I seem to find more keeper size fish by the amount of baitfish and baitfish balls I see on the SI.....no baitfish around-no crappie...

I see lots of schooling fish on the SI...but the only thing I can catch when I see this is dinks....

The larger fish seem to be more loners this year...rarely am I catching more than 2 on one piece of structure unless I leave the structure for 30 minutes or so and refish...

So I have been starting about 3/4 of the way in the back of the bays and working my way out and I'm not catching fish until I start seeing the baitfish on the SI....I have found no baitfish in less than 9ft of flat bottom water (like in the back of the bays)....then I'm searching different depths around the baitfish until I find the depth where I can find a few...and even then, they are not very aggressive...I have to sit on them to get them to bite...

The females I've been catchin are mostly whites in 14 ft of 65 degree water....

These white females seem to prefer a very large bait package...either a larger minnow or a jig tipped with a minnow...sometimes I even put 2 minnows on 1 hook to get the offering to look bigger.....this seems to help some...(but it may be that I am just more confident in live bait)....

The blacks are probably shallower but I find it difficult to spider rig in less than 7 ft of water without spooking fish...I'll leave these to you guys that like the shallow bite...I'll fish the larger female whites out in the deeper water....

Rickie