Newbie question on fishin for crappie

First post on the forum, but I have been reading the post for several months. I have been trying to get into crappie fishing. I have access to a private pond in NE Oklahoma that is an old coal pit that I started fishing this year. The largemouth and crappie I have been catching are very healthy fish. I tried to attach a picture of a crappie my wife caught a few months ago that was about 2lbs.

The pond is about. 18-20' deep and 1/3 mile long with little to no structure, visibility about 5'. There are a few drop offs that I have located that seem to hold some fish.

That being said, I have had no success when trying to target crappie with jigs or minnows. They seem so scattered and I can't find them piled up anywhere. I feel like I am fishing blind. I have only caught them while bass fishing on large spinner baits and chatterbaits. Now that it is winter I have really been scratching my head on how to get some slabs in the boat.
Any advice is appreciated

Jmrun,

Welcome to Crappie.com. this is a great bunch of guys and gals.

Nice fish, with a belly that says you have some good forage in the pond. Also looks as if you made a nice catch yourself.
I remember when I was new to crappie, after moving from trout country in Montana. I did nearly everything wrong, even though I had the right equipment. Winter crappie usually don't like to chase, so a slowwwww presentation is usually best. If you have electronics, use them to find the fish. If not, your dropoffs are probably the best place to fish. If the owner says OK, you should put some brush on the edge of the dropoffs. Persimmon trees are excellent, but you can use any tree, as long as the branches aren't too tight to allow easy access for the crappie. Anchor the trees with bigger rocks and with telephone wire if you can find some. With the little to no structure that you mentioned, you should be able to draw all the fish to your brush pile or piles.
Drop your jigs to the bottom or to the brush, Very small twitches will produce bites, as well as just moving the rod back and forth slowly. Sometimes, just "deadsticking" will draw the bite. With warmer water, a very slow troll allows you to cover more water, but in a small pond, fishing brush piles should work fine.
If all else fails, find a local guy to show you the ropes (or invite me to come visit). There are probably plenty of people who would like to get some crappie like the one you showed in the picture.
If you have specific questions, feel free to pm me or any of the guys who seem knowledgeable on CDC. I haven't met a guy yet who was not ready to help other fishermen.

Welcome JMRUN.......Ranger

Welcome JMRUN- that is probably the best initial post I have seen on the forum! I agree with BigSkyGuy that you made a great catch. Don't throw that one back. The Montana geezer knows what he is talking about- don't know what I would add except maybe to try minnows. At times they will work when jigs don't.

You might think about adding brush piles to pond if you can.

Jmrun, Welcome to CDC! Great first post.

Can a person launch a boat off a trailer there? If so, I think you should have a brush pile day with some of the C.C members showing up to help out. We can map the pit, toss bouys where the good places for structure should be dropped, then get busy and build some habitat for those fish! In such a small area, the fish will draw to it right off the bat for the protection it offers.

After that, you can give me a key to the gate and I'll stand guard on it as much as I can. :biggrin

Glad you finally signed on, welcome! :welcome

Now to respond to your question about locating them. Try slowing trolling or as I like to call it, Crappie Creeping. Set out rods with baits at different depths and creep along near the banks at a very slow pace. If you get bit and catch a fish, toss a bouy out, set the rest of your rods about in the same depth range, then continue to Creep. This is a great method of locating fish that are out in the open. If they don't have to hide from other predators like big catfish, they can be anywhere. If there are big cats in the pit and no structure, there's a good chance they are going to hug the bottom, rock or ledge. When Creeping, try to keep at least one line within a foot of the bottom.

A word of warning, Jmrun.
These are great guys, but they don't joke around. Reaper is dead serious about guarding the gate.:biggrin

Thanks for all the useful advice. I'm looking forward to trying these ideas out and hoping I can get some crappie condos in the water. I'll keep you posted. Hopefully a I'll have some pics to share.

I'm gonna put another question out there for you veterans. I know Jmrun pretty well since he is my son in law and neighbor and we have "talked" lately about this strip pit and it's lack of structure tho I haven't had a chance to fish it with him yet. That looks like a monster crappie my daughter, Ginger is holding and I am excited about fishing the spawn there. The only wood is a few beaver domes and the bottom is mud silt everywhere- no gravel at all. I don't think the owner will allow us to lay down trees off the bank dang it so where do you think we will find spawners?

I would make the structure at the house and bring it to the water. No need cutting trees at the bank unless it has tons of trees and owner is okay with that. Make it out of anything; tree branches, palettes, PVC pipe or even purchase the expensive crappie condo kits.

If there are any weedlines or cattails along the shore, I'd fish there for spawners.

Jared is looking for cheaper PVC for his condos- any ideas where to find the least expensive material that will hold up? And I did see weed lines in the di images he sent me so if they spawn on weeds then we are in! Thanks.

Fish around them beaver mounds if there is water around them.I used to fish around beaver mounds in Lake Skiatook in the spring spawn and catch crappie like crazy!Usually there will be loose brush all around the mound where the beaver just ate the bark for food and didnt put it in the mound.Also the beavers swim in and out the mounds so much that they create a ditch a little deeper than the surrounding depths.the beaver mounds can be out in open or built in side of bank as long as there is a foot or two of water you will catch them there during spawn from my experience on Skiatook!!

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Originally Posted by Crappie ciller

Jared is looking for cheaper PVC for his condos- any ideas where to find the least expensive material that will hold up? And I did see weed lines in the di images he sent me so if they spawn on weeds then we are in! Thanks.

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Papa is dead on about them mounds. Will be a magnet. As for cheap material, get with any plumber. They all have scrap piles and some are more than willing to let someone haul a bunch off.

Papa and Reaper,
Nice, helpful posts. I had never thought about beaver mounds being good for crappie. And my son is a tile guy with lots of plumber contacts

My wife works for s plumbing company ( no she doesn't clean pipes out) 😄 I can wrangle up some material. Of course, there us a small matter of coordinates involved you understand 😉

I had a real good vibe about them beaver mounds as I know there is alwYs a big scatter of limbs around them and that is a great idea to look to plumbers for old PVC. Jmrun is our family horse trader so I imagine he will work something out. Don't give up the coordinates Jared- it might turn into the next Carl Blackwell and we'll need a shoehorn to wedge ourselves in!

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Originally Posted by crappiepappa

My wife works for s plumbing company ( no she doesn't clean pipes out) �� I can wrangle up some material. Of course, there us a small matter of coordinates involved you understand ��

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Pappa,

Please note that Reaper has already staked a claim on the key to the gate.

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Originally Posted by Bigskyfisherman

Pappa,

Please note that Reaper has already staked a claim on the key to the gate.

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Stake no claim to nada. Figure the only way I'm gonna get in there is if I sneak a ride with George once he's back Stateside. Hope he's wearing blinders that day cause I'm hard to miss.

Ha ha! Still hoping that someone can sneak ME in.

You can lead me in blindfolded!

I might come up with more ideas for posts because the responses are so entertaining to read! I'm hoping to be able to talk the owner into allowing George to fish it with me as a start, the owner is a little apprehensive about new people fishing it. I think he is picturing something like this if word gets out.....

If anyone really does have some scrap PVC I'd love to take it off your hands if you are around the Tulsa area. As far as getting others in, it will be a slow process....don't want to push my luck on access. :)

That's hilarious and frighteningly accurate Jm. Just ask the guys who used to enjoy the peaceful solitude of Carl Blackwells fishing dock. Now look at the line- and this is on a weekday!