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How soon do you guys swap colors or baits when fishing with livescope? Went today and had several fish come up and look at baits but very few commit. At what point does it go from you’ve got the wrong color, to your presentation sucks?
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I have tried every color and live minners when they do that but cant find anything to make em commit i have went all the way down to 1/64 if you figure it out then let me know.
If after a couple have done that then I’m changing something. That tells me they are hungry and want to eat, just not what I’m presenting. Might not work but I keep trying.
After 2-3 different changes and several different presentations I’m moving on!
Well now that I have gotten LiveScope it makes me wonder how I ever caught a limit. (But I do know how!)
As I have learned so much more about these fish using forward facing sonar.
One just like you and I these fish are curious by nature so most of the time one or some of them is going to take a look. Some are not going to move off the couch unless you hit them with something.
Have you ever walk in someone’s house or a place that say serves candy or cookies that you love and you’re just not hungry but you look anyway? These fish are no different. They also don’t mind pushing it out of their sight by running it off.
Sometimes it has nothing to do with presentation or color or scent. It’s just they are not hungry or feeding.
But I can tell you this, if you drop a jig minnow or any kind of bait down for that fact and they run off, it’s obvious they don’t like what you have put before them. They are just some days they aren’t hungry while you’re there.
So what do I do when it’s like that. I either go finds some fish that are biting. Turn my side and down scan on and go locate new fishing spots. Fine tune my LiveScope and boat control skills. Or simply enjoy being on the water out of the chaos of this world. But mainly waiting on the bite to start. I use too deer hunt, and if you did or still do, how many times did you set in that stand for hours and see absolutely nothing? How many times did you see other wildlife but no bucks and so on. Now that we have forward facing sonar think of it as hunting not so much as fishing. Always remember you catch fish by covering water!
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I keep two or three outfits rigged with different baits, and will rotate through them fairly quickly, usually after 6-8 unproductive casts, just to see if their mood changes based on color, size, weight, etc. Sometimes it matters, but most times, it seems like if there’s a biter or two in a group, or the group is active in general, the first few casts will get them regardless. If I go 10-15 minutes and a couple dozen casts without a committed bite or two, I’m out of there. I figure there’s always a school somewhere willing to bite, I just need to stay mobile enough to eventually find it.
I think a lot of my problem is I haven’t caught enough fish to really have confidence in my presentation and/or a color choice. What fish we have caught has been more by luck than skill. I guess next time I go fishing, I need to only take one rod, be it a jig pole or casting setup, and fish one technique. I bounce around from jigging to casting back and forth.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Auston22688
Bud, It doesn't have to be you...........It may not even be Crappie you're looking at. Goo, White Bass, Shell Crackers, etc... will run up to look, and with Livescope LVS32 connected to a 9in Chartplotter how can you really know. LVS 34's on a 12in screen is not a perfect world for identifying species. Usually if fishing structure you will see a fish shoot out of the cover straight to the jig.......thump. You land the fish, it's a Crappie, you think they all are. I'm here to tell you plenty of fish look like a Crappie on Livescope..........exactly why I don't watch the screen so my presentation is as perfect as I can offer. You can't watch the screen and your rod tip, line sink rate, is your line perfectly vertical, etc... at the same time....:twocents
I can tell you, too, that a lot of times when you see that "fish" come up out of the cover and "stop & admire your bait" ... the fish is actually "tasting" that bait (ie: the bait is IN the fish's mouth, albeit only for a split second).
I found this out after several occasions of seemingly having the fish come up and look over my bait & then turn away. I decided to try and slowly pull the jig away from the fish, so as to mimic a baitfish fleeing from the rising fish. There were several of those occasions where when I did that my rod tip bent down a little & the jig didn't move on the screen (& neither did the fish). And if I kept on pulling the rod tip up a bit faster ... you guessed it ... "fish on" !!
I’ve often wondered if rhat was happening. But I could never feel anythingQuote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
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That was my problem, as well. I'm generally pitchin double 1/16oz jigs on 6# test mono with a 12' med/lite rod .... out to cover that's generally 12-25' away, letting it pendulum swing back to me about a foot overtop of the tops of the brushpile or tree limbs. That doesn't always translate into a direct taught line between the rod tip and the jigs, which allows for a slow presentation ... but also creates a buffering slack (pendulum curve) in the line, that doesn't transmit the "thump" all that well unless the fish does actually hit it pretty hard (or hits it when I'm pulling the rod tip up).Quote:
Originally Posted by Auston22688
But, when I get hits that are within 10' or less, the "thump" is usually more pronounced ... so seeing them on the screen is less necessary, as my reaction time has been honed over decades of casting & slow retrieving a single jig, while waiting for the thump and/or line watching for a slight jump in the line.
Also, as far as changing plastics (size/colors) ... I probably don't switch out often enough :bash but I do make changes if my fishing bud is whackin'em on something I'm not using. :Rofl
I’m a very rank amateur with this stuff. Can’t quit doing what catches me meals of fish long enough to really learn it. I dedicated roughly 3 days to it, leaving trolling gear at home, sink or swim. First two I definitely sank. Skunked. The last, I got on a deep water brushpile with lots of fish, and finally managed to catch a few, but all 6-7 inch dinks.
