Found a bed today..

Went to the electric-only lake today after the rain storms passed, and found some shellcracker beds in 8-11 FOW. I threw 3 different colors of Trout Magnet, and a bunch of my hand-ties, with nibbles and power wiggler bits and such - no dice. Put a red wiggler on a 1/32 bare head, let it go to the bottom, and I finally started getting bit. They would suck up that worm and head for the timber like freight trains. (Why are the beds always next to a gnarly sunken treetop snag-o-rama?). I had 3 really big ones break off on 3 lb Sunline Troutist Area Meister line, trying to keep them out of that brush. Later I caught one that had one of my jigs still in his mouth! There were also some bull bluegill hanging around. I had a GREAT evening, and took home a cooler full. The water was 77F; 3 weeks ago it was still 65F. I'm thinking there's going to be some full moon action coming up. Heck, it is already starting.
:cheers2
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Gorgeous fish ! Congrats on finding that bed. Should give you some fun for a while.

Interesting in that those appear to be female redear. That tells me that the males are right behind them and will be guarding that nest for the next couple of days. I think the females will come in kind of early and broadcast their eggs, then the male soldiers will pull guard duty. Their bodies get worn down after two days on guard duty!!

Nice, nice fish. Yeah, they always find a gnarly place to camp by!
Bob

Been following your thread for a while but I just now translated your screen name. My son went to Tech, obviously I didn't.

good day, nice fish

Good job

Good ones, congrats!

mighty fine panfish right there , some good eats for sure
congrats on that visit and KABOOM is the word :highfive

Nice fish! looks like you had a good time.

Nice..... Very Nice...

Congrats on your catch some beautiful fish.
LittleJohn

Looks like filleting sized fish. Nice ones for sure. Congrats.:)

taco time!

I filleted the biggest redear, blackened it, and had some sourdough toast and watermelon on the side. Fantastic lunch!

Beautiful fish.

Regards


Sent from my iPad using Crappie.com

Now that is a fun trip right there! Congrats!

Here are three screenshots I took on my Garmin 93sv UHD of the bed while catching those fish. The bed is one I found previously. As SK says "do your homework", which for me meant riding the entire shoreline of the lake in 8 to 10 feet of water, with side scan on, and setting waypoints on every bed I found. Until recently, these beds had no fish when I checked them. Water hit 75F last week finally, and they started moving in. This is the first bed I checked, and I went no further that evening. It is hard to leave biting fish of this quality.

All shots were taken basically sitting still (notice the MPH is zero in all of them), but two were taken by turning the trolling motor with the tiller in a slow arc. This works well when the wind is turning you around on anchor, so you can confirm the bed position before you cast. I never use marker buoys as this is a heavily pressured public lake, even more so with the C19 Wuhan China virus disruption. I don't want other anglers to know what I am doing, really. Most are beating the banks for green carp. PS Livescope is not very useful for finding beds with bream on them, IMO. I have not fooled with Perspective mode much, from what others have posted, the range is short. Side imaging actually works better IMO. I don't have the PLS on the kayak. Now that I know where these beds are, I will revisit with the Livescope in the Perspective mode on. (I have to move it from the other boat).

In this shot, the boat is anchored with the bed on the right side, and has been sitting still, so the beds are "smeared" into streaks, except at the very top. The fish are moving, and you can clearly see fish right on the bottom, at @28 and 35 feet range, with the shadow indicating the fish are down near the bottom.
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In this shot, the beds are on the left, and I swung the tiller in a slow arc to sweep the beam across the area. I do this to confirm where exactly to cast, right before I cast.
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Another sweep shot clearly showing fish on the beds. This was around noon the day before, and they would not bite ANYTHING. I told them "ahl be back" in my best Terminator voice.
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So if you have a way to manually turn your transducer, i.e. on the trolling motor, you can "sweep" an area for beds/fish by turning the motor in a slow smooth arc. Try it.

I haven’t found any beds holding this year. I could stand some like you posted, very nice fish.

Great catch and explanation of your electronics. It’s time here also, going after them next week, hope to catch some the size you stuck!