Fish finder reading?

**hockey86** · 12-29-2013, 09:41 PM

Well, went back to Harris this past Sat. hoping to get on some crappie but also slam some white perch like the previous week. No such luck this time and I did not see anyone else catching anything either. I took a couple pics of the fish finder to ask a question or two. As you can see on the screens there's a lot showing up but I wanted to see if you guys think it's bait fish or just a false reading. Last week when I got into the white perch it was 100% clear that I was reading larger fish. Just curious. Thanks.

**quikcarl61** · 12-29-2013, 10:26 PM

To me it looks like bait balls that have been busted up by the bigger fish beneath them, the bigger arches

**gobbler** · 12-30-2013, 06:58 AM

the first pic has lots of shad with a few bigger fish above them at 24-26' the second pic shows some fish below the shad at 32-34', if i had to guess one pic was earlier in the morning and one was around lunch time.

**hockey86** · 12-30-2013, 03:41 PM

I was thinking the same thing as you guys but wanted another opinion. Although I saw lots of this over several hours we could not get anything to hit. Slow drifted a lot of bait through these but had no takers. Those are the times it would be fun to have one of the underwater cameras that Bass Pro and Cabelas sell and drop it down just to see what's there. I may have to find a cheap used one just to play around with.

**Rookie12** · 12-30-2013, 06:32 PM

Usually fishing around that much bait will be slow. I fished an area that had a lot of fish in it the other week, but the bait looked just like that. I managed a few fish out of it, but that was it. I normally try to get away from that much bait. The bait was balled up pretty good too, so not much has been worrying them a whole lot. Bait that's scattered or flattened out is usually when fish have been chewing on them pretty recent. I would try that area, but if it didn't produce quickly I would go looking for some more. Also, the fish are very close to the bait and the bait ball is still intact, so it's possible the fish weren't even chasing the baitfish. I know a lot of times when catfishing, when I see bait that is near fish I can't get them to bite, but when I find fish that are relatively close to the bait, but not in it, they'll bite.

**genec** · 01-01-2014, 09:39 PM

Bait balls with fish under them ,thats one reason they are so tight,but the fish have not attach them yet do like rookie12 said they would be a long and wavy look to the pile and probably a few fish streaks in them,the fish that make good arches are not moving much nr feeding

**Crewmax42** · 01-02-2014, 11:25 AM

I was thinking the same as you guys. I was wondering, though, what your approach would be to this situation? In my experience, with that much bait, odds are my drifted minnows won't get a bite, so I might drop a spoon or a jig and try to get a reaction strike.

**hockey86** · 01-03-2014, 01:10 PM

I drifted a few minnows and nothing. I did use a couple of different jigs too and still nothing. I'm really tempted to drop a cast net down and see if I pull up some of the threadfins or whatever bait fish is down there and then use those on the outside of the bait ball to see what happens. I figure if they see one away from the group they might hit it.