Finding fish w/o electronics

[Moose07]

When trying to locate fish depth from the bank is it better to start shallow and go deeper or start deeper and go shallow. I have always set my slip bobber on the shallow side and then slowly adjust it deeper say about a 1' to 1.5' at a time since crappie feed up. Is that the way I should do it or start deeper because of the fall from the jig and if no bites adjust it shallower? Maybe it makes no difference either way?

[Rojo]

Tough call on that one but I can say fishing Shiners I usually don't go more than 6ft. Can't say why but when the decision to eat has been made the Crappie seem like that depth no matter how deep the water is. I'm usually in 12-15ft floating a Shiner right on the structure edge, not in the middle.

[CrappiePappy]

I would initially ditch the slipfloat & use the cast & countdown method while fancasting the area. That might give you an idea of what depth the fish are holding.
If you're on a bank that has shade well out over the water, I'd start shallow & close .. then move deeper and farther from the bank. When there's no longer any shade, or none to start with, I'd cast far out and shallow & gradually deepen the depth of my jig on succeeding casts (but still cast out far from the bank). Just my opinion.

[Moose07]

I would initially ditch the slipfloat & use the cast & countdown method while fancasting the area. That might give you an idea of what depth the fish are holding.
If you're on a bank that has shade well out over the water, I'd start shallow & close .. then move deeper and farther from the bank. When there's no longer any shade, or none to start with, I'd cast far out and shallow & gradually deepen the depth of my jig on succeeding casts (but still cast out far from the bank). Just my opinion.

Thanks for the reply. Curious on why you don't prefer a slip float? I figured it would be easier to control depth. Hopefully I haven't hindered my somewhat success buy using a slip float like I am.

[CrappiePappy]

Thanks for the reply. Curious on why you don't prefer a slip float? I figured it would be easier to control depth. Hopefully I haven't hindered my somewhat success buy using a slip float like I am.

No, I don't think you've hindered yourself at all, as you are correct that it's easier to control the depth of your bait.

My major concern with a slipfloat (or most any float, for that matter) is ... the deeper the bait and/or farther away from you the float is (or both) makes it harder to get a good solid hookset. A really long rod "helps", but sometimes they're not practical in a bank fishing scenario.
If/when I do use a float (which is extremely rare) ... it is 99.9% of the time going to be a slipfloat, and it's 99.9% of the time going to be used with live bait .... and it's 100% of the time going to be less than 10-12ft away.
But, that's just me.

[Moose07]

No, I don't think you've hindered yourself at all, as you are correct that it's easier to control the depth of your bait.

My major concern with a slipfloat (or most any float, for that matter) is ... the deeper the bait and/or farther away from you the float is (or both) makes it harder to get a good solid hookset. A really long rod "helps", but sometimes they're not practical in a bank fishing scenario.
If/when I do use a float (which is extremely rare) ... it is 99.9% of the time going to be a slipfloat, and it's 99.9% of the time going to be used with live bait .... and it's 100% of the time going to be less than 10-12ft away.
But, that's just me.

Thanks for the clarification. I have noticed I have missed more fish then I like but I chalked that up to being to slow and not the slip cork itself. I use to try the countdown method but always getting hung up or not catching as many fish without the slip cork. Since then I've changed my whole set up and hardly get hung up anymore more. I use to use just hi vis #4 or #6 line now I use #15 hi via braid, slip bobber, swivel and #4 clear line. Since I have multiple rods I will try both setups side by side and see which I prefer. Thanks again!

[jay the baptist]

What weight jighead?
I use 1/32 and 1/16 and tiny fixed float. My jig body will be 2 inches or less.
If counting down into brush, make up some weedless jigheads. It's easy.
I like to comb an area with my float rig at various depths first. Then I might use a weedless rig a little deeper. Last, I break out my 11 footers on 10/2 hi vis braid and probe and swim through all the limbs straight down. If I can, I still try to stay in deeper shaded areas.

[Moose07]

What weight jighead?
I use 1/32 and 1/16 and tiny fixed float. My jig body will be 2 inches or less.
If counting down into brush, make up some weedless jigheads. It's easy.
I like to comb an area with my float rig at various depths first. Then I might use a weedless rig a little deeper. Last, I break out my 11 footers on 10/2 hi vis braid and probe and swim through all the limbs straight down. If I can, I still try to stay in deeper shaded areas.

I typically use 1/48, 1/32 and 1/16th jig heads. Depending on how far I need to cast and also if I want blugills/sunnys.

[Darbonne_Guy]

Before I had electronics I would generally set up a 2 or 3 hook rig, something like the capps and coleman double-minnow rig, but with a third hook on the line also.

Let it sink all the way to the bottom and them set your float so that the lowest hook is about 1 ft off the bottom.

If you don't get bites within 20 mins, change the float to raise the bait up several feet, rinse and repeat until you find them.

When you start getting bites you'll figure out which one is at the right depth and can adjust and start using a 1 or 2 hook rig at that depth.

[Ketchn]

from the bank , I set a float about 3 foot deep unless its spring time . I never use a slip float , a pinch on pencil float should get the job done .
If I don't get bit or there are other species interfering , I set it a foot deeper . I typically stop at around 7 foot deep .
Some will argue for sure about the difficulty in casting set up this way , but that is fine by me .....I cast set up like this frequently.
If you are not getting bites ,adjust your retrieval speeds and the amount of "dance" on your jig ....
if that fails to produce change colors dramatically the opposite direction of what your pitching ....
if there still isn't a bite , move locations