New to targeting crappie

I usually beat the shore for bass, but have found crappie fishing is a blast! If you can find them. I have a fish finder on my kayak and will start looking for them off points and looking for structure. My question is, the last time I went out I ended up catching more white perch than crappie. Are the more distinctive stack of fish more likely the crappie versus the image of the fish hugging the bottom? I have found the further I get from the bank fisherman the larger the crappie get! Not a bunch of catch and release on my lake from the shore in afraid.

Crappie do have a tendency to stack close to cover ... But not always ...

Here is a good article on where crappie "should be" at given times of he year ...

http://www.crappie.com/crappie/archi...appie-degrees/

Rickie

I can usually tell crappie when they are in groups of 10 - 20 fish stacked vertically. White perch are usually in much bigger schools that are more wide than they are high and are much tighter than a crappie school. The problem is there are almost always other kinds of fish in and around a crappie school including white perch Not as much diversity in a white perch only school.

What type of fishfinder are you using? From your description of "crappie stacking", you are probably using like a smartcast or iBobber. Please let us know. Thanks

Helix 10 si

Crappie schools usually have fish in a vertical school where as white perch and white bass are more of a ball similar to shad. Thats just my experience.

Thanks. I have a lower an e elite 4.

I have the elite 4 on my dash, which is what I use to find schools then I pinpoint them with the bow unit. Set it to sonar only page (not dsi split), advanced mode, manual mode. Black/white/blue FISH REVEAL color palette. Set your depth to auto, amplitude scope on, colorline 52%, and sensitivity to around 60% and adjust from there. If the signals are weak, go up, if you get a screen full of red/orange then go down in sensitivity until it clears up and you can see the individual fish. Now drive around and get the sensitivity dialed in and look for fish! They will not be perfect arches like you see on the box, most likely dots or small lines depending on how fast you are moving and what your scroll speed is set to.

Good luck, it takes time on the water to dial it in but you will get it. After a couple weeks of marking fish and catching them you will learn to ID what kind of fish they are just by the way they look on the screen.

oh and make sure fishID is turned OFF

I just took a screen shot of that and will try those settings the next time I go out. Thanks.