I wont be back in the boat until springtime but I'm already thinking about fishing. One strip mine I fish is 60 ft deep, pretty clear water, very steep drop along the edges and very little vegetation plus almost no wood. I sometimes locate very large schools of crappie suspended near the thermocline, about 15 feet, over deep water. These schools can be hard to anchor above because they seem to often disappear between the time I drop anchor and get a bait in the water. Not always though. When I succeed in anchoring over the school I catch as many crappie as I could want but usually small, hard to pull one out thats 10 inches. There are nice size fish in the strip mine because around the spawn I catch a limit of 11 inch to 13 inch crappie. Any suggestions how to troll a jig and minnow or just a minnow at 15 ft while looking for the suspended schools? I want to feel pretty comfortable that I'm keeping the bait at the right depth.

Jack