Gentleman,
 This is my first post on this website so if I break any "rules" please bear with me. But my family and I love to eat crappie. But I only get to eat them when I just happen across a school or two. 
  I would like to know what to look for when targeting those tasty little fish. Now here is what gear I use when fishing for them. I have a 16 foot canoe with a flat back for up to a 5hp motor, I have a trolling motor on there (no trailer yet, lol). I do have an aqua-vu camera. And I have all sorts of rods and reals, as far as tackle I use marabou jigs, assortments of plastics and of course minnows. 

  But what do I look for as a starting point for finding them? am I using he right tackle? I live in Mid-Michigan and fish usually small lakes or ponds. Thanks in advance for any help.

  Good luck and tight lines!

Welcome to the forums! At least you got your post in the correct topic, which seems to be rare these days. I live across the big pond from you, our seasons should be similar.(btw, thanks for the location, it makes an answer so much easier). The spawn should be over or ending just about now. During the spawn the crappie are in the shallow water and relatively easy to find. Post spawn they will move out to deeper water and can usually be found near about any kind of cover like brush, sunken trees etc. I have not seen them relate to weeds, but that may be a local thing. A jig and minnow or curly tail plastic should be a good place to start. If you have any, Mini Mites and Roadrunners also have been good for me. Tom

Don't forget in-line spinners like Mepps or Panther Martin. You can even use small bass type spinners, BooYah is one manufactor. Weed edges near deep water and if a brush pile happens to be near by......

i am having alot of trouble myself locating the crappie in my private lake... its so annoying.

Summer time is harder in general to catch them i hear, but i guess its all in perseverance. i use a canoe, but mostly i like to shore fish. that is one reason. i wish i had a fishing buddy with a nice boat and extensive knowledge about pan fishing.. most guys around here go to this lame pay lake and just cat fish and throw cans in the lake all night.

Summer pattern for some crappies can be found shallow in the weeds.  Target pockets of open water like you would for large mouth bass, only downsize your offerings for crappies or bluegills.  I did shore fishing once in such a spot and the crappies litterally came out and slam my Yozuris pins minnow like they were some bass slamming a plastic worm.  If you fish into the night, you can also do well in open water adjacent to the weed line.  Sometimes the deep water schools will be coming shallow to feed just as the sun goes down.  Typical light up bobber with minnows works.

hey marine, which part of mid mi. ya from. there are a bunch of lakes with alot of crappie in them. lakes mitchell and cadaliac, houghton lake, back waters of tippy dam, the lake at lake city and the hodenpile dam.

I sure would like to find a lake that has crappie shallow in the weeds all summer. In the lakes I have fished, once the spawn is done the crappie head to deep cover and stay there till fall! Tom

Finding crappie in the summer can be difficult. It also depends on what part of the country you are in and the lake or body of water you are fishing. Crappie in my area are usually found on muddy banks (rocky banks hold them too) near submerged trees and limbs in the spring. In the summer they generally seek cooler waters so any freshwater spring fed streams that empty into larger bodies of water are a good place to look.

Some of the lakes around here get stagnant in the summer due to heat and finding crappie is next to impossible in these lakes. The rivers that have more flow are better for crappie fishing in summer but it is still hit and miss. I caught a 3 to 3.5 pound crappie last year on a tube while bass fishing in mid June. The best time is early spring when they are on bed, fish around trees and stumps in anything from 3 to 14 feet of water and you can catch them all day long.

Posted By Pegsguy on 24 Jun 2010 11:16 PM
I sure would like to find a lake that has crappie shallow in the weeds all summer. In the lakes I have fished, once the spawn is done the crappie head to deep cover and stay there till fall! Tom

Now that I think about it, it could be that these lakes have a healthy Muskie population that primarily feeds on the crappies.  I remember the spawning crappies being targeted by these fish and the crappies you catch being stolen by these fish.