It is no secret that crappie relate to structure. Finding good structure for them in shallow lakes can be difficult. Russ Bailey, veteran crappie angler, has developed a pattern for shallow water lakes. He spends countless hours on the shallow lakes near his home in northwestern Ohio. The home lakes that Russ fishes were once part of a canal system and are only 5 to 6 feet deep with virtually no bottom structure. The only structure is man-made in the form of docks, boat lifts and brush piles.
Bailey finds that aluminum structures hold the best opportunity to locate suspended fish. An aluminum boat lift will hold crappies all year around unless there is a freeze.
Using a 10 1/2 foot jigging pole, he flips jigs to docks. With the aluminum boat lifts and aluminum docks he prefers to vertical jig. On sunny days the water around aluminum structures will usually be one to two degrees warmer in the afternoon.
Russ works the outside edges of the structure first and then the inside as well as the cross members and cables that hold the structure in place. He moves very slowly being especially alert to any slight feel on the line.
The basic pattern is to lower a one-eighth ounce jig head to the bottom and then bring it up about six inches. He dresses the jig with plastic grubs in white, pink or chartreuse. He adds “stinger shad” grubs in the cold weather. Continue reading – https://dongasaway.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/finding-crappies-in-shallow-water/