Thread: Finally Got My Livescope Dialed In

Originally Posted by Les Young

pab1981 what line do you use & do you not think bait color matters in different water colors whether clear, stained or muddy & do you think the amount of light whether bright sun or extremely cloudy make a difference in colors needed sometimes & the way crappie react? I tried a few different styles & colors of baits like tubes, crappie magnets & baby shads that i make Sunday & finally settled on a baby shad in black back/ chartreuse belly with red glitter in the back because it was the only thing either of us found that they would bite consistently but the water was pretty brown in color compared to the usual clear that it is. You gave me some great tips when i was first starting scoping crappie so it never hurts to ask does it?

No, I fall more in the camp of color/flash can matter and think line size and color can matter as well. I normally keep a couple rods on deck/rod locker with 12lb fluorocarbon on baitcasters, a couple with 8lb fluorocarbon on spinning reels, and have at least one rod in the boat with 4-6lb clear mono or fluorocarbon. Honestly, I'm still messing with lightest setup trying to find something I really trust in tournament situations. I typically run 14 and 17ft Dobyns, Huckabee, or Ozark rods and haven't really found any lighter lines that hold up on hook sets reliably with the longer rods without the occasional unexpected break. The answer is probably a shorter and a little softer rod, but I don't like the feel of the older style, floppy rods much. I said all that to say, in tougher bite conditions that I find sometimes I feel like I get more bites with lightest, clearest line I can get away with.

As far as baits, I don't use or keep nearly as many colors/styles of baits as before LS. But I still do basically keep a few colors of the same style baits(baby shad, crappie magnet, small tubes, and few bigger profiles) you mentioned and a box of hair jigs from 1/64 to 1/4. With LS, as I mentioned in last post, I think controlling the presentation probably is more important most of the time. But there are times where I still see a certain bait profile, jig with more sparkle, dull or flashier hair jig seems to trigger bites better. One of best examples I can remember is a couple of winters ago there was a school of fish loosely scattered and suspended in a protected bay I mess around in a lot in the winter when weather is bad. Away from this school of fish in other areas of the lake, bait or rigging seemed to matter very little. But this particular school of fish was very finicky. I messed around in there for four or five hours before I finally figured out by switching to a Dude colored Crappie Magnet I could catch 4-5 out of every five fish I dropped on, whereas about any other bait I tried I might catch 1 or 2 out 5. I duplicated this experiment all winter in this particular bay. White crappie on Barkley primarily feed on threadfin shad, log perch, and baby drum. The only thing I can figure is that bay had a bunch of log perch in it and very little of the other two and that color matched the hatch enough to trigger more bites.

Originally Posted by pab1981

No, I fall more in the camp of color/flash can matter and think line size and color can matter as well. I normally keep a couple rods on deck/rod locker with 12lb fluorocarbon on baitcasters, a couple with 8lb fluorocarbon on spinning reels, and have at least one rod in the boat with 4-6lb clear mono or fluorocarbon. Honestly, I'm still messing with lightest setup trying to find something I really trust in tournament situations. I typically run 14 and 17ft Dobyns, Huckabee, or Ozark rods and haven't really found any lighter lines that hold up on hook sets reliably with the longer rods without the occasional unexpected break. The answer is probably a shorter and a little softer rod, but I don't like the feel of the older style, floppy rods much. I said all that to say, in tougher bite conditions that I find sometimes I feel like I get more bites with lightest, clearest line I can get away with.

As far as baits, I don't use or keep nearly as many colors/styles of baits as before LS. But I still do basically keep a few colors of the same style baits(baby shad, crappie magnet, small tubes, and few bigger profiles) you mentioned and a box of hair jigs from 1/64 to 1/4. With LS, as I mentioned in last post, I think controlling the presentation probably is more important most of the time. But there are times where I still see a certain bait profile, jig with more sparkle, dull or flashier hair jig seems to trigger bites better. One of best examples I can remember is a couple of winters ago there was a school of fish loosely scattered and suspended in a protected bay I mess around in a lot in the winter when weather is bad. Away from this school of fish in other areas of the lake, bait or rigging seemed to matter very little. But this particular school of fish was very finicky. I messed around in there for four or five hours before I finally figured out by switching to a Dude colored Crappie Magnet I could catch 4-5 out of every five fish I dropped on, whereas about any other bait I tried I might catch 1 or 2 out 5. I duplicated this experiment all winter in this particular bay. White crappie on Barkley primarily feed on threadfin shad, log perch, and baby drum. The only thing I can figure is that bay had a bunch of log perch in it and very little of the other two and that color matched the hatch enough to trigger more bites.

Thsnks for your ideas as usual. They’re always helpful.