I hate crappie fishing

and I’m kind of jealous of you guys with live scope... I went to Lake Ashbaugh this afternoon and got skunked.

After one of my “got skunked” trips one of you asked if there were fish where I was fishing. That question keeps gnawing at the back of my brain. When I go to places (and I mean EXACT locations) where I know crappie to be, I catch them.

Today I wanted to fish a slough right beside Ashbaugh... But since in northeast Arkansas we consider duck hunters to be slight more important than the president, I can’t be on that water by order of Arkansas Game and Fish. I’m confident I can catch fish in/on that slough. But I’ve NEVER caught fish on Ashbaugh.

And so I circle back to “are there any fish there”. And the only answer I can come up is “How would I know?”. I don’t own an underwater video camera that can see fifty feet in any direction to tell me. I have to do it by instinct. And when I get skunked I get convinced I’m a poor fisherman.

This is a love/hate thing.... this crappie fishing.


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Humming Bird with side view.

There are usually way more crappie in any body of water than you can imagine. Right now, regardless of where you fish look for the larger crappie to be alone and suspended in open water. They won't usually run a bait down from any great distance this time of year because of the cold water but a slower presentation will work. The best advice I can give if you don't have all the electronics right now is to fish by "process of elimination". This is done by longlining or spiderrigging at all different depths and depths of water. Look for a pattern. Most fish that I've found lately have been suspended at 10 to 12 feet deep but more importantly, I think, is staying in the depth of water that they are suspended over. (Example 10 feet deep over 16 feet of water). Once I catch my first couple of crappie I immediately notice the depth of water that the boat is in and the depth that the fish were at. I then try my best not to get out of that depth of water, say 16 feet deep. Over and over and any time of year, I've seen it where the fished were stacked in say 10 FOW but were not at all in 8 or 12. The first thing I always do is to watch my graph as I move about my fishing area and get a general idea as to what depth most fish marks are showing up for that day. I usually start setting my baits slightly above this depth but vary them slightly if using more than one pole. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by slabbandit

There are usually way more crappie in any body of water than you can imagine. Right now, regardless of where you fish look for the larger crappie to be alone and suspended in open water. They won't usually run a bait down from any great distance this time of year because of the cold water but a slower presentation will work. The best advice I can give if you don't have all the electronics right now is to fish by "process of elimination". This is done by longlining or spiderrigging at all different depths and depths of water. Look for a pattern. Most fish that I've found lately have been suspended at 10 to 12 feet deep but more importantly, I think, is staying in the depth of water that they are suspended over. (Example 10 feet deep over 16 feet of water). Once I catch my first couple of crappie I immediately notice the depth of water that the boat is in and the depth that the fish were at. I then try my best not to get out of that depth of water, say 16 feet deep. Over and over and any time of year, I've seen it where the fished were stacked in say 10 FOW but were not at all in 8 or 12. The first thing I always do is to watch my graph as I move about my fishing area and get a general idea as to what depth most fish marks are showing up for that day. I usually start setting my baits slightly above this depth but vary them slightly if using more than one pole. Hope this helps.

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Originally Posted by Grizzledjig

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Hey Loop since you’re in NEA you ought to go to Grizzly Jig Show next weekend - I have found seminars interesting


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Livescope is the cat's meow in my opinion but it does not equal the 40+ years of time on water. Think of a microscope, there is a focus and a fine focus. Focus will show what is on the slide and you can make a decision due to what you see and fine tune will show the nitty gritty allowing an even more positive ID. I started out with no electronics and in a nutshell I had to learn the fish. After getting electronics the biggest thing it did for me was to instill confidence that what I thought I knew was in fact correct. It also let me know that sometimes what I thought I knew wasn't correct but that is ok because knowing when you are wrong will only strengthen your knowledge if you learn from it.

Livescope is awesome but it does not overpower having a basic knowledge of fish behavior gained from time on the water. When you catch fish without electronics or with electronics you should learn something and when you don't catch fish with or without electronics you still learn something namely what didn't work. Knowing what didn't work is every bit as valuable as knowing what did work.

Every time I would fish for bass in a new body of water in and out of the state I constantly heard in order to do any good you must know the body of water. I did well for myself and I would be asked how did you do so well without knowing the lake or river? I always answered with I don't worry about knowing the water, I know the fish. Knowing the fish is the first step the rest will fall in line.

Hang in there and learn what works and what doesn't work. You can do it, just keep fishing and expanding what you know. If you establish this fishing know how livescope will in time be an asset and not a crutch.

Watched an interview on Facebook yesterday with Todd Huckabee, (Crappie Guide), and Robert Carlisle, (last year's AR, LA, and National Champion winner). They were both asked the question how they would fish right now for crappie without any electronics. They both said cork and jig, move a lot, fish extremely slow. Todd said pay attention to depth of water fish were suspended in and the depths that they were suspended at. Todd said don't overlook water shallower than you think that they will be in.

Just remember, even the highly successful guys on here that get to fish multiple times during the work week have bad days too....and they usually don't talk about those outings. You can find the fish and even bounce a 1/32 off their head with a scope, but sometimes they just don't want it. I have a lake that I dont have much luck fishing brush piles, but you toss jigs or cranks out the back and start pulling and they're all over it. Some areas I catch the biggest fish of anywhere pre spawn, spawn and post, but frustratingly never have any success a month or so after spawn or the remainder of the year. Other guys are catching them here when I cant and its aggravating, but until I figure out the technique nothing will change. You need to have patterns and times of the year, including your various lakes that you have success with and stick to them....then branch out and start filling the gaps. And don't get me wrong, I have a lot of very wide gaps and see plenty of folks around here with a scope that do as well.

Without the challenge the fun would get old and having lived on a couple of stocked catfish ponds where you literally didn't even have to put of a line to get what you wanted, put things in perspective for me.

That's exactly right! I've fished several times this month, with Livescope, and got whooped! WSD on Facebook even posted a recent video where he only caught 4 fish all day with Livescope. It happens to us all, you just don't hear too much about the bad trips.

I got skunked again this morning fishing a slough I had high hopes for. Fished from 10:00 to noon. It was partly cloudy and 55 degrees. The only thing I can figure is the body of water was flooded and the fish didn’t like it. Nimrod on here uses the same jig color almost always. He catches fish consistently with it, so I’ve followed his guidance on that. One less variable to try to figure out. I’ve caught fish on jig poles, but I’ve never caught one on a jig under a floater. I’ve started keeping a little fishing notebook to record when/where/how I fished and my results. I’m giving myself some grace right now due to all the water around here. Every river, ditch and backwater is flooded.

Anyway, I have to go to Dallas next week and that will force me off the water for a while.


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