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Here's a couple of pics of fish on my lowrance elite 7di. Usually on my lake locating them is the toughest part. Once an active school is located it's not difficult to catch them. These and several more schools scattered over the lake had a bad case of lockjaw. Never ran into this before. Beginning to doubt my prowess as a lip ripper lol
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Nice screen shot's. Can't help you with the bite. I can hardly get a mosquito to bite lately.
If you're having a problem getting a jig to light them up, try a blade bait. Color matters sometimes so if you can get a 3 pack of cheap ones to start with you might be better off. Jigging spoons is another option I found some images like that once and worked them hard, only to find out they were catfish.
My first thought is those are not crappie ....not sure what they are but they don't look quite right to me ...lots of fish will "ball" up like that at times though and look deceptively like stacked up crappie .
We call those ant mounds when we find them and they are typically white bass drum and kitty fish stacked on the bottom , now mind ya there may be crappie in that mix , a slab with a jig about 16 inches above it and bounce it repeatedly off the bottom maybe ?
Some folks waste a lot of time fishing over what they think might be crappie. We tend not to look/target for fish, rather we target whatever small bait balls I can find. Where there's bait, there's crappie. If we hit a ball of bait for a bit and nothing happens, we move on to the next. Or, try drifing or trolling to cover water. Then when you get one and you're marking fish or bait, you know you're in the right spot.
The down image looks like it is probably crappie.....but when taking in the 2d in consideration....im with Ketchn, looks like white bass to me from the 2d sonar. This is why I like several different images of the same thing. It allows for a man to get a better idea of whats going on down there.
Go tiny. Micro jigs in the 1/64 ounce or smaller with soft plastics. Two or four pound line. No weights. Just let your micro jig rig sink as slow as possible into the school of fish. Even if the majority have "lockjaw", this method will almost always produce a fish or two, and will at least verify what species of fish they actually are. And, in most cases, if one or two fish will take that rig, so will a bunch more.
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First I'd like to thank everyone for their help. Some great advice. I was thinking maybe they weren't crappie as well. This lake only has crappie perch and cats that school like this. I tried a nightcrawler for a while. Perch and cat will usually bite that. Not a nibble. I then went into shallower water and caught a perch for cut bait. We can't use minnows here so that's the next best thing. I've done well on big crappie in deeper water using it. Not a bite. Well I couldn't stand it. I was sure they were crappie but by now I am doubting there are any in this lake. Knowing I put in enough time and effort that I surely would have caught some if there were lol. I put the camera down just for peace of mind. They are crappie. There are however bait balls around as well. Maybe they are just full of whatever that is. Another thing I saw with the cam was masses of eggs of some kind. I've seen that in the past this time Of year and later. I don't know what kind They are. The local biologist suggested bull frog eggs. I don't believe that tho. These are light colored loose eggs not a solid mass. I can't figure it out. I've heard of bass having a second spawn at times but I can't see how that could be what these are. Their all ways in 20 to 30 ft of water. Any ideas? I give up lol
When all else fails. Put a good lively minnow right over the top of their head. Works for me.:twocents
with the technology there is today...the information out there....the number of people who know how to use it...if everybody catches them at will...it will only be a short while before populations are drastically reduced. Hopefully some of us will not be able to catch fish every time they show up on a screen...I know I do my part LOL.
You are right. I actually enjoy tough fishing. I enjoy deep picky crappie. I laugh once in awhile when somebody tells me the fish don't stand a chance. As long as there's some slabs to catch I don't mind paying my dues. I'm so jealous of the folks that have timber to fish. I have a few bushes. There is some man made structure. The local bass and Panfish club puts in spider blocks every year. All my distant relative's are from Mississippi and Alabama. I was only there once when I was about 7. An old uncle took me fishing. I still remember the timber and moss. I'd be in trouble for sure. Would probably be running from tree to tree like a rabbit in a garden.Quote:
Originally Posted by doggone
We were catching lots of Crappie over rock humps once in a big river . Found some tightly packed fish on next hump on the sonar. My fishing partner was excited but I told him it was too tightly packed and guess Gizzard Shad .First drop and my partner pulled in a foot long Gizzard Shad . :biggrin
Unfortunately were not allowed to use minnows here. Cut bait is as close as I can get and tried that. Tommirows the day Lol. I'll post some pics when I get them tuned in.Quote:
Originally Posted by scrat
No gizzard shad here. Lol
Only fish in this lake is bass. Large and smallmouth. Crappie bluegill catfish and yellow perch. Btw anyone know how to locate bigger perch. All I can find is dinks. Know there are decent ones in the lake. I'd appreciate any help I could get.
We see this a lot on our clear deep lakes. Once we find a school we try to mark them by land marks if possible if not Marker Buoys We like the Arkie black Marker Buoys."you can see them other fishermen cannot"Some times they will not bite.Have to try them at different times of the day"early.late Ect".Try different direction's with your lure or bait.Their is also a feeding bite and a reaction Bite" for a Reaction bite we use a lure with a blade "roadrunner", "roostertail"With the powerful trolling motors we "thrust spooking school of fish"have today especially in clear water.We have to back off the school "even in 20-30' of water For some reason on our lake after 3:00 pm you can get some to bite. Thats why we call it fishing fun figuring them out.We have fished the same Cedar top for 40 years have caught a ton of crappie,bass ect out of that tree.You would think with all the technology we have in fishing gear electronics's,lures ect that cedar tree would be fished out. Can catch a limit tomorrow may not be big.But their will be crappie,bream bass and other fish on that tree.
Jigging spoon
you could take DYNA fishing with you. She MITE scare some of them up. :biggrin
My thoughts exactly :-)))))Quote:
Originally Posted by wannabe fisherman
They are definitely crappie. Caught a dozen pretty nice ones today. They didn't want a slow presentation they wanted a dead still jig. The wind came up a bit and they quit instantly. I'm a happy camper. I CAN catch a crappie lol. Thanks again everyone for the great help.
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Nice catch, glad you figured them out!!!
That's the way to stick with it and figure them out, John. I catch a lot of fish dead sticking through the season. Often I leave my pole out while working the boat and many times when I get back to it there's a fish on.
That will work! GREAT JOB MAN!
Drag a crank though them.
Finally figured them out. Some like it slow these wanted it dead still. Caught 14 keepers yesterday and 6 today. Breeze came up both days and couldn't keep it as still as they wanted I guess they quit bitting as soon as it did. The They weren't picky about what you fished just the presentation. Caught them on trout magnets and shad both. Various colors on the shad. Attack Pac glow seemed to do the best but several different ones produced. FINNALLY. LOL. Thanks again for all the good advice. I appreciate it all.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sawdustsavage
I've had days this summer vertical fishing that the way to get them to take was to let the jig free fall back through them. You could feel them bumping the bait but if you opened your bail and fed them a few strips of line they would have it when you tightened back up. The next day they might be back to thumping it real good. That's just how it goes with deep summer crappie.