I'm fairly new to crappie fishing. Two years ago I bought the stuff to start spider rigging and I've been out with that gear maybe 15 to 20 times since I purchased it. So far i've not had much success. My best day spider rigging was 9 crappie. I'm fishing good lakes too...last year I fished mostly Sardis Lake in MS, and this year Pickwick Lake in MS and TN. From a technical perspective I know I have my rigging correct. I did my research, and then went out with a guide to validate what I thought I had learned. I know i've got the right gear and presentation. What I clearly lack is knowledge on the fish. I don't know if I'm not fishing the right areas, or at the right speeds, etc.

Last week I fished for six hours and I caught a single crappie. Conditions were tough on the day I went...it was a really windy post-front day...but I figured I'd have caught more than a single crappie! I trolled around some likely looking spawning flats in about 6 to 10 feet of water and caught nothing. After that I just cruised around with my sonar until I located what looked like good fish. I dropped a marker on them, then trolled back and forth through them with minnows and jigs deployed at depths a foot or so above where they marked on the screen...and I caught one fish. That was it.

There have been plenty of other times when I'd go out for 4 or 6 hours and catch one...maybe two fish with 6 rods in the water.

How long do you fish an area before you decide to move on to a new one? Will you burn an hour? Two hours? Three hours trolling a spot? I usually only get to fish a half day per week if I'm lucky...if I burn too much time on a bad spot it just kills any chance of success...but packing up the rods and moving to a new spot takes time too. What are your thoughts?

What am I doing wrong?

I started the spider rigging thing as a way to get the kids excited about fishing...but when I keep getting skunked it kind of ruins things. It's not much fun asking a kid to watch a rod do nothing for six hours.