I like to think I'm not doing anything special, simply tossing out my lines and rowing around. If I'm working near the weed lines I'll use 1/32 oz. lead jig heads with various plastics. Usually in the 12-16' water depth range. The Roadrunner spinner has worked well for me this year in that scenario. I have no power propulsion on my rowboat, just me rowing and I try to keep my speed around .7-.8 according to my graph's GPS. I use baits in the 2" and smaller category.

Same speed but 1/16 oz. heads are working for me now in some deeper water, more in the 18-24' depth range. Here in CT we can use 3 lines except in some special areas so I usually run 3 different plastics to find something that's working. I try to run parallel to the edges rather than up and over them or from the shallows dropping over the edge in to the deep.

I tend to fish more in the evening after work rather than in the early mornings. I seem to boat more fish that way but that's probably 'cause I have more experience in the evenings. To my way of thinking, they are getting hungry from laying around all day waiting to put on the feedbag in the evening, rather than having fed all night and looking to take it easy for the rest of the day when I hit the water in the morning. Whether that's true or not I have no idea but that's my story and I'm sticking to it!


I lean my rods against the back seat (one of my recent posts from a morning trip has a picture of my setup) and try to keep them within an easy, quick grab; when I see a change in the rod tip, I have to drop the oars and grab the correct rod or rods, if it's a double hookup. I like the rods in the 6 to 6 1/2' length, light action tip helps see the strike even when they are light. Despite my handle of 6 pound test, I've dropped to 4 lb. test mono on all my rods.

One thing I feel is key is my mapping. I've mapped a lot of my fishing areas using the Autochart Live function on my Humminbird. The contour maps I've found of some of my water's are not at all accurate. My mapping has helped me stay in the correct depth and contour ins and outs along the structure edges. Hopefully, you have some sort of depth finder to help keep you on track.

That's pretty much my take on what I'm doing. I'm not sure how widespread the crappie population is there in VT or where you're at. I used to own land up in the Cabot area but at the time, my interest was in upland bird hunting and not fishing so I'm not familiar with the crappie situation there. We have another NE board poster from VT who I believe is more toward the southern end on the CT river system. When I think VT, I think trout, bluegill and perch for most places and lots of bigger stuff in places like Lake Champlain.