lipsticker Loc: Hartford Wisconsin

Trying some new stuff. Going to be fishing a different kind of water for me and could use some direction. The lake is shallow, 12 feet is deep. Lots of humps and wood everywhere. Water is color of a good stiff cup of coffee. Going to be looking for Crappies and Walleye, live bait rigs pretty obvious but what would you do in artificial’s ? Where would you look in the color world?

bknecht Loc: Northeast pa

Sounds much like a lake I fish but it has no walleyes. For crappies I’d fish the humps and channels. My favorite baits are Keitech 2” swim impacts either under a slip float that you’re gently working or simply swim them on a jig. My personal favorite color is green pumpkin but sometimes they’ll prefer a different color. They are fantastic baits but the one caveat is that they’re not very durable. I always use a drop of super glue on the jig head when I slide the bait on and it seems to help.

ghaynes1 Loc: Strawberry Plains, TN

We have similar conditions with some lakes here in TN. Florescent green or a pink colored jig combined with the minnow seem to be popular here for crappies in shallow, cooler water.

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

Good advice thus far. I like small jigs, as per a few of my postings this Summer. Seems like maribou tails and rubber grub tails work well...with black or pink heads that are lightweight and slowly descend towards bottom. I have been fishing via a kayak, and tend to park right over top of the fish once they show up on my graph. After I catch a few, they tend to scatter and I have to move away to let them regroup. Next time I go I might locate them first, then move away and try casting outward so that I am not bringing them straight up and spooking the others.

These have been my best producers thus far this Summer....

Ben Bragg Loc: Dayton Ohio

Stole my thunder bk
The kietech swing impact in 3.5 inch would be my go to
Haven’t fished the dark water you mentioned in a while but I think the Ayu color would get the job done. If not , pearl.
Probly a 3 /16 oz jig. Maybe a 1/4 if deep. Keep it real close to bottom.
I’d start mid depth close to deep early then by 9:00 go deep and stay there.
This would be for me more a search bait. I’d fish this till it quit

Find em then go back with live bait to pick em off

That’s just me if I’m fishing a new lake this time of year

lipsticker Loc: Hartford Wisconsin

Thanks all so far and OhYa! Looks like a trip to the tackle shop is in store too! Gots to do what ya gots to do, Right?

fishyaker Loc: NW Michigan (Lower Peninsula)

I forgot to say anything about "walleye" when I first replied...although they do like bigger jigs than what I pictured for crappie, especially with rubber baits like Mr. Twister or Sassy Shad affixed to them.

The attached photo would be my favorite "go to" hardware body baits when I specifically target walleye without using live bait such as leeches, minnows or a crawler harness. Over the years, the "clown" color pattern seems to work well in any kind of water for me...whether fairly clear or coffee/tea stained.

From left to right...Storm brand standard sized Hot-N-Tot in crawfish...belly is orange but not visible in photo (dives to about 10'), next is another Hot-N-Tot only the next size up with a rattle inside (dives to about 12' in clown color), third in line is a Rapala shallow diver (4' to 6' in standard shad coloration). Finally another Storm brand shad that dives to about 12' in clown color.

The bead chain keel sinker is great for trolling crawler harness's or lures if they need to be taken deeper. I use a 3' long leader ahead of the lure. In the depth you mentioned, it might not be needed at all of your lures get down far enough.

Good luck when you go!!!

Whitey Loc: Southeast ohio

Sometimes I use different colors for Crappie it seems like I had pretty good luck with small Plastics in chartreuse with a black tail. Hard to beat a spoon for walleye with different color figuration