shellcracker???

i fish a pond that has shellcracker and big bluegill. ive caught the bluegill but cant seem to find the crackers. what do you do to target the shellcracker in a pond? do they prefer some bait over others? its a pretty big pond with little visible cover. any ideas on what to look for? ive found some rock and possibly a flat going by the land around the pond. thanks

Drag a nightcrawler along the bottom??? I hear they prefer nightcrawlers over about anything.

Nightcrawlers or redworms should do the trick. Redear will be a little bit deeper than the bluegill in most cases. I have been tearing them up the last couple weeks in a lake I fish here in Southern Indiana. I have been using a small black and red bettle spin on a small jighead, fished about 3' under a weighted cork. Throw it out, and drag it back as slow as you can. If these are good sized fish, this will be all you need

I usually tear up the shellcrackers in a local city lake, using a very simple set-up...just a worm (get the panfish size worms, alot better), a small sinker six inches up and a slip bobber set at about 3-4ft down (depending on the depth of the water you are fishing). Just remember that they call them shellcrackers for a reason, they will be on the bottom cracking shells. I find the best time of year to target them is around the end of may to the first week of June. That may very on different lakes. I find that once I catch one, there are many more to be caught in that same area. Good luck.

thanks for the tips. i took my youngest boy (6) and my baby girl (2) to that pond thursday afternoon. it was storming when we got there, but at around 8:30, it slowed to a sprinkle and we fished till dark. didnt get many bites but my girl caught 3 bluegills that measured about 8 inches and my boy had 2 that went over 7". when i say my girl caught them i mean i set the hook and she brought them in. need to get her a dora pole so she can handle it better, but it didnt take away from her excitement. anyway, ill try the tips you guys suggested the next chance i get to go. later