Need help finding crappies/bluegills

I'm new on this forum. Found this site on the web while looking for help with targeting crappies and bluegills in a small lake I have a cabin on. Some backround: the lake is about 80 acres - basically a wide spot in a river. In the spring the rivers flowing in and out are deep enough to navigate with a small boat and motor. The lake itself is like a bowl no deeper than 8'. The bottom is mud over sand, but the sand is rarely seen anywhere. Lots of weeds. It's a wild rice lake and in the fall the lake is about half rice. The bigger lake (240 acres) downstream has some good test net results for crappie and bluegill. In my lake, I haven't fished it much, but have pulled some good northerns out in the early winter. Two years ago I was out on the spring opener - took the grandson out - and was anchored in three feet of water near the river coming in, and just off a patch of bullrushes. Catching northerns was slow, so a tried a waxie on a small hook. Caught three crappies in a row, all 14 to 15 inches, and then they were gone. I'll try that spot again this year, but want to target some other spots, and that's where I need your advice.

Some additional information. If you travel upriver about a block, there's a backwater (connected but not in the river current) that's maybe 3 acres in size and 8-10 feet deep. I'm wondering if the crappies would stage here, and when? There's only five cabins besides mine on my lake and only one other cabin fishes at all. I visited that cabin last year, and the owner had a nice bluegill mounted on the wall that was the first fish his young son caught off the dock. He said they get a lot of them in the spring and early summer. Sooooo, there it is. Please give me some advice on when (how early will they begin to get active) maybe now or soon? What bait would you use and what size? What kind of structure would you look for? I've put in too many hours working on my place and now it's time to enjoy it. Let me know how you'd approach it. Thanks

Welcome to the forum JerryW!

In the winter months target the deeper holes in the lake,and also you could try the inside/outside turns of depth changes.Pretty much anywhere there's structure.If fishing dark stained waters....try using jigs with flash(silver,gold and copper blades) and brightly colored jig heads...your whites,chartreus,and yellows can work best.

In the springtime target the north shores of your lake or anywhere there's mud.Using insect looking jigs/lures can be deadly.Flu-flu's are deadly either fished alone or tipped with a small minnow.Set your bobber at about a foot to 18 inches above your jig and move it up or down to locate the crappies.Most of the time you just need to cast near any kind of structure to locate them.Trees that have fallen into deeper water...docks,stumps,weeds,etc...but deeper water needs to be close by in order for the fish to use it for hiding or attacking their prey.Good luck....


Any more questions...just ask.:D

Welcome Jerry!
That spot looks like it has good potential!
Crappiemagnet gave some good tips, get out often and give them a try, when you find out what works keep doing it, til it stops , then you have to figure em out again, thats half the fun! Nothing helps more that lots of time on the water! Good luck and post a report if you get out!