Normal to see fish on sonar that refuse to bite?

Been out 3 times in the last week longlining on Falls Lake and nary a bite despite seeing tons of fish and bait on sonar views and knowing that my fin spin jigs are at or above their depth at about 10-12 ft at 1 mph.

water is about 51-54 degrees and stained with only about one ft of clarity. Various color jig heads and plastics, mostly bobby garland s’trollers.

Will tipping with minnows make a huge difference? Fish will be moving into shallow water in the next month I would assume but figure I must be doing something wrong to have zero luck so far. Any advice?

I've heard some say they start trolling cranks at those temps in the Western part of the state. Me personally, I'd slow down to 0.5mph Pulling (or Pushing) jigs in water at those temps. You may even want to try Spider Rigging :dono

My thoughts are slow down too. I single pole fish and have to hold it in front of them to get a reaction sometimes.

theysaid

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Originally Posted by SuperDave336

My thoughts are slow down too. I single pole fish and have to hold it in front of them to get a reaction sometimes.

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Same for me. Once they react I can speed up a bit, but just reeling it by them ain’t workin for me either.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I don't longline at all and surely some of the members here know FAR better than I would, but does the average underspin actually run 10-12 feet deep when pulled at 1MPH? I don't know how heavy they are, but if they're your standard 1/16 ounce type jig or maybe even 1/8 ounce, I would think at that speed that they'd pull pretty close to the surface. Crappie feed up, yes, but if the water really is stained and if the water temps are fairly low, I'm not sure that they're chasing 8 or 10 feet to clobber a jig. I'd agree with the others, slow down a bit and see if that helps, partly because I suspect you'd be pulling your jig closer to their level and partly because I think they'll just see the jig and react, possibly have a larger strike zone if they sense it coming and know that they can catch it easily.

Big gizzard shad look a lot like crappie on traditional sonar. That might be what you're seeing, especially this time of year.
As others have said, unless you are pulling some heavier than normal jigs or adding a split shot above your jig, I doubt you're getting to 12 ft. at 1.0 MPH. As reference, my 1/16 oz. curly tail jigs run about 6 ft at 1.0 with 4 lb test mono.
To get an education on depth at a certain speed and weight, find a flat to test your current setup then you'll know for sure what speed equals what depth.

Chris

Try pulling some charlie brewer sliders and slow your speed down to @ .7 mph and see if this will help. This time of the year they seem to like less movement, atleast as far as I can tell. I pull a mix of sliders and southern pro hot grubs. Ive tried stroll'rs and they didnt get bit.

I knew there was a good thread on here to help you. I found it.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/sout...ing-questions/

Butch(GABowman) is probably one of the best longliners in the south. Pay attention to his posts in that thread.

We Livescope fish and for the past six weeks, you need to deadstick your bait within 6 inches of their mouth. You need to figure out which is the head end and keep the bait right in front of their mouth. They are not willing to chase baits right now. As the water warms up, they will should chase more, but with the water in the 40's, they don't seem to be interested. Even by dipping right at their mouth, a small percentage will still not bite.

Should have added we have been fishing Harris the past six weeks and was on Kerr Lake on Monday. Temp was still in the upper 40's. It should be the same on Falls.

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Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

I've heard some say they start trolling cranks at those temps in the Western part of the state. Me personally, I'd slow down to 0.5mph Pulling (or Pushing) jigs in water at those temps. You may even want to try Spider Rigging :dono

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Thanks. I'll slow it down. Didn't think cranks were a viable option this time of the year, interesting.

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Originally Posted by tackleboat

Same for me. Once they react I can speed up a bit, but just reeling it by them ain’t workin for me either.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

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Appreciate the confirmation.

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Originally Posted by Brag

I don't longline at all and surely some of the members here know FAR better than I would, but does the average underspin actually run 10-12 feet deep when pulled at 1MPH? I don't know how heavy they are, but if they're your standard 1/16 ounce type jig or maybe even 1/8 ounce, I would think at that speed that they'd pull pretty close to the surface. Crappie feed up, yes, but if the water really is stained and if the water temps are fairly low, I'm not sure that they're chasing 8 or 10 feet to clobber a jig. I'd agree with the others, slow down a bit and see if that helps, partly because I suspect you'd be pulling your jig closer to their level and partly because I think they'll just see the jig and react, possibly have a larger strike zone if they sense it coming and know that they can catch it easily.

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You're probably right. I'm pulling 1/8 oz heads and my tests showed me in the 8-10 ft depths but they were not scientific really. Maybe I'm still above their depth and the speed is too much. Will slow down.

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Originally Posted by NCkenner

Big gizzard shad look a lot like crappie on traditional sonar. That might be what you're seeing, especially this time of year.
As others have said, unless you are pulling some heavier than normal jigs or adding a split shot above your jig, I doubt you're getting to 12 ft. at 1.0 MPH. As reference, my 1/16 oz. curly tail jigs run about 6 ft at 1.0 with 4 lb test mono.
To get an education on depth at a certain speed and weight, find a flat to test your current setup then you'll know for sure what speed equals what depth.

Chris

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Yep probably a bit shallow still with my 1/8 jig. I need to educate myself futher on sonar returns for crappie. running a Helix 7 and still learning. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by gabowman

Try pulling some charlie brewer sliders and slow your speed down to @ .7 mph and see if this will help. This time of the year they seem to like less movement, atleast as far as I can tell. I pull a mix of sliders and southern pro hot grubs. Ive tried stroll'rs and they didnt get bit.

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I certainly will be slowing down and trying the plastics you suggested. Appreciate it.

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Originally Posted by NCkenner

I knew there was a good thread on here to help you. I found it.
https://www.crappie.com/crappie/sout...ing-questions/

Butch(GABowman) is probably one of the best longliners in the south. Pay attention to his posts in that thread.

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Indeed - read all 39 pages before I posted this one! Thanks.

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Originally Posted by JordanLimit

We Livescope fish and for the past six weeks, you need to deadstick your bait within 6 inches of their mouth. You need to figure out which is the head end and keep the bait right in front of their mouth. They are not willing to chase baits right now. As the water warms up, they will should chase more, but with the water in the 40's, they don't seem to be interested. Even by dipping right at their mouth, a small percentage will still not bite.

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that makes me feel better. My HB Helix is new so maybe it needs to be calibrated for temp? I'm reading surface temp in my kayak but shouldn't be that far off. How was the bite in December compared to now? And when will the fish start chasing more agressively? I need to tweak a few things but thought that longlining was a viable method all year from what I had gathered.

December and January are my freezer fish months. The cold water has the shad and thus the crappie down in the deeper parts of the lake, making it easy to find them. You may want to consider tightlining in those two cold months. With a couple of warm days this week and with a couple of days in the 70's next week, you should be fine longlining.