It Was All About The Channel This Past Crappie Season

Had a few minutes this morning to share some screenshots taken during this past tournament season. It seemed to me that the crappie held tight to channels most of the time. Many of the tournaments were in wind, rain or both, along with lots of muddy water. It could be that the crappie hunkered down in a safe area near or in the channel, or maybe this is just normal behavior. I'll be able to compare screenshots next year and see. I have hundreds of these screenshots saved on my computer and save them by lake for future reference.

I'm pretty sure this was a January shot and you can see I am scanning 133' out each side of the boat. This picture speaks volumes--most of the lake bottom is dead water. There is only one place you had better be fishing if you want to catch anything. :)

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In this picture back in the cold weather, the shot is much deeper. Once again, it is all about the channel. To truly understand this shot, you have to look at the mapchart. Hummingbird maps have a pinkish line that marks the river channel. Note the symbol of the boat and that the channel makes a "U" to the front and right corner of the boat. Now look back at the SI shot. If I had waited a few more seconds to take the shot, you would see that the fish are actually spreading out in the flat in that "U" area. I will add that this is a community hole area that is fished a lot during the cold months.

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Besides channels, don't forget drop-offs as in this shot. Light areas are shallower as seen in the DI. One thing we have not been able to master is the suspended fish. Yes, there are fish on the bottom and most go after those ones. But, as you see between 7.5' and 15', there are some nice crappie suspended in the water column. Kevin--this is what you and Ben are good at catching. We'll figure it out one day.

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The water is still cold, but as you can see, we are shallow. Better be around the channel again. Not sure what the structure is on the left side of the shot.

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Another shot of cold water, but fish are shallow in creek channel. Most are on bottom, but with the picture that has the insert, by the shadow there is at least one suspended off the bottom. Note there is a shadow in the insert on the top left--the fish is most likely looking at the boat and not creating an image. One thing I have learned is that shadows are as important, or even more important, then the actual fish image. Until Humminbird comes out with 3D, the best way to tell where the fish are in the water column is by the length of the shadow.

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I know this is a busy chart, but if you look just to the right of the front of the boat, you will see the channel. The 360 shows a school of crappie in the channel and two on the far bank. We placed 2nd in this tournament.

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These are all from Norman, a lake I have had no success on. Yes, there are docks with lots of crappie as you see in the first two shots. We found them all small. The third shot shows lots of bait and fish chasing bait. We just could not figure out what it took to catch these fish.

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Last shots for today--all from Wateree. This area of the lake was just full of fish. Stripers, cats, bass, huge perch, but no crappie. I'm convinced some were in here and will have to work on it in the future.

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Nice post. Took the time to read it all [emoji1303]


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������, y’all got the locating part down, you just fine tune the presentation part and you’ll be deadly

👍🏻😁, y’all got the locating part down, you just fine tune the presentation part and you’ll be deadly

Thanks for taking time to post all those. Have a SI HB and not real good on reading so appreciate you explaining! Post more if time.

Would it be possible to post details ( manu., model etc.) about the unit used for the side imaging info???

It is the Humminbird Solix 12 with DI, SI, charting and a Humminbird 360 Imaging unit on the back of the boat. One thing I will add is experience still beats technology. There were a number of times that we saw good fish, but they would not bite. It could be part presentation and part environment--wind, rain, cold spell, barometric pressure, falling and rising water, etc.

One other thing is these shots are all used when we are tight-lining from January through April. Now that it is post-spawn, we will long-line and will go from rifle hunting to shotgunning.

Wow, excellent post. Great pictures and explanation of what your seeing. One of the best post I've ever seen on here. Thank you!

Neat post! Thanks for taking the time.


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Roy--coming up your way soon. We have a Fish The Carolinas crappie tournament on Kerr Lake this October. Will have to put the electronics to work and see if we can find some good fish up your way.

Jordan Limit
I may fish that tournement as well as I'm sure many who fish the Bobcat's Crappie Trail will. I live within a couple of miles of the lake, let me know whenever your up this way and I'll see if I can help point you in the right direction based on current conditions. I really enjoy using electronics for crappie fishing and really enjoy your post.

Thanks for the post! Very informative. It took a lot of time to share all of that with us. I appreciate that


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Thanks for taking the time to put together an awesome presentation and demonstration of what you saw by way of your electronics... and for explaining how you digested all of that information to formulate your approach to what you were seeing. Very nicely done indeed.