Crappie Fishing?

I was wondering how to straitline minnows when you are fishing for crappie. i have got a rig set up but i am curious about like what i should feel when i am fishing it or should i just wait till i get a bite? and do you fish it all the way to the bottom???:confused:

Straight lining has been the best technique for me in the last 2 or three weeks... I was catching a good many fish with the drop shot earlier but I guess the croppie aren't holding as tight to the cover as they were earlier... What I try to do is move the bait up and down slowly trying to feel for the fish and am able to catch a good many doing this but the fish that I am catching seem to be smaller than they were a couple weeks ago... looking at the sonar the fish seem to be holding in the same areas as they were in the summer but I don't seem to be able to catch nearly as many with the drop shot rig, it seems keeping the bait above the cover works much better for me, right now anyway... I don't seem to be able to catch many fish under a bobber this fall, even a slip bobber set to the same depth as I have been catching croppie with the straight line method, I guess you have a feel with the tight line that the bobber doesn't give you.

I see a lot of guys using a hook and small slip sinker with minnows. I have not used minnows for some years now but just use tubes or bass assasins. It allows me a little more search area without killing the minnows so fast. When I did use minnows it used a small hair jig in 1/16 or 3/32 depending on the wind and fished it just like the jigs. It worked very well and you could adapt to the movement of the crappie. I have found that letting it to the bottom and retrieving very slowly was the best method.

straiting for crappie is also called spider fishing , it is done with a number of pole fished on the side or front of the boat. A lot of the guides on ky & barkley lake fish this way. you set the poles at different depth. and move the boat very slowly over channel drop or river channels. most of the time the bite is hard enough you do have to hold the pole. Just watch the end of the pole or the line