Newbie question on fishin for crappie

[Jmrun1225]

First post on the forum, but I have been reading the post for several months. I have been trying to get into crappie fishing. I have access to a private pond in NE Oklahoma that is an old coal pit that I started fishing this year. The largemouth and crappie I have been catching are very healthy fish. I tried to attach a picture of a crappie my wife caught a few months ago that was about 2lbs.

The pond is about. 18-20' deep and 1/3 mile long with little to no structure, visibility about 5'. There are a few drop offs that I have located that seem to hold some fish.

That being said, I have had no success when trying to target crappie with jigs or minnows. They seem so scattered and I can't find them piled up anywhere. I feel like I am fishing blind. I have only caught them while bass fishing on large spinner baits and chatterbaits. Now that it is winter I have really been scratching my head on how to get some slabs in the boat.
Any advice is appreciated

[Bigskyfisherman]

Jmrun,

Welcome to Crappie.com. this is a great bunch of guys and gals.

Nice fish, with a belly that says you have some good forage in the pond. Also looks as if you made a nice catch yourself.
I remember when I was new to crappie, after moving from trout country in Montana. I did nearly everything wrong, even though I had the right equipment. Winter crappie usually don't like to chase, so a slowwwww presentation is usually best. If you have electronics, use them to find the fish. If not, your dropoffs are probably the best place to fish. If the owner says OK, you should put some brush on the edge of the dropoffs. Persimmon trees are excellent, but you can use any tree, as long as the branches aren't too tight to allow easy access for the crappie. Anchor the trees with bigger rocks and with telephone wire if you can find some. With the little to no structure that you mentioned, you should be able to draw all the fish to your brush pile or piles.
Drop your jigs to the bottom or to the brush, Very small twitches will produce bites, as well as just moving the rod back and forth slowly. Sometimes, just "deadsticking" will draw the bite. With warmer water, a very slow troll allows you to cover more water, but in a small pond, fishing brush piles should work fine.
If all else fails, find a local guy to show you the ropes (or invite me to come visit). There are probably plenty of people who would like to get some crappie like the one you showed in the picture.
If you have specific questions, feel free to pm me or any of the guys who seem knowledgeable on CDC. I haven't met a guy yet who was not ready to help other fishermen.

[Ranger09]

Welcome JMRUN.......Ranger

[Crappie ciller]

Welcome JMRUN- that is probably the best initial post I have seen on the forum! I agree with BigSkyGuy that you made a great catch. Don't throw that one back. The Montana geezer knows what he is talking about- don't know what I would add except maybe to try minnows. At times they will work when jigs don't.

[DrNip]

You might think about adding brush piles to pond if you can.

[Woodworker42]

Jmrun, Welcome to CDC! Great first post.

[Crappie Reaper]

Can a person launch a boat off a trailer there? If so, I think you should have a brush pile day with some of the C.C members showing up to help out. We can map the pit, toss bouys where the good places for structure should be dropped, then get busy and build some habitat for those fish! In such a small area, the fish will draw to it right off the bat for the protection it offers.

After that, you can give me a key to the gate and I'll stand guard on it as much as I can.

Glad you finally signed on, welcome!

[Crappie Reaper]

Now to respond to your question about locating them. Try slowing trolling or as I like to call it, Crappie Creeping. Set out rods with baits at different depths and creep along near the banks at a very slow pace. If you get bit and catch a fish, toss a bouy out, set the rest of your rods about in the same depth range, then continue to Creep. This is a great method of locating fish that are out in the open. If they don't have to hide from other predators like big catfish, they can be anywhere. If there are big cats in the pit and no structure, there's a good chance they are going to hug the bottom, rock or ledge. When Creeping, try to keep at least one line within a foot of the bottom.

[Bigskyfisherman]

A word of warning, Jmrun.
These are great guys, but they don't joke around. Reaper is dead serious about guarding the gate.

[Jmrun1225]

Thanks for all the useful advice. I'm looking forward to trying these ideas out and hoping I can get some crappie condos in the water. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully a I'll have some pics to share.