I was doing some winter fishing at a small lake in North Central Texas.  The fish are suspended from about 25'-35' in about 40' of water.  I fished with a jig, spoon, shaky head, and jib and minnow.  I only caught one large crappie on a shaky head.  I attached a shot from my Helix and you can see there are quite a few fish.  What would be the best bait for these suspended fish?  I thought they were some bass but maybe they are all crappie?

Could be all crappie if you caught one out of the bunch. I’ve a had some similar issues so I’m curious to see the replies on this thread. 

43 minutes ago, August said:

Could be all crappie if you caught one out of the bunch. I’ve a had some similar issues so I’m curious to see the replies on this thread. 

I've caught random huge crappie where bass are hanging out (and while catching said bass), so who knows really.

Rig up a ML outfit with about a 2”-2.5” shad or tube body on about an 1/8 oz head and see if you start catching all crappie. Really the only way to know for sure. Could be mixed, obviously, but throw something crappie can eat easily and see what happens.

My son and I tried fishing them with a crappie jig but never got a bite.  We were using a red jig head with a blue/chartreuse plastic.  I do like the idea of using a small 2" shad since there were many bait balls above the fish.  I will give that a try.  Thanks Super User.

Not sure which lake you are on but they could be white bass.  They don’t look like LMB to me.  Your sonar shows 14.7’ but you said you were seeing fish at 25-35’ in 40’ of water.  That is pretty typical of white’s this time of year.

On 12/21/2024 at 9:17 PM, kfelderhoff said:

My son and I tried fishing them with a crappie jig but never got a bite.  We were using a red jig head with a blue/chartreuse plastic.  I do like the idea of using a small 2" shad since there were many bait balls above the fish.  I will give that a try.  Thanks Super User.

 

I see you're new here. FWIW, @Team9nine is our resident Crappie God. If he told me to throw a Suick Thriller to catch crappies, I would. Here's a Suick Thriller:

 

I fish North central Texas as well. The bite has been tough here lately for sure. I would try a 1/8 or even 1/16 oz jigging spoon . Or a live minnow.