Advise for White Clay Lake?

A buddy and I spend a decent amount of time on White Clay Lake just because it's close and it's perfect for his little boat. The problem is we hardly catch anything until fall.

We spend most of the time trolling the west shoreline with either crawlers on slip bobbers, white twister tails, or just recently beetle spins.

Any advice for a rookie?

Have not fished White Clay Lake, personally. So, am just going to throw out some general stuff about crappies I have learned over the years fishing in WI, VT and in AL. First of all do your best to learn the body of water, mainly what is under the surface. If you have a "fish finder" even a cheap one it will help you learn what you don't see. Crappies love structure. It can be stumps, log piles, docks, drops, bars, weed edges. What kind of water do you have, is it a clear water lake or stained? Makes a difference. Crappies like structure, for food, protection and for cooler water. they most generally are a schooling fish, and most times they will school close to like size. Also, have caught most crappies either in the morning or evening. Seems to be when they feed. Weather systems affect how all fish feed. They feed more during high pressure and right before a low pressure comes through. And, may well turn off for a few days afterwards. Water temperature also affects them. They do not like hot surface water. They like mid-60's for spawning. But after that do the suspension thing during the heat of the day and come up when the water surface cools.Crappies attack their food upward mostly. Check out how their eyes are oriented. If they are at 5 feet and you put your offering at 5 feet or deeper you will have few takers. Raise it a foot and look out. Very rarely have I ever caught a crappie on a worm. Think like them, what do they eat? They eat minnows mostly, so what you want to give them is a minnow or something that resembles a minnow. I use smaller shiners or fat heads, hooked with a #6 just under the dorsal fin. All under a slip bobber. Nice way to adjust depth. You can use jigs, with a minnow through the lips or with hair or some plastic body. The whole thing to to get their attention by whatever you present to them. I use smaller jig heads 1/16 down to 1/32 ounce, sometimes Roadrunners with a blade on them. Found Bobby Garland shad jig baits to work really good. They mimic a minnow. Colors, I like monkey milk, chartreuse, white and chartreuse, black and chartreuse. It will also depend some on the clarity of the water. Some darker colors actually work better in stained water. If you can, given wind conditions, try drifting over some structure, set one pole at one depth and your second at a different depth. If you get a hit, that is the depth you want. If you should find you get a hit before the minnow or jig has hit the depth you had it down from the bobber, you know you are too deep. Crappies can be light biters, barely moving the bobber, or tipping it over. Other times you will know when they hit, because they can be aggressive. If you have good weeds, like that darned mil foil, anchor in the weeds, right at the edge. Cast out and work your offering back slowly. Sometimes I use a rise and fall presentation. One the bait settles down to depth, if you do not get any bites in a short time, raise the tip of your rod a foot to raise the bait and then let it fall. And, do this as you work the bait back to the boat. Another thing, crappies are also know as "paper mouths" with good reason. The membrane behind their lips is very thin and you can actually tear out a hook and rip apart their lips. Something to consider when determining how intense to set the hook. I generally do good with raising the pole about 75-80 degrees from horizontal and keep line pressure on. One more thing. I and my wife try our best not to take crappies during during their spawn. Pre-spawn we try to return the females. And, we never fish to our creel limit. We want to have fish for tomorrow, next week and next year. Hope this gives you something that may help. Not shy on sharing what I have learned. Best of luck. Let the forum know how you do.

Lived in Langlade county for many years and have fished White Clay. Best bet for crappies is to position boat well inside weed bed and cast out past the edge and then slowly bring it in to the weed edge at various depths. Usually works best at end of the day. Not a lot of structure on White Clay so it is pretty much weed related. Once you figure out where they usually come in at you can usually move out to the deeper water a little earlier and try various depths to catch them on their way in, fish from the weed edge out. Best crappie lake down in your neck of the woods would be Norrie Lake in Birnamwood. Loaded with crappies especially the southwest corner by the old lumber mill.

Thanks guys! Huntin is exactly right that there is no structure in that lake. Most of the lake is 4-12 deep and it's all gradual. There is one 30' hole kind of in the middle but we don't have enough anchor line and it's always windy when we try to drift.

The water is stained and the bottom is very weedy. I'll suggest going into the weeds and casting out next time we go.

Norris lake is out I guess. Probably only an hour away from the house but it's not my boat so I don't get to make those decisions.

I'm do not know anything about the lake you are fishing but have a site that can show you many different ways to try.
Crappie Fishing Methods

Good luck on your next trip
riverman39

Thanks!