My buddy and I decided to change things up a bit so we are looking at hitting Granger this weekend. I have personally never targeted crappie so other than some of the reading I have done don't know much about it.

We will only be taking my jon boat and I am wondering if it will be enough to get the job done. Mike says he knows a creek that empties into the lake and that the mouth of it is supposedly full of crappie.

I have a crappy fish finder on the boat, so I don't think it will really show much other than depth. I swear it lies about fishing being around. So i dont know how well it will show structure or brush piles.

Our plan is to fish minnows and toss a few jigs around. Any advice for us? Depths to target, time of day to fish, types/color jigs to use? (we only have a couple that we picked up at Academy, can get more)

I am thinking about just pulling an all nighter out there rather than fishing sun up to sun down. Would it be beneficial to do so? Would it be worth buying one of those floating lights from Academy just for this trip?

Like I said, we are kinda flying by the seat of our pants on this excursion and just wanna try something new.

Hmmm. When the water is cooler and if you have a small john boat, a great place is up the San Gabrail from the main lake. Any steep cut bank with 12 ft of water or more will hold crappie. All the cut banks have exposed roots that provide the cover. But now the water is too warm in the creeks.

Instead, put in at Hoxie park (taylor side) and head up river. (west) You will see some fields of drowned trees on the right. Find some trees where the water is about 13 to 18 ft deep, and either jig or drop a minnow. During the day, many trees will hold between 1 and 5 crappie. At night, go to the same area and hang some ordinary propane or coleman lanterns from the trees. Hang one high, to provide light for you to see to handle your rods, hang 1 or 2 low, just inches above the water, to draw the phyto-plancton and shad. (don't buy lanterns, borrow from your buds) Your fish finder will show you how deep to fish. Given how hot it has been, I would go for about 4 hours in daylight starting around 5, and then stay until midnight. Check the forecast, if the wind is out of the SE at more than about 10 mph, it wont be fun.

And remember: dont bump the stump, or you will miss the thump!

Right now the main lake BP's are producing the best. You just have to find them. The river is best in the cold - winter. For more and detailed info Sign up on the forum on the www.GrangerGang.com. The guides on granger post on there and you will find tips to keep you safe if you have never fished it before or do not know the lake. You have to watch out very carefully for the GPS on Granger (Gound, Posts, Stumps). Two weeks ago 2 guys sunk thier boat hitting one of the stumps just under water.

Trust Salty he knows Granger well.

Like Salty said. You are not going to find any crappie in the river this time of year. You'll have to fish BP's in the main lake for any success. The area you talked about in your post is the Willis creek area. It is silted in and very shallow. No fish there this time of year. Find BP's in 6-10 FOW for the best success using a 1/16th oz jig in white/white/chart or white/orange/chart tipped with a crappie nibble holding the jig as still as possible. Little twitch now and again has been producing. They slam it right after the twitch.