slabs got me stumped: need advice

Ok, so the wife and I went last Sunday to one of our favorite lakes. Its a very healthy lake with some true toads in it. Theyre hard to catch some times though. On Saturday, we checked in the usual haunts and couldnt get bit. water was 40-41 degrees. We started check the groups of fish we were marking in the creek channel, and wound up catching A LOT of dinks. We finally caught one 10"er.

I've noticed this before on other good crappie lakes. Typically, it seems like if I catch dinks, I don't really get into good ones and if I'm in the good ones, I don't really get dinks. Have you guys had the same experience? I don't really know what I should've done differently to find or catch bigger fish the other day except maybe bring some minnows. When I started catching the dinks, should I have tried to establish a different pattern or what? Any advice would be appreciated. I checked all the way up and down the creek channel and had the same luck on the whole thing. Didn't mark any fish above about 18 fow. :banghead:banghead:banghead

The response to this question could end up as an entire book, but I will give you my two cents. I catch big fish with small fish very often so they don't always school by size. That being said if we catch 10-12 small fish from a pile without a quality fish we usually move on. At times it is a numbers game. It may take 20 stops in a day to find a pile or tree or ledge some big fish are setting on and willing to bite. I am the last guy to ask about if you might catch bigger fish on minnows. State records indicate that most of the true giants have been caught on minnows but more people in that past and probably still do fish with minnows vs artificial baits. My take if small fish are biting jigs so will tubby. Lastly, if big fish are not where they should be then look where they shouldn't be. You marked fish all below 18ft of water but there might be some isolated fish on shallower stump field or rip rap.

I don't have extensive experience, just trial and error. Sun we fished under a bridge 16 fow. Fish were stacked but only occasional dink would bite. Moved to 23 fow with a ramp to 8', fish were stacked from 8-bottom. Caught a few dinks in deep on bottom, found the best fish were on bottom in the 8' water and were picky on color(yel/wh), it has changed day to day(had caught on red/chart). Speed of fall was key. More bites with a 1/32 head than a 1/8 fished slow. Like The Professional said, keep moving til you find better. Sometimes we will be catching fish on bottom and it slow. Move up to 6' or 8' and back to biting. Ones we caught Sun had bluegill in bellies, must have been wintering together.

Thanks for the responses guys. I know that question is pretty vague and there are about 1 bazillion different variables that could be there so it's very difficult to answer. The main problem is that I'm a sucky fisherman lol. You have given me a several more ideas to try though and thats the goal. Nothing replaces time on the water. Thanks again for the ideas.

SEEMS TO ME THAT ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS ILL












on several occasions i have caught bigger fish on the out skirts of where the smaller ones are like on an isolated branch extending out from a brush pile or if in standing timber just a little deeper ive also noticed that at times certian colors seem to catch bigger fish.just some of my obsevations.