Nice! Good post Guy and CV

Okie, if you ever have fished with CV you would see that the fishes at 107.9% all the time. He is a crappie sensai if there ever was one.

He is a Jedeye

Crappie have feeding periods. If the bait fish are abundant than the periods will not last long at a time because they can fill up fairly fast. If your fishing on a brush pile and don't catch a crappie in the first 10 to 15 minutes than move on to another spot to find feeding fish. If the bite is slow sometimes you can hang a fish and let it fight you down low before you reel it up. Sometimes that will get the other fish feeding. I will alot of time go back to areas that the fish were not feeding on earlier and catch a bunch when I go back. All fish will feed at some point during the day. I find that with a full moon the fish seem to bite better during the mid day hours because they feed more at night. When the fish are full they are not aggressive so you have to step up your game to catch them. Little things like when one is just pecking on your bait and just setting on it, Raising your rod real slow to just feel a little weight on it to know that he has it will increase what you catch. Presentation is everything when the bite is tough. So change it up to see how they want it that day.

I'll sum up my opinion with this...and it's coming from Wes and I's background of numerous top-5 national tournament finishes, top-10 national finishes, top-5 state finishes, top-10 state finishes...competing on lakes all across this state, and across the nation...during virtually every month of the year, water temperature, water color, and weather condition known to exist:

If you present a bait, that the fish wants to bite, in front of a fish that actually wants to eat it...you'll get a strike...then it's up to you to hook and land the fish. Anything other than that, and you are doing nothing more than eliminating baits and places that are not "on" at that time. Does not mean that will be the case at that spot, with that bait, all the time.

Give you a couple prime examples of times we just did not give up, and things were not looking good...those of you that have talked with us at tourneys may have heard these already:

Lake Dardanelle...Crappie USA Regional Tournament story: (one of our favorite stories)
http://www.duckjerkyoutdoors.com/dardanelle.html

Lake Fork...just last weekend:Wes had his boat on one end of the lake, and I had my boat on the other end. Wes had found a few spots with some 1 pound fish, and I had done the same, but knew we'd have to have better fish than that on Saturday to be in the hunt.

We put together a plan for Saturday with spots A-G that we were going to hit that day. Spot A, that I had caught several fish around on Friday, produced NOTHING in the first hour. Finally, the last 2 trees in that spot gave us 2 fish that were 1.5 and 1.6 (bout time). Spot B gave us nothing, and there were fish there the day before. Spot C gave us 2 fish that only went about 1 pound. Spot D gave us a bunch of short fish. Spot E gave us nothing, and it gave me nothing the day before, but was just looked too good not to hit on tourney day. Spot F gave us one 1.3 pound fish, and nothing more, but at least we had 3 pretty good fish...and only 1 hour left until weigh-in. Not far from spot F was a dock that I had caught 4 small fish from on Friday, but no keepers. Wes and I pulled up there and yanked 7 black crappie off there (using the same bait I had used the day before), 4 of them between 1.1 and 1.5. We ended up weighing 4 of them with the 3 from other parts of the lake, to put together a 9.1 stringer and 5th place in Division 1. On that day, we traveled many many miles on that lake, and fished many different kinds of spots...but that's what it took to find the fish.

I hope this gives you some ideas when things just don't seem to be going your way. These stories may make fishing sound like work instead of play, and it is sometimes...but the knowledge you gain from trips like these will, no doubt, put fish in the boat for many years to come.

Good stuff Brian!

Thanks BDB.

I need to book a trip with you or Wes sometime. I need to learn how to fish minnows. I know how to fish em my way, but I dont think it's the right way.