What are the Jordan Crappie Doing?

A bit chilly this morning but team "Beast" was on the water for another search and find mission.
Water temps were at 53 degrees and we began at the lower end of Jordan in deeper water at the mouth of creeks and the shad bait balls were there.

Huge bait balls at 30 FOW:

Attachment 179909

Attachment 179910

Check out this screen shot of the monster bait balls we trolled through; we believe the bright larger images are larger fish:

Attachment 179911

Following our hunch that the larger slabs are fat and lazy, we decided to check out shallow areas in the back of creeks as the sun got up. You gussed it; they were there.
We know nothing in fishing is an absolute, but believe the slabs move only as far as is necessary to find comfort (water temps, oxygen, etc). Until the water temps hit the 40s the slabs will stay close to their warm weather hangout and will move from the back of creeks to the relatively deeper water in the creek mouth when forced due to falling temps and/or turnover.
Huge baitballs at 30 FOW, we found quality fish further in the back of creeks in 10-15 FOW. This is a screen shot of the fat quality fish we caught, 11" thru 13 1/2"

Attachment 179917

Great fishing Kevin, you were on fire today!!!

Attachment 179918

Very nice, I love the screen shots!!

It was nice meeting Blondbear at the Ebenezer parking lot yesterday. We saw him later on the water. It's always good to meet people in person that are a part of the Crappie.com family. Saw several other boats out crappie fishing as well yesterday. It was about as good a day as it gets. Kevin was able to get 19 good, solid fish to take home and feed the family, while Charles and I just enjoyed a nice day on the water.

As you can tell by the pictures, the shad are schooling up for cold weather. Let's hope we have an average Winter and all those fish are around for next year. Most of the fish we caught were within about 50 yards of these big schools.

We saw images like those, too, yesterday. Huge schools moving and swirling around. I was fishing two poles with jig/ minnow. My biggest fish came over the side of the boat and I thought she had snagged my other line in the fight. But, no! She had both of my jigs in her mouth and the one I brought her in with was buried inside the top of her mouth. 13 " fish ! Beautiful day on the lake.

Heck yeah!! Nothing wrong with those fish. And I'm loving all the posts of SI/DI hi def screen shots. Technology sure has helped to understand fish patterns and behavior a lot better. Looks like you've quite literally got it down to a science. Nice work.

Question.... How big are the shad in those bait balls? I'm from down east and we don't have any big lakes like that with giant schools of shad or herring. I guess what I'm wondering is how big of a shad will a crappie eat?

Friedfish:

Appreciate your comments. Jordan Limit and I began to share the screen shots so everyone can get an idea what they are seeing while on the water no matter what type of electronics they have on board. JL is very good with the equipment so I will ask him to do more split screen shots with 2D and the other views i.e., SI, DI, and 360.
We have some real smart and experienced Crappie guys on our site and hopefully some of them will also chide in to help us understand what's in the screen shots and what really "are the Crappie doing?
I'm probably wrong but believe the shad to average 1 1/2" in length. I have seen a couple swim up to the surface (probably had a bass or White Perch giving him the evil eye :dono)
Good fishing and we will post the screen shots with what we believe to be an explanation of the images so everyone can at least try a particular tactic/pattern, we will also give the water temp and depth.
See you on the water.

This is a very cool thing you're doing!

Thanks for this post. Congrats on a great day.

Yes! Please keep posting your shots. I like it when you describe your interpretation of what we are looking at, too. I don't have side scan, but the DI is similar . Still learning how to interpret the images.

Enjoyed meeting you guys managed some good ones myself no big ones 13 best I could do right on the bottom, never seen so much bait going to try to get back out there next week

When we passed you on the water, I knew you were in a pretty good place. We stopped by there yesterday and picked up several. Caught an 18.5" striper up in that cove.