Summer time crappie will test your patience. It’s all about presentation as these fish will not chase this time of year. Downsized my presentation to the one inch gulp alive minnow, pearl white in glow has been producing best for me on 1/32 jig. The slower the retrieve the better, focusing on structure such as drop off, wind blown bays, wood, and weed edge. Finding some shallow and deep.

Not the best measuring job but it’s pushing 9 (I know it’s not a 10 but still a decent Gill) surprised to find crappie and decent bass in shallow bay. Ultra light set up as always, fish are not moving much, once you find them they are there in the same area the very next day.

If you post a pic of the fish being weighed and show the LBS  nobody is going to give you the business, Even though you could be pulling down on the tail of the fish. Overall you can get a good estimate by a good pic. When you post a pic of a fish and its clearly not 8lbs you will get crap from people who know what they are talking about. You can judge an 8lb bass by the size of its mouth compared to your hand. An 8lb bass does not have a small mouth and usually has an obese belly like a ball is in its stomach. I have never seen an 8lb bass in IL that does not have a super fat stomach and a huge mouth, no matter the length of the fish. Down south you will get 8lbers that are long fish, but in IL its very rare. They are always clearly stuffed with food and have huge ball type stomachs.

Thanks for positive feedback, a guy can get discouraged from the nay sayers, but all I want is to share what's working and hopefully others can pick up a thing or two. Now for the fishing report, went out for about an hour around noon today same spot as the other day, tried the deeper water where it drops off nicely but no crappie. Moved slightly to the adjacent wind blown shallow bay and what do you know found crappies stacked and very aggressive. Started with the usual blue ice jig under float and then moved up to a twister tail due to aggressive bite, color did not mater today, it was what I call a crappie bonanza, fish on every cast. Moral of the story move until you find them, crappie don't move far, they will move in and out depending on the conditions. 

Look good to me

Twinstone, 

Ignore the jealousy, thats what I do. I used to post on here daily and included pics of the fish being measured and a pic of fish being weighed and people still would try to say its not as big as reported. I used to share a lot of info as well with my pics but due to all the haters I rarely post anymore. Eithwr way, good report and nice job of dialing in the fish. Keep it up

Yes, these are 9.5-10", been catching 11+ as well which are mixed in, the fact of the matter is that it's a crappie and to me the size doesn't matter as long as I figure them out and catch consistently throughout many different area lakes/ponds. Get out and enjoy!

Straight dinks.

Summertime crappies on a good bite. The key is structure and presentation. Some bodies of water are still in bloom and crappie don’t seem to mind it. Fishing from bank, focusing on weed edges, break lines and nice drop offs. Next, the presentation, ultra light set up with 1/32nd jig and ice blue or white plastics under slip float. Retrieve cadence is important, the slower the better. Once dialed in, it’s one after another middle of the day. Get out there and enjoy!

Sunrise fishing a couple of Kane Co. lakes tossing a Whopper Plopper and Senko. I was using the WP to run parallel to the outside weed edge and flipping to pockets with the Senko. Ended with 8 or so largemouths with the biggest being a healthy 20"+ fish.