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Kids Love Crappie Video Fishing by Brad Wiegmann
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“Do you know what Pac-Man is?” I asked Kason. “Yep, it’s that old video game my parents used to play a long time ago!” The young crappie angler responded.
PAC-MAN of course is the 1980 maze action video game that was first released in arcades across the North America where the player controls Pac-Man who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating a large flashing dot that were power pellets resulted in the ghost temporarily turning blue and could be eaten for bonus points.
So how does Pac-Man relate to crappie fishing? It’s because anglers using Lowrance Activetarget, Garmin Live Scope or Humminbird MEGA Live to catch crappie are noted to be video fishing. Truth is there’s a lot of similarity to Pac-Man and video fishing for crappie.
While the object of the Pac-Man is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The object of crappie video fishing is to have a crappie eat your dot. The dot is a lure the angler is dangling in front or just above the crappie to eat.
Similar to Pac-Man crappie anglers are chasing the crappie through a maze of brush, lay downs or even open water. If an angler spooks or misses them the crappie will swim off without being caught, however, if the crappie eats the lure the angler wins.
Even stranger is the face the ghosts in Pac-Man have their own distinct artificial intelligence and act differently. That sounds just like crappie that seem to have an attitude where one day they are aggressive and actively chasing lures, but other days so spooky you can’t even get a lure near them.
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“It’s great to have more kids getting involved in fishing and some of it is kids wanting to go because it’s like a video game,” said B’n’M Poles Pro John Harrison from Mississippi, continued, “It’s is similar to Pac-Man you just want the fish to eat your lure to win the game.”
On a recent outing Harrison was showing a young female angler how to use his live imaging sonar to actually watch the lure as it dropped down. She noted that fishing that way was like playing a video game.
Harrison has a unique setup with two units and two transducers allowing each angler to see and control the beams from the sonar unit. “I use a B’n’M Poles Diamond Series Jig Pole that’s 14 foot long with a baitcasting reel,” Harrison continued, “I actually just started using it and love it. It’s sensitive with some backbone and one of the best looking poles I own.
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Crappie pro Kevin McCarley, Harrison’s team partner in crappie tournaments, agrees that video fishing is similar to video games. “Young anglers like watching the lure and seeing a crappie come up and bite a lure,” McCarley continued, “Although, I was positioning the boat the young man was catching them by himself without any problems. I think it’s great to get more anglers involved in fishing and it seems like video fishing will be bringing in more young anglers for sure.”
The lure size, color pattern and style all make a difference in the number of bites and crappie caught on any trip video fishing. Charlie Brewer’s Slider Company pro McCarley brings several bags of soft plastic Sliders out video fishing. “Slider has small grubs to big grubs to pick from. I normally pick according to the size of the baitfish crappie are eating,” McCarley continued, “I like matching the hatch.”
As for a fishing rod the B’n’M Poles pro McCarley uses the Mossy Oak Edition Brushcutter. He like the looks of it and the fact it’s well designed for live sonar fishing. It features the Mossy Oak Elements Agua Blacktip pattern, EVA foam handle and built with IM6 graphite blank.
It’s amazing to see how fast young anglers catch on to video fishing for crappie. That’s great for growing the sport of fishing and getting more young anglers out fishing.
