Daniel Ambrose answers:

Many veteran crappie fishermen consider autumn even better than spring as a time to put slab-sized crappie in the boat. Here’s a look a five specific ways that you can increase your crappie-catching success next time you hit the lake:

1) Control Your Depth

Crappie often key on specific depth zones, so if you catch a couple fish 6 feet down, there’s a good chance you’ll find more at the same depth. One of the best ways to control the depth you fish is to use a long rod and a measured length of line off the tip, fishing a YUM Wooly Beavertail or Vibra King Tube straight down from the rod tip. An easy alternative, if conditions dictate trolling or casting to some type of cover, is to add a float to your line.

2) Bring Buoys

Use floating marker buoys to precisely mark stakebeds, brushpiles and channel edges that fish are using, and don’t be shy about putting out several markers to help visualize what’s below. Using buoys to mark spots (as opposed to anchoring over cover) allows you to work the entire area and pinpoint specific sweet spots on cover and to do so without disturbing the fish. Also, keep a marker handy any time you are trolling, and be ready to toss it overboard if a couple rods go down at the same time.

3) Vary Presentations

It’s easy to get in a presentation rut, whether you are vertical fishing over brushpiles with a YUM Vibra King Tube or casting a Wooly Curltail to dock supports. Often a pause or change of speeds or an alteration in the cadence of a vertical jigging motion will convert a looker into a taker. Of course, if you’ve been mixing it up and every strike has occurred while you were working the bait with small, quick twitches, that is the way the fish want it that day and the way you need to give it to them.

4) Discover What They Want

Along with experimenting with presentations, be sure to mix up your offerings until the fish reveal their preferences. While you often can catch a few crappie with the wrong bait if you spend enough time working it among them, you can dramatically increase your catch rates most days by finding the right shape, color and size. If you’re fishing with a buddy, always start with two different offerings and work together to figure out the puzzle.

5) Double Your Fun

One easy way to up your odds of catching fish is to use a tandem rig. Two jigs, tied a couple feet apart on the line, remain easy to handle and add to your efficiency. Beyond putting twice as many baits in the water, doubling up allows you to experiment with more colors and shapes and to probe two depths at the same time. And when you find a good school of fish, sometimes you get the extra pleasure of catching two crappie at one time!

Daniel Ambrose answers:

Fishing from shore isn’t a particular handicap with crappie.

I would rig with a long rod (10-16 feet) or even a cane pole. Use line no more than 6 pound test, and lighter is better.

The most common rig is to suspend a live minnow or other bait under a bobber. But you can use artificials as well. Mini-jigs, hung below a bobber like live bait, can be surprisingly effective. But other baits work well too, such as in-line spinners, twisty tail grubs, and even vibrating baits.

Daniel Ambrose answers:

Use a jig that looks like a crayfish. Or even just minnows work for me.