My 998 wants to know where the crappie are

[crappieseeker]

Where are the crappie? That is a question I want to know aswell as my 998 SI Humminbird. I have been out 2 times lately in search ofcover, bait balls, schools of fish, or anything that looks like it might becrappie or crappie related. I ran my 998 on SI and DI or 2D from one of thebridges pretty much all the way out from the bridge through the winding channelthrough the creek and up the edges of the river. I went for miles. I barely sawanything on the graph anywhere. A few fish did show up only on a very fewoccasions on some laydowns where cover surrounded the laydowns. I am not sureall those fish symbols represented fish. The cover was so thick who knows. Idid manage to catch one crappie or so around 2 or 3 of those areas. I know thegraph works because I trolled one area last year and it showed very good detailand when it showed the fish and baitballs I caught fish. I just can not figureout where they go or hide this time of year. I thought some fish would alreadybe around the bridge. I manage only 1 or 2 there each trip right now and thegraph rarely shows anything. The channel is narrow all the way to the river andthere are shallow grass flats everywhere else where the water is only 1 to 3feet or so and full of grass. I am thinking of dropping some cover in thedeeper areas of the channel since there was not any to be found. I trolledcranks up the edge of the river and never caught a fish and never saw much ofanything on the graph. I wonder where all the fish come from so fast when theymove in. It seems they are not there or anywhere close and then all the sudden theymove in very quickly. I was really hoping my graph would put me on fish that Iwould not generally know where to find them, however I seem to be no better offwith it right now than I am without it. Where do all those fish hide. Do theystay schooled up and hug the bottom in very deep or water or do they separate thistime of year and swim more independently and school up as the weather cools. Iam starting to think spending over a grand on a 998 might have been overkill.

[Cane Pole]

You gotta feed it some "sweet" water..

[Eagle 1]

would start setting all poles at 2-3 ft. top of the water column for sure .

[crappie legend]

Had the same problem this weekend on the river, I have 6 super good tops in 13 to 21 fow, checked them for 2 days nothing so the hunt began rode 4 miles up the edge of the river with my 898 HB in 12 to 20 fow, eyes glued to the screen, nothing then all at once there they were at 11:30am marked the spot on my gps an the catch was on caught 12 nice ones in 10 min. but the wind was killing me so I decided to leave and go back Sun. morning but I come down with a stomach virus an had to come home. I think they are out in the middle chasing shad right now.That my 2 cents worth

[gobbler]

heres my two cents worth, the fish are probably shallower than you are checking right now, check out that 2-6' range and utilize that si you paid for.

[bee]

I have been having great fishing by finding the Plankton.

[CrappiePappy]

Hey, Bee .... you sure that's Plankton .... If I saw those green/red/yellow blobs on my Lowrance Elite 5 DSI, I'd suspect them to be schools of Shad or some other kind of baitfish minnow.

... cp

[bee]

Hey, Bee .... you sure that's Plankton .... If I saw those green/red/yellow blobs on my Lowrance Elite 5 DSI, I'd suspect them to be schools of Shad or some other kind of baitfish minnow.

... cp

I here you Pappy. It's the Plankton. I could be mistaken. And the Crappy are in love with it. As soon as it shows up its fish on. I'm happy I don't have the DSI. Too advanced for me. Up here in Maine we talk Shad. I do have it on my 7 but have not gotten into it yet.

[CrappiePappy]

I here you Pappy. It's the Plankton. I could be mistaken. And the Crappy are in love with it. As soon as it shows up its fish on. I'm happy I don't have the DSI. Too advanced for me. Up here in Maine we talk Shad. I do have it on my 7 but have not gotten into it yet.

I just don't see how those Plankton could get into such a thick mass that they'd show up that way .... even with the unit's sensitivity turned up pretty high. Now ... should those blobs actually be schools of baitfish "feeding" on plankton at that depth ... then, yeah, I could go along with that.

Have you kept & cleaned any of those fish ... and examined the stomach contents, to find them full of plankton ?? The fry feed on plankton, but I was always under the impression that once they got up to a couple of inches long, then they would transition over to fish & crustaceans & insect larvae (Black Crappie specifically).

... cp