So I grew up fishing for crappie on Murray with my granddad, but my dad and I were more into offshore fishing than lake fishing. Out of the last 20 years or so probably 95% of my fishing has been spent offshore whether it be trolling, bottom fishing or spearfishing. Fast forward and I now live about 2 miles from Wylie and am trying to get back into crappie fishing.

So last time out I found a brush pile and picked up two tightlining minnows. Then I couldn't catch anything but perch. My question is: Do crappie tend to hold above structure while perch tend to stay glued to the bottom? Or are perch just "frenzy fish" and when one bites they all turn on? (Sea bass are this way most of the time) The same thing happened at two other spots in the same creek channel. 2 Crappie and then nothing but perch.


Secondly, I'm used to trolling for mahi and wahoo at 5-6 mph and I love catching fish while trolling. How fast should I troll for crappie? And when you are trolling are you looking for shelfs and drops or more so trolling near structure and docks?

Any info is greatly appreciated.