Fairly new to the paper-mouth world, usually beating the water to a froth for bucket-mouths.

Any tips for a rookie looking to put some fish in the freezer?

Thanks...

Kick back and read and learn.... Ton of stuff to learn here and some good teachers....
Spawn time so get some jigs and hit the creeks and sloughs...
You will run into some folks there watch & ask questions they will be glad to help.... they were once in the same shape you are in and they needed help....
Good luck and good fishing.

welcome, where in central Texas are you? That might get you a bit more help

okay... closest lakes are g-town and granger. pretty good for whites (and g-town has some nice hybrid if you can find em). never caught a crappie in g-town and only 3 in 5 yrs at granger. travis is good for bass, but still looking for the crappie.
brother in law made me look bad verticle jiggin on travis for suspended bass - nailed a 15" crappie. me, no such luck.
i have jigs, tubes, corks, and lots of williness to catch em (and a boat to do it in). UGH!

leander is where i hang the hat

Granger is good typically, but so are Belton and Stillhouse to the North. We had a rough tourney on Stillhouse, but it gets much easier once the fish head shallow in a week or two.

I'm right there with ya tdk. We try to figure out Granger all the time with hardly anything to show for it. We mainly saltwater fish, but this time of year, we are stuck in Centex due to soccer and tball with the kiddos.

It sure would be nice to find some fish within an hour of the house for my 6 year old boy to catch!

I am going to try Granger tomorrow most likely. I will post up something if I find em.

Give Kevin Kubiak at hotcrappie.com a shout he will show you how to catch fish on Granger.Great guy and you will learn a ton of info.

Have the crappie started to spawn on either Belton or Stillhouse?