One of the things that has helped me a great deal over the years is to always be alert and pay attention to my surroundings when I'm fishing.  I'm always looking for clues to help me catch more fish or to help me eliminate time wasted trying to locate active fish.
If there is anybody else fishing nearby, look to see if they are catching fish.  Ask yourself these questions below, if they are catching fish see if you can duplicate any of the conditions. If they aren't catching fish, you will still have a good idea of what is not working so you can try other areas, baits or presentations!
  • What are they using for bait? What color and size?
  • How are they presenting it? (Slow, fast, erratic, etc.)
  • How deep are they fishing?
  • How close to shore?
  • Are they fishing open water or close to cover?
 
What else can you notice? Are they fishing from a dock, from a boat, from the bank, on a point, in a cove, by a creek channel, bridge, in the sunlight, in the shade, are there trees, weeds, or other cover?

 

    Look for the birds!

I often refer to birds that feed on baitfish as "the professionals."  The reason is because that's what they do for a living!  If you notice large birds stalking around the shallows it's because there's baitfish in the area, and we all know where there's baitfish there may very well be a school of hungry Crappie nearby ready to belly up to the buffet! Sea Gulls can be a big help too.  They tend to stay close to their food source, and they also circle the skies in search of shad and other baitfish. When schools of fish chase baitfish to the surface the Gulls will join in the feeding spree and can often be seen from the distance as they dive repeatedly from the sky for an easy meal with the help of the feeding fish below.

 

    Changing conditions

I am always on the look out for changing conditions, or transition areas to key in on.  Here are some examples;

 

  • Changing water clarity -  I concentrate on the line where the water may change from clear to cloudy, or cloudy to murky.  Often a fish will hide in the edge of darker or stained water and wait for something tempting to appear in the clearer water.
  • Shadows -  Again, I would concentrate on where the shadow meets the light.
  • Structure changes - Any place where the terrain changes such as a sandy shoreline changing to rock, where shallow water turns to deep, or where open water meets a tree line, etc.
  • Current - A good place to look for crappie is in still or slower moving water but near where the current runs, such as behind a bridge piling on the down side of the current.