Printable View
I just laugh when I read articles about this. I catch 90 percent of my fish at night dragging the bottom. Please do not be scared to cast out let your line go slack. Then slow retrieve across bottom. Trusts me. Bro, youse can thank me later. And this brings up thermocline water temp 87 degrees right now. I'm catching crappie on bottom forty foot deep. I don't know enough about the thermocline to discuss. But this fish just came off bottom in forty fow
Attachment 351355
Interesting, for sure! thanks.
I dunno about that deep but I have had times in the spring during spawn when I had to bounce jigs off the bottom like a bass jig and they would hammer it!
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
Crappie "will" feed down ... I've seen them do it in my home aquarium (practically standing on their heads to trap minnows against the bottom of the aquarium). But, it's not under "normal" circumstances for them to have to feed "down", they just do so when it's "required" for them to feed on certain things. They will feed on emerging critters (aquatic larvae) and crustaceans ... all bottom dwelling critters.
When they're "hugging bottom" (& you catch one with mud on its belly) .... they aren't actually feeding "below" themselves, but your bait is still within their sight range and/or sensory range and they will turn or roll or dip their heads down to grab what they sense as a meal.
Those of us that propose that Crappie don't "go down" after a bait are generally referring to a bait that's running well below them and may be ignored. With the placement of their eyes, it's far easier for them to see a bait that's in front and above them ... which is why one normally sees them, on their electronics, below and to the side of a school of baitfish.
I recently saw a Livescope video where a crappie did indeed move down to consume a jig. The fisherman said that video should be proof that they do feed down.
I too watch them in my aquarium and they feed any way they can. Up, down, sideways. Anyway and every way they can.
Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com
While fishn with Ketchn pitching docks we see it there too.... Hopping or dragging our jig back a lot of times when you go to move it it's several times heavier..... He and I have had some good laughs about a lot of the myths that revolve around crappie.......
So do I. Especially after a couple beers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Slab
Sent from my SM-G960U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
I watched crappie today go down for bait on livescope. Watched them sink, hit jig then come up to visit me!!!!!
My brother and I fish a lake that most of the time all we do is drift. We use electronics to find the depth that the fish are at and we bounce jigs off the bottom. We do very well using that method at that particular lake. It doesn't always work at the other lakes we fish.
Sent from my LML212VL using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
My theory is that as your dragging the lure or bait across the bottom it is kicking up little clouds of dirt and such telling the crappie their is something feeding down. Might be a good lunch. One year we were catching crappies loaded with crayfish. We were using small 1-2 inch crabs bounced on the bottom in weed beds.
I know crappie go down to get a bait during ice season. Watch them on the screen and drop your bait down and you watch them go down to get it.
Often times I crawl a Slider across the bottom, as well as a Road Runner. The way I look at it, you just have give them what they want, not what you want to give them! And if that means a speedy retrieve across the surface (which works amazingly well - at times) or slow crawling it on the bottom, then just do it. I usually start mid depths with a slow retrieve and the start to vary it from there. You just never know. :)
For the past week or so all crappies I caught were bouncing tube on bottom, not deep though only 5-15 FIW. Most of the time crappies would hit the lure on slow drop after I bounce it off bottom about a feet or so.
There is a good YouTube video of them feeding down. I can't find it right now but they do! I can even see them feeding down on my livescope. They are constantly moving in and out and looking up and down from what I see all the time.
I also have Livescope and have had them go down for the bait many times. Myth debunked from my experience.