I'm struggling to find crappie through all the bluegill

Hello, i want to catch crappie and everyone tells me is so easy, but I'm finding it hard. I fish a private community lake that's about 135 acres. Most residents are real tight lipped about the hot spots and while i own property in the community i don't live there so i don't talk to many other anglers. The lake says there is crappie, but i have never caught one. Catching a whole mess of bluegill is a daily occurrence, but I'm really wanting to catch crappie. Anybody got advice to help me out. Anybody else have this issue? I'm usually a live bait kind of fisherman, but I'd love to be better with artificial lures because i think it's less time consuming and less messy. Thanks in advance for your advice.

If you are using minnows and have never caught a crappie. Well I would say there are probably not a lot of crappie if any in the lake. I would say try using minnows with corks try different depths with the corks in different depths of water mostly deeper water as the water is getting warmer and summer is coming. Crappie have big mouths so if you try artifical try 2" artificial baits because they will be too big for most bream. Now are you bank fishing or using a boat as this makes a big difference also. Crappie are farther from the bank and deeper this time of year also.:twocents

Welcome to the site. You can try using bigger baits....something the bluegills might leave alone. Crappies will regularly try to eat things nearly as big as themselves.

I have had blue gill engulf a 3" slab docktr

Since your looking for advice, I was wondering what kind of live bait are you using and how deep is your bait in relationship to the bottom?
As mentioned, minnows are great for crappie. Bluegills do not go for them as much from what I have seen unless you are using very small minnows. The reason I ask is becasue the bluegill I find are bottom oriented and you need to fish very close to the bottom for them. Crappie hold at a certain depth depending on the water clarity, sun and food availability. You need to find underwater structure that crappie like to hold to. You can also look for shaded 10-15' spots near a point or in a cove. Best bet is to try trolling if there are no underwater structures. This way you can cover more area with more rods to find them. Use jig tipped with minnows to find them and once on them you can try just jigs. Try different depths but focus on 8-15 foot down in 20-25' of water this time of year. Hope some of this helps.

The Bluegill appear to be in an overabundance, seems to me. They may even be spawning, right now. :dono

Personally, I don't care what size minnow you use ... Bluegill will peck at it or grab it and run off with it !! When using jigs & 1.5" plastics, you will still get a lot of Bluegill hits ... and may even catch one, now & then. When casting ... I usually distinguish a Bluegill hit from a Crappie hit, by the number of "thumps" I feel when they hit. A Crappie hit is usually one single "thump", while a BG hit is several quick ones or they grab it and run off fast. I usually don't bother setting the hook unless I get that ONE thump (or see the line jump once, or go slack).

The lake is big enough to have a population of Crappie, but they're likely already through spawning & out roaming around in deeper water. I'd be looking for them in 12-18ft of water, and around some kind of cover (tree, stump, hump, brushpile, ledge, etc.). They will almost always be 3-5ft below the depth where your chartreuse colored jig disappears from your sight, and that is determined by the water clarity and sunlight penetration. Crappie prefer shade, and seek it whether it's from an overhead object, a tree line, or depth. Even clouds &/or a little wind chop on the water's surface can make Crappie come shallower, & suspend over the cover ... where a calm, sunny day will put them down "into" the cover or at greater depths.

... cp :kewl

Thank you. I'm using crickets and minnows mainly. Haven't dabbled in artificial to much

Cp, thanks, so i need to get away from the banks and find structure out further into open water? I've not done that before, il have to use my sonar and do that

Thanks! That's probably my problem, I'm boat fishing but I'm spending all my time on the banks. I

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Originally Posted by bluenoteben

Thanks! That's probably my problem, I'm boat fishing but I'm spending all my time on the banks. I

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Common mistake, for newbies and even some "old school" Crappie anglers.

And yes, getting away from the bank is a start. Leaving the crickets at home might be another option, as Bluegill are definitely going to go after them, more so than Crappie (unless a mess of Bluegill are part of your plan). Even if you take crickets, fishing them deeper will likely catch you larger Bluegill, as the "big boys" only come shallow to spawn ... while the little guys stay shallow most of the time.

Use your electronics !! Even an old b/w 2d sonar unit will show you drops, brush, trees, etc. ... and the Crappie will generally be around those places more often than not. If you have GPS capability in your electronics, scan the lake for awhile and mark 5 or 6 such spots, THEN work your way from one to the next ... drifting over the spots with minnows just a foot or so above the highest point of the cover ... or slowly trolling artificials over or beside the spots ... or casting jigs across them. You don't even need to actually "see" fish on your electronics, as they may not be on that piece of cover at that particular time ... but, you will eventually have run across those "hot spots" that the tight lipped home owners fish, and have a "milk run" of spots to check out on subsequent trips.

The only time I really concentrate on fishing close to the bank, except during the spawn, is when there's a downed tree coming off the bank, that tops out in at least 12-15ft of water. And I usually try to hit those spots while the shade is still on the water above them. Even then, I expect the fish to be somewhere from the middle of the tree to the deepest end. They may be "under" the tree (negative mood or high pressure day) or suspended "above" the tree (feeding mood or low pressure day) ... or not there at all, in which case I will go to the next closest, shaded downed tree and work it over, and so on & so forth along my "milk run" of potential spots. If none of those produce, I go to deeper submerged wood cover.

We don't have much in the way of vegetation in my local lakes, so wood cover is the primary holding spot that produces most of the time, and even Black Crappie are forced to utilize it.

... cp :kewl