My fishing buddy and I have been to Ray Roberts three times in the last few weeks with no success. We are both new to crappie fishing and trying to locate them on our fish finder has been extremely difficult. We would appreciate any advice or tips on locating them. So far we have tried Mr. Patty's brushpiles as well as tried random standing timber in 15-25 ft of water. I am using a Lowrance elite 4 DSI. Thanks in advance.

Quick search found this. Looks like standing timber is your best bet.


https://texasfishingforum.com/forum.../ray-roberts-report-it-s-on#Post13170259

The fish are stacked on those piles you have the coordinates to and can be caught. I started fishing those piles with only a handheld gps and a mushroom anchor on a rope. Caught plenty of fish back then as well. If your new to fishing those piles I suggest you spend some time learning the pile you want to fish. Some are really big and some are almost or all the way gone. Find a big one, not the one I�m fishing right then ;), and mark all 4 sides of the pile with bouy markers so you know exactly where it is and how big it is. Then drive over it and find the highest or 2 highest parts on your graph. Those spots will most of the time hold fish either in the pile or suspended above it. You should see the suspended fish on regular 2d sonar. Then drop a minnow and see if they will bite. As hungry as the fish are now they will bite right away. Don�t waste a lot of time waiting on bites. If they don�t then move on to another spot on that pile or another pile. Good luck and hopefully I�ll see you at the cleaning station next time with a mess of crappie.

Thanks for the help! I really appreciate it.

anyone know what ramps are open this weekend? thanks.

Probably only IDB, Sanger Access, and the Marina.

We have caught some decent fish on the bridges. Few in standing timber. All on pink jigs/w minnows.

Thanks for the help!

David Goodson (Shut Up And Fish) and I were on Roberts today from 0800 - 1400 and caught probably 50 ('probably' because we didn't keep count) with big fish at 1.69. All fish were caught off trees in 15 - 25 fow 10 - 20 deep. All fish were caught on jigs and all fish were released. It was a good day...��..

Fished from 7am to 11 this morning. Caught 30 or so with almost all being keeper sized. Only kept 10. Same depth on a pink jig head with a black and chartreuse body.

We ended up catching 2 white crappie under the Buck Creek Bridge while hiding from the rain today. Tied some timber by Jordan Park, but we didn't have any luck. Thanks again for all the help guys! Going to go try again tomorrow.

Don't know how to put this delicately so I'll just be blunt. A elite 4 DSI for the most part is not really a fish finder. It's a structure finder. Even with my much larger graphs I rarely actually find the fish. I find where they should be and then have to fish to find them. The Livescope has really changed that. As you get more experienced you will learn how to find the fish on the piles. The corp's piles are so large it's sometimes hard to find exactly where to fish on the pile. My experience tells me that most of the piles have crappie on them somewhere. Finding them is the problem at times. Some days they are active and roaming all over the pile, most days they are in a small area and if you miss that spot you think there's nothing there and move on. Finding or building smaller piles makes catching them easier. On a small pile they can usually be caught right over the pile.

This also applies to fishing timber. It's a fact, ALL TREES ARE NOT CREATED EQUALLY, I hate timber fishing in a large grove of trees. I look for the most isolated tree I can find. Also the kind of tree matters. It was a lot easier when the trees were sticking up above water to identify the tree. Hard woods like Pecan, Oak, Bois D Arc, Mesquite, etc are the best.

Don't give up, you will get there.

Good luck.

Planning to make a trip out there in the morning if it's not storming. They got another 3 inches of rain up there so I am betting the water won't be very clear where I am wanting to fish.