and I'll be posting up some questions soon, and I welcome any questions, comments, tips and advise from anyone willing to reply.

Steve