By no means am I a fishing pro, and boy do I still learn a lot each time I'm on the water, but I'd like to share my experience I had on my last fishing trip. Let me start by giving a little bit of my experience as a fisherman. When I was very young, my parents loved to Crappie fish. We did not have a boat when I was a kid so we mainly fished in the Spring during the spawn in a slew off of one of the main lakes close to home. Our typical setup each time we fished was a couple of Zebco 33 rod and reels, with a swivel and hook at the bottom of the line, one BB weight, and a cigar type float, and we always fished with minnows. I was taught to cast it out in the middle of the slew, and sit and wait until my cork went under. My parents typically fished closer to the fallen brush and timber close to the bank, but I think they knew if I attempted to cast next to such spots at that age they would spend more time trying to get me un-hung and re-rigging my line than they would fishing. Anyways, my point is, this was what I knew as "crappie fishing" growing up. Even into my teenage years when I was old enough to drive and go with friends to fish I used the same setup I was always taught as mentioned above. Never jigs, always minnows and I never really changed it up. As my love for fishing never went away, I continually researched ( and still do) fishing techniques for Crappie and Sand Bass as those are my two favorite species to target. On my last trip out to the lake I got on the water early in the morning and headed out to my first spot to try to fill the live well with Crappie. I only had jigs to fish with on this trip, no minnows. I pulled up to my first spot, dropped my jig down on my second attempt and immediately got a thump. I put the fish in the live well and thought to myself it was gonna be a lights out kind of day. After that fish I did not have another bite at that spot for about another 20 mins so I decided to move on. I pull up to my next spot, and see a guy about 50 yards from me pulling them in every couple of minutes. Im sitting there fishing just like he is and not catching squat. So frustrating. So I move on to my next spot. Same story, people on my left and right catching, I'm not catching a thing. I have learned from many great posts here over the years that if you're not having much luck over a small amount of time, "change it up". Whether it's Jig colors, depth, locations,etc. At these locations I was fishing I tried a couple of different jig colors, I varied my depth a little, but I still could not muster one bite as others around me were catching. You know that's a frustrating feeling. Finally, I say I'm going to try one more spot. I get to this spot and again I see folks catching at a decent rate. I move around this bridge for about thirty minutes with once again, hardly a bite. While I was fishing, I was trying to measure out about 10' of line to drop down as I was fishing in about 20 fow. I was fishing with a bait casting reel, and for whatever reason I decided to free spool my bait to drop a little deeper. The first time I did this I let my line free spool down about 6 inches, clicked it to stop and Bam! There was the elusive bite I had been searching for. I do the same thing again and I catch 3 fish in a row. I'm grinning ear to ear feeling like I finally figured them out. It dawns on me that the fish want this bait as it falls. I did this for about the next hour and added 15 fish to the 1 I had in the livewell all morning long. What I took from this trip and wanted to share is "changing it up" seems to get results. For many years i would always fish with the same technique or presentation and if they didn't bite I just told myself well the fish aren't biting today. "Changing it up", whether it be jig color, depth, fishing location, presentation etc has made me a better fisherman, and I hope those who don't consider this when fishing will help make you a better one too!