Iv been fishing for quite some time at westbranch state park in ohio, And I use small-medium minnows?

I must be doing something worng though becuase I dont seem to ever catch any b only small trout and small to medium sized crappie the biggest being about 11 inches, Iv tried going at night time in our boat use catfish bait those little dried up pellets and letting my line drag and also tried using shad the same way you would think id get lucky and get something to bite, maybe theres a special way the line has to be baited???? fishing in the wrons or something??? would love any help anyone is able to give me, I love fishing and its jsut a little disapointing crappie is fun to catch but I want somethign that puts up a fight like a nice sized b.