Someone please enlighten me

We put some stake beds out last year in some promising looking spots. We were pleased this spring when we started marking a bunch of fish using them. Over the past couple months I've returned to them in attempt to catch some fish off them with no luck. I can clearly see the fish suspended in and around them, but cannot buy a bite. Most of my attempts have been vertical with a jig, but I've also tried casting to them and counting down. I've also tried a minnow under a float on a couple occasions. What gives? Is it just coincidence that I'm there on the wrong day at the wrong time every time? I know I'm right amongst the beds cause I can feel my jig against the wood stakes. Starting to lose confidence because I don't know how to fix the problem. [emoji848]

Crappie use some structure only seasonally . I have several spots only good around spawn and others good in hot weather ect . Few of my spots hold Crappie most of the year . I have over 500 marked in my home lake alone and a fair number in others I fish . Trick is knowing which area to look based on time of year , weather
and water levels .

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by NIMROD

Crappie use some structure only seasonally . I have several spots only good around spawn and others good in hot weather ect . Few of my spots hold Crappie most of the year . I have over 500 marked in my home lake alone and a fair number in others I fish . Trick is knowing which area to look based on time of year , weather
and water levels .

---

If you can see the fish holding on one of your spots, can you usually catch em? At least most of the time?

Sounds like my last few crappie trips. Dont have an answer but id love to hear what everyone else says.

You may need to borrow a camera. You fish those things under a few different conditions and winds etc. and don't catch one sounds like it's maybe a non game fish like carp or something. You might try a real small hook rigged on a slip bobber and a small piece of worm set right on them. Not much that swims won't bite that...maybe get some insight.

Usually the only cover that will be productive over a lot of the year are the ones in the very most prime spots that have the,depth temperature stability,oxygen levels,proximity to feeding areas, etc that crappie return regularly to no matter if they wander off occasionally.

Probably 5 or 6 of the lakes I fish regularly developed grass beds in the last 10 to 15 years.And the shad populations have exploded.The result is they spend a lot more time in the grass and following the baitfish then "staying around the house" so to speak. It has changed fishing those lakes considerably.

They will pay off in time, stay in touch with them.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5e5ced26df.jpg this is the only pic I have taken of one of the beds. Most of the time, the fish I'm seeing are related closer to the stakes or right over top of them. I sorta thought this looked more like a school of white bass or something but I know they are usually eager to smack a jig or minnow too and they did not on that day. What kind of fish do y'all think these are?

They may very well be post spawn crappie that aren't interested in feeding. Try them again in a week or ten days. I crappie fish year around on the north end of Kentucky/Barkley and the middle of May is my absolute least favorite time of year to fish.

Try casting a jig under a cork. Sometimes brush I fish vertically spooks fish. They dont leave just dont bite. Stay off em 20 yards ad pitch a jig under a cork and see if that helps.

pretty large mess of fish on that screen shot ......you might try down sizing your bait to really small .
and as posted before sometimes it seems if you don't sit right on top of them it helps as well

FOR SOME REASON WE ALL THINK IF WE FIND FISH THEY WILL BITE BUT THAT IS JUST NOT SO,NO NIBBLE,NO MINNOW NO JIG,HAVING SAID THAT SOMETIMES YOU CAN COACH ONE OR TWO TO HIT BY DOING SOMETHING OUT SIDE OF THE NORM,SAY A HEAVY JIG WITH PLENTY OF POPS,A VERRY SMALL JIG WITH MAYBE A SPLITSHOT OVER IT,SOME OF THE TIME ONLY A VERY SLOW MOVING BAIT,SOMETIMES STRAIGHT OVER THEM WITHOUT MOVING BAIT AT ALL,BUT AT TIMES ON DYNAMITE WILL WORK,WHEN I SEE FISH LIKE THAT AND I DID A FEW TIMES THIS YEAR,I MOVE ON FOR MORE EAGER FISH,MAY COME BACK AND TRY LATER,BUT WE ALL HAVE DAYS OF SEEING FISH LIKE THAT ,IT IS WE LIKE TO MAKE OTHERS THINK WE CAN CATCH EVEN THE MOST STUBBORN ANYTIME,ANOTHER THING WE LEAVE MORE FISH THAN WE CATCH AT MOST ANY GIVEN SPOT,WHY DID WE NOT CATCH THEM ,THEY SHUT DOWN AND ONLY DYNAMITE WILL GET THE REST,AS FOR YOUR PIC,LOOKS GOOD AND I WOULD BET A COKE THEY ARE CRAPPIES.NOW I KNOW MANY OF US USUALLY CAN COACH A FEW OF THEM TO BITE BUT HAVE PROVE MYSELF WRONG MORE THAN ONCE,MOST OF MY FRIENDS THINK I CAN BUT I KNOW DIFFERENT,LOL,MY SECRET

