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I have been crappie fishing for quite a while now and I thought I was pretty good at it. I recently bought a bass boat and now I realize that all I know about crappie fishing hinges off of fishing under bridges and around tree tops from the bank. Where do I even start when it comes to finding crappie in open water? Help and thanks in advance.
If you bass fish go to a lot of the same places in deeper water. Ledges, drop off's, channel's and channel edges. Mouths of feeder creeks and flats off to the side. Main thing is follow the bait fish.
Time to get the trolling bug. Options are endless
weed beds.....brush piles ....standing timber....find that structure especially that structure that is on or close to sharp depth changes.Your prespawn should be coming on in Feb I think right? Look for fish to start to follow baitfish on to flats and points and following the creek channels back to certain banks in a prespawn feed.THEN once the fish are ready to start beds FIND THE SPAWNING BANKS....they want a certain bottom composition,depth,and gradient to the bottom and some protection from heavy wave action. They use pretty much the same places every year so once you find them you got em.
OR......you can hire a guide for a few trips..... watch were other people fish .......or go with someone who already knows and have them show you.In return you can paint his garage or something LOL
Personally I enjoy figuring one out...just takes time and effort and gas and battery power a lake map and sonar.
If you have grass beds like milfoil and what not you can almost make a living just fishing it.
If your on Weiss just look for all the boats!
We've all been there buddy. Best advice I can give you is do a lot of riding around and learn the lake. Remember every lay down brush pile rock bank and dock then when you catch a fish you can run all over the lake and fish the same things that you caught the first fish on. It just takes time don't give up. Also try to find someone to fish with to help you learn .
I'd say follow the highways. Look for the creek or channels crossing a flat. Look for brush, sharp bends, quick depth changes (even if only a foot or two) and last, but most important is the baitfish schools.
Use your fish finder to see how deep they are, then go look for the bait fish, long lining or spyder rigging is the way to go.
Thank to everyone for the advice, it gives me somewhere to start. I spend most of my fishing time on the big G.
In addition to the open water you now have access to, you might want to try shooting some docks as well. Similar to the bridges you were used to fishing docks can be very productive.