Photo by Ron Sinfelt

As we motored to the best crappie spot on the lake, I was hopeful that we’d get into a "mess" of crappies and the bite would be "on." My fishing partner cut off the 25-horsepower outboard a few yards from our destination and switched on the trolling motor. Under electric power, we glided quietly and swiftly into place. As we hovered over the crappie hotspot, I lowered the bow anchor as Ed Lewandowski slipped the stern anchor over the side.

Avoiding any possibility of being called a first-cast-at-the-honeyhole hog, or first-cast-at-a-new-place hog, I waited until Ed picked up his rod and prepared to make his first cast. He was using a small spinner tipped with a bee moth. I was throwing a white-headed, plastic-tailed jig, also tipped with a bee moth.

After casting to a choice-looking spot, I let the jig sink to the bottom. The water’s depth was about 7 feet. I reeled in the jig at a slow rate, allowing it to fall a few feet before retrieving it. I kept repeating the process when then, suddenly bam, I got a hit. I set the hook, but then there was a pause in the tug of war between man and fish -- the characteristic un-hit of a crappie . . . I thought to myself. These so-called un-hits, as Ed likes to call them, occur when the fish after taking the bait swims up, instead of down, creating an absence of force on the line.

After resetting the hook, the fight was on and as I got the fish to the boat, I was pleased to see what turned out to be a 14-inch slabside at the end of my line. I carefully landed it by hand (though it’s always better to use a net) and we were off to what turned out to be an outstanding session of crappie catching. We caught both black and white crappies, although we caught more of the white ones than black ones.

Black and white crappies can inhabit the same body of water, but in general terms, black crappies prefer water with less turbidity, while white crappies, on the other hand, prefer water with more turbidity. Regardless of what type of crappie you seek, they both relate significantly to stemmed-aquatic vegetation like lily pads or trees with plenty of branches that have fallen into the water. And this is why it’s important to be intimately familiar with a slip-bobber rig when fishing for crappies. Slip-bobber rigs give you the ability to lower your bait under a bobber to any depth.

"We located a school of crappies one time in a downfall with braches in about 20 feet of water," Lewandowski said. "The fish were suspended about 12 feet down, and the only way we could get to them in the branches was to use slip-bobbers, and we caught plenty of them this way."

A good tip for crappie fishermen is to use a fishing line that is transparent, and hence undetectable to the wary eye of a slabside. Many of the fishing-line manufacturers offer lines that are almost invisible, and many of these lines have small diameters, too.