this is the fun of fishing, the thrill of the hunt. when all else fails, and you just cant stand it anymore. toss a cast net on them suckers. just pray its not a school of channel cats. lol what a mess that can be! i agree with the worm idea, almost everything eats worms.

Hook a worm on and drop it in among those dots and see what happens. It looks like crappie to me, but it may not be.

Throw a cast net to verify. Drop worm down. Those look like typical crappie


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No cast nets !! In most cases it's illegal to use cast nets on Sportfish ... and in the other case, you likely wouldn't get the net back, anyway, once it got hung up in the stakebed :Doh:

Isnt it illeagel to keep the game fish in a cast net? Not to throw the net???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

No cast nets !! In most cases it's illegal to use cast nets on Sportfish ... and in the other case, you likely wouldn't get the net back, anyway, once it got hung up in the stakebed :Doh:

---

He would obviously have to throw the net on the outside of the stakes:)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by andywhitaker611

Isnt it illeagel to keep the game fish in a cast net? Not to throw the net???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

---

Yes ... it is illegal to "keep" sport fish caught in a cast net, not simply throwing it. And I know that many people SAY "use a net" or "use dynamite", etc., etc. and they're just kidding ... but, without any disclaimer to that effect, there may be those that think it's OK to do, simply because they read/heard someone (on here) mention doing it.

Crappie.com does not condone ANY illegal or unsportsmanlike conduct, nor are we legally responsible for such !!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Yes ... it is illegal to "keep" sport fish caught in a cast net, not simply throwing it. And I know that many people SAY "use a net" or "use dynamite", etc., etc. and they're just kidding ... but, without any disclaimer to that effect, there may be those that think it's OK to do, simply because they read/heard someone (on here) mention doing it.

Crappie.com does not condone ANY illegal or unsportsmanlike conduct, nor are we legally responsible for such !!

---

Ok. I am assuming he would know he couldnt keep them..maybe not tho

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by andywhitaker611

Ok. I am assuming he would know he couldnt keep them..maybe not tho

---

Lol! I'm aware of the laws. Prolly ain't gonna be throwing no cast net on em.

Lol...I thought you probably would be! Maybe instead of vertical fishing that brush..try long lining baits over the top of it to catch em. maybe they just don't want the bait over them right now


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

If you can see the fish holding on one of your spots, can you usually catch em? At least most of the time?

---

Most times but there are times they are in a non aggressive mood . Just remember the beds hold Bream , Bass , Catfish , and ect so just cause you mark fish they may not be Crappie or fish ready to bite .:twocents

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5e5ced26df.jpg this is the only pic I have taken of one of the beds. Most of the time, the fish I'm seeing are related closer to the stakes or right over top of them. I sorta thought this looked more like a school of white bass or something but I know they are usually eager to smack a jig or minnow too and they did not on that day. What kind of fish do y'all think these are?

---

Tightly packed fish could be large Gizzard Shad .i saw that once where my fishing partner and i was fishing a rock humps. We were catching Crappie and fish were scattered in small bunches . We spotted one with a tight bunch of fish on sonar. My buddy got excited but I called it Shad. He said no way and dropped in and snagged about a foot long Gizzard Shad .:Rofl

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

We put some stake beds out last year in some promising looking spots. We were pleased this spring when we started marking a bunch of fish using them. Over the past couple months I've returned to them in attempt to catch some fish off them with no luck. I can clearly see the fish suspended in and around them, but cannot buy a bite. [emoji848]

