Thread: Someone please enlighten me

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

If you can see the fish holding on one of your spots, can you usually catch em? At least most of the time?

Most times but there are times they are in a non aggressive mood . Just remember the beds hold Bream , Bass , Catfish , and ect so just cause you mark fish they may not be Crappie or fish ready to bite .

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

this is the only pic I have taken of one of the beds. Most of the time, the fish I'm seeing are related closer to the stakes or right over top of them. I sorta thought this looked more like a school of white bass or something but I know they are usually eager to smack a jig or minnow too and they did not on that day. What kind of fish do y'all think these are?

Tightly packed fish could be large Gizzard Shad .i saw that once where my fishing partner and i was fishing a rock humps. We were catching Crappie and fish were scattered in small bunches . We spotted one with a tight bunch of fish on sonar. My buddy got excited but I called it Shad. He said no way and dropped in and snagged about a foot long Gizzard Shad .

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

We put some stake beds out last year in some promising looking spots. We were pleased this spring when we started marking a bunch of fish using them. Over the past couple months I've returned to them in attempt to catch some fish off them with no luck. I can clearly see the fish suspended in and around them, but cannot buy a bite.

Crappiehabits, I know exactly what you speak of the link below is video from a large brush pile that I put out about 4 years ago now. It was put out in mid winter and the video is from a year later during the spring. At the time we had fished this pile many times with NO successes, maybe one now and then but no numbers and like you see there was always large numbers of fish holding to it. I kept thinking okay it's just the weather or barometer not right or this or that; I kept going back (and still do go back) time after time going on over four years now, and yes it still holds fish just as thick as it shows in the video and still just one or two now and then. Like you I've been completely puzzled by this scenario, so I started trying analyze the situation first by looking at all of the elements that I used when building this crappie habitat. Though I won't go into all of the detail of all of the components used; I will say that at the time the few people who were aware of how this was constructed have all said that they thought it was probably the most complete and best crappie structure that they had ever seen in there life, and some of these guys have seen quite a few over there years. Which obviously stands to reason that for one it was no surprise to see the crappie holding in these numbers but very much a surprise that we could not catch them. Which leads me to believe only one thing would be the reason for this, and that would be in my quest to build the utmost best crappie habitat that could be built that I may have actually out done myself. And I'm thinking that could also hold true for yourself; now let me explain, I'm trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat. What I'm saying is that this particular build had every element that crappie would need for existences, from attracting and holding bait fish for food as well as shelter for themselves as well as there young after the spawn. It is strategically positioned closed to deep water which can offer a current from time to time but located in more stable medium depth water. In short; after over 4 years of monitoring the crappie at this location I'm thinking they tend to have everything they need (food) all the time, there for when I show up to fish we can only manage pulling in a couple off of it at best.

* Maybe like the crappie I'm all wet on this, but I have built other shelters that were more just that based on "shelter" and not attracting plankton and a food source and seem to do much better on the less adequate habitats.

https://www.facebook.com/collins.pri...72123034856868

Originally Posted by Lonnie84

Crappiehabits, I know exactly what you speak of the link below is video from a large brush pile that I put out about 4 years ago now. It was put out in mid winter and the video is from a year later during the spring. At the time we had fished this pile many times with NO successes, maybe one now and then but no numbers and like you see there was always large numbers of fish holding to it. I kept thinking okay it's just the weather or barometer not right or this or that; I kept going back (and still do go back) time after time going on over four years now, and yes it still holds fish just as thick as it shows in the video and still just one or two now and then. Like you I've been completely puzzled by this scenario, so I started trying analyze the situation first by looking at all of the elements that I used when building this crappie habitat. Though I won't go into all of the detail of all of the components used; I will say that at the time the few people who were aware of how this was constructed have all said that they thought it was probably the most complete and best crappie structure that they had ever seen in there life, and some of these guys have seen quite a few over there years. Which obviously stands to reason that for one it was no surprise to see the crappie holding in these numbers but very much a surprise that we could not catch them. Which leads me to believe only one thing would be the reason for this, and that would be in my quest to build the utmost best crappie habitat that could be built that I may have actually out done myself. And I'm thinking that could also hold true for yourself; now let me explain, I'm trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat. What I'm saying is that this particular build had every element that crappie would need for existences, from attracting and holding bait fish for food as well as shelter for themselves as well as there young after the spawn. It is strategically positioned closed to deep water which can offer a current from time to time but located in more stable medium depth water. In short; after over 4 years of monitoring the crappie at this location I'm thinking they tend to have everything they need (food) all the time, there for when I show up to fish we can only manage pulling in a couple off of it at best.

* Maybe like the crappie I'm all wet on this, but I have built other shelters that were more just that based on "shelter" and not attracting plankton and a food source and seem to do much better on the less adequate habitats.

https://www.facebook.com/collins.pri...72123034856868

Thanks. Really cool video.

That should have read this way:

Originally Posted by Lonnie84

I'm "NOT" trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat.

Nice video but I am pretty sure those are not crappie.

Originally Posted by Dave and Lynn

Nice video but I am pretty sure those are not crappie.

The video does make them look a little odd, but you can look at their dorsal and anal fins and clearly tell they're crappie. At least most of them.

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

The video does make them look a little odd, but you can look at their dorsal and anal fins and clearly tell they're crappie. At least most of them.

Looked more like a tree full of Bluegill, to me. Maybe some Crappie hanging out on the far side of the tree, as they did seem to look a bit bigger than those closest to the camera.