Let's say you are fishing a new lake where you've never fished before. You know absolutely nothing about the lake. In fact, where you put in is a total guess. You pick a boat ramp and go to it. As you are putting in, you notice another boat coming in and you notice that they have some nice, freshly caught Crappie, so you know there are fish there somewhere.

The reason you're not totally blind beyond being able to see with your eyes is that you have a fish finder with you. You also have a contour map of the part of the lake where you put in. You've talked to a few people, but you don't know how open they are being with you.

OK, you're on the water, you turn on your fish finder and you start looking for a good spot to crappie fish. What are you looking for? I think the likely choices would be structure, depth, bait fish, what you identify as fish on your fish finder screen, and probably a lot of other stuff. What do I know?

Also, how do you know what bait to fish with? Will you use jigs? If so, what kind, what size and what color? Since you don't know what the Crappie are hitting, will you start with minnows?

What else goes into your thinking when it comes to finding Crappie on water that you don't know?

Oh, ok, Weather! It's clear, gentle breezes and the temperature is in the mid to upper 80's. A beautiful day to be on the water.

Thanks

GF