---

Crappiehabits, I know exactly what you speak of the link below is video from a large brush pile that I put out about 4 years ago now. It was put out in mid winter and the video is from a year later during the spring. At the time we had fished this pile many times with NO successes, maybe one now and then but no numbers and like you see there was always large numbers of fish holding to it. I kept thinking okay it's just the weather or barometer not right or this or that; I kept going back (and still do go back) time after time going on over four years now, and yes it still holds fish just as thick as it shows in the video and still just one or two now and then. Like you I've been completely puzzled by this scenario, so I started trying analyze the situation first by looking at all of the elements that I used when building this crappie habitat. Though I won't go into all of the detail of all of the components used; I will say that at the time the few people who were aware of how this was constructed have all said that they thought it was probably the most complete and best crappie structure that they had ever seen in there life, and some of these guys have seen quite a few over there years. Which obviously stands to reason that for one it was no surprise to see the crappie holding in these numbers but very much a surprise that we could not catch them. Which leads me to believe only one thing would be the reason for this, and that would be in my quest to build the utmost best crappie habitat that could be built that I may have actually out done myself. And I'm thinking that could also hold true for yourself; now let me explain, I'm trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat. What I'm saying is that this particular build had every element that crappie would need for existences, from attracting and holding bait fish for food as well as shelter for themselves as well as there young after the spawn. It is strategically positioned closed to deep water which can offer a current from time to time but located in more stable medium depth water. In short; after over 4 years of monitoring the crappie at this location I'm thinking they tend to have everything they need (food) all the time, there for when I show up to fish we can only manage pulling in a couple off of it at best.

* Maybe like the crappie I'm all wet on this, but I have built other shelters that were more just that based on "shelter" and not attracting plankton and a food source and seem to do much better on the less adequate habitats.

https://www.facebook.com/collins.pri...72123034856868

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lonnie84

Crappiehabits, I know exactly what you speak of the link below is video from a large brush pile that I put out about 4 years ago now. It was put out in mid winter and the video is from a year later during the spring. At the time we had fished this pile many times with NO successes, maybe one now and then but no numbers and like you see there was always large numbers of fish holding to it. I kept thinking okay it's just the weather or barometer not right or this or that; I kept going back (and still do go back) time after time going on over four years now, and yes it still holds fish just as thick as it shows in the video and still just one or two now and then. Like you I've been completely puzzled by this scenario, so I started trying analyze the situation first by looking at all of the elements that I used when building this crappie habitat. Though I won't go into all of the detail of all of the components used; I will say that at the time the few people who were aware of how this was constructed have all said that they thought it was probably the most complete and best crappie structure that they had ever seen in there life, and some of these guys have seen quite a few over there years. Which obviously stands to reason that for one it was no surprise to see the crappie holding in these numbers but very much a surprise that we could not catch them. Which leads me to believe only one thing would be the reason for this, and that would be in my quest to build the utmost best crappie habitat that could be built that I may have actually out done myself. And I'm thinking that could also hold true for yourself; now let me explain, I'm trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat. What I'm saying is that this particular build had every element that crappie would need for existences, from attracting and holding bait fish for food as well as shelter for themselves as well as there young after the spawn. It is strategically positioned closed to deep water which can offer a current from time to time but located in more stable medium depth water. In short; after over 4 years of monitoring the crappie at this location I'm thinking they tend to have everything they need (food) all the time, there for when I show up to fish we can only manage pulling in a couple off of it at best.

* Maybe like the crappie I'm all wet on this, but I have built other shelters that were more just that based on "shelter" and not attracting plankton and a food source and seem to do much better on the less adequate habitats.

https://www.facebook.com/collins.pri...72123034856868

---

Thanks. Really cool video. [emoji1303]

That should have read this way:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lonnie84

I'm "NOT" trying to say that I'm the best at building crappie habitat.

---

Nice video but I am pretty sure those are not crappie.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dave and Lynn

Nice video but I am pretty sure those are not crappie.

---

The video does make them look a little odd, but you can look at their dorsal and anal fins and clearly tell they're crappie. At least most of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crappiehabits

The video does make them look a little odd, but you can look at their dorsal and anal fins and clearly tell they're crappie. At least most of them.

---

Looked more like a tree full of Bluegill, to me. Maybe some Crappie hanging out on the far side of the tree, as they did seem to look a bit bigger than those closest to the camera. :dono

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Looked more like a tree full of Bluegill, to me. Maybe some Crappie hanging out on the far side of the tree, as they did seem to look a bit bigger than those closest to the camera. :dono

---

There was definitely a lot of gills in there too.