But I rigged after watching a YouTube video of a pro, rigged like he showed with a tungsten egg pegged a couple feet above the jig. I can’t tell you how many times I’d drop on a fish and they wouldn’t leave the egg sinker alone, ignoring the jig and chasing the sinker. Thinking I’m messing with bream or something.
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I wouldn't be too sure about that, JW ... friend of mine watched a buddy of his, fishing with a float & minner, jerk and cuss & jerk and cuss, saying he was getting bites & just couldn't figure out how he was not hooking up. After watching him for awhile (& laughing under his breath), he told his buddy that the Crappie were hitting his sinker & not the minner :Doh:Quote:
Originally Posted by J White
He was watching the screen the whole time & saw them the whole time, while he snatched out Slabs one after the other (on jigs). His buddy just wouldn't get with the Livescope program, insisting that he could catch them just fine with the float/minner rig.
more often than not this is the case ,,,,,pay attention and you can ketch them ....
they often investigate possible prey ,,,,,you are seeing it in person live on your live scope ....
3 main reasons for it ,,,,
1 ... a better visual
2 ....a sniff test
3 ....to close the gap in case it is edible
they might nip at it to actually taste it as well , but most of the time , they have made up their lil fish minds by the time they have closed the gap ....
make very sure you move it SLOWLY away from them in an upwards fashion and DO not stop going up with it
2 reasons for this ....
1 ....it resembles a prey item moving away from a predator
2 ....it also helps to keep them from a for sure positive identification
one thing for certain ....if they have interest in it ....
they are for sure positive ketchable .....
scent plays a huge role in it as well , if it doesn't smell like food , it can cause them to lose interest ....
scent is a really huge thing so many dismiss ....
fish use them nostrils ....
just like us ....
we did tests back when with and without scent on jigs . 3 to 5 fish would rush the jig and just look at it and then swim back to the cover IF it didn't have scent ....
drop it to the same fish with scent on it and they would repeat the scenario ....
and one would race in and smack the fire out of the jig EVERY time !
Personally I don't give them a target without a hook involved somehow.
JW one good thing about being on Crappie.com. you can get some really good information without having to worry about getting information to promote some sponsor and his products that those pro’s and guides have to promote on TV or YouTube.
With that said, for me until forward facing sonar came along, I can tell you I rarely when casting put a weight in front of my bait to make it drop faster. This is only my opinion, but I am a big feel guy. I found by putting that weight in front of that bait, it taken a lot of feel away from that lite bite. I am a huge line watcher but I have a problem. The older I get that’s getting a lot harder, so I have to depend on feel even more.
But the funny thing about feel and weight, if I am fishing say 18 to 20 foot deep I generally will go to a drop shot method and use a heavy weight and if that crappie as much as breaths on it I can feel it. There is something about that weight being above that bait that kills the feel.
To end with this rambling. Continue to ask questions. Pay close attention and you catch success rate will increase. I have been fishing all my life and I learn a lot from my fellow crappie anglers. I also found stop watching the screen so much and go back to fishing. I use my LS to locate, and get accurate count down to top of where crappie are. I will also use it from time to time to see at what depths they start reacting to the bait. Meaning sometimes the fish maybe say 12 foot deep, but he may see the bait two foot down. The moment he sees it and starts reacting start a slow retrieve or hold it in place. No prey jumps into the lions jaws.
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plus the weight above the jig often makes it look less life like and even gives the fish pause to go investigate the big ole sinker as wellQuote:
Originally Posted by silverroach
Ya know, the YouTube vid I watched and tried to mimic, was from a guy known for livescope that has been making the tournament world cry…Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
Who knows, maybe he can catch fish rigged like that just because he’s so good? He wasn’t promoting any brand of tackle in the video.
This has got me thinking though, next time I try this, I may drop one of those egg sinkers pegged tight against a small finesse type hook, just to see what happens lol. Or maybe a bare jighead. The sinkers I was using are 3/8 ounce tungsten with a black epoxy or some such coating. Pretty compact little things.
This is reminding me of 25 years ago when I started pulling crankbaits -
I had some entrenched ideas that were wrong, and actually keeping me from being successful. Also I had very little confidence in what I was doing.
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I've had pretty good success using a tiny bait with egg sinker above for weight to get deep.
I am certainly no expert, :) I keep 3-6 rods ready with different colors. I will switch out often till I find a color that gets bit, then stick with that.
Some times after catching several on a brush pile , then they quit biting, a change in color will get a few more bites.
Of course there are times when they bite everything , and times when they bite nothing. I will also vary presentation , sometimes they
want it moving , sometimes they want it still .
one thing I have noticed recently , a small pile with just a few fish will sometimes produce as many bites as a larger pile that is loaded.
The small piles seem to hold bigger fish. So I don't skip the small piles , but I don't spend much time on them either.
Last time out, I found a loaded pile , caught two on the first two drops, then spent way too much time trying to make the fish bite.
Nothing worked.
MO
I know it’s hard for me to find a group of keeper size Sacalait only to have them completely ignore or follow but not bite my jig. The hardest part is to leave these fish to look for others that want to play.
Going Catching says that after 3 good presentations and you don’t get any takers it’s time to move.
sounds simple but hard to do.
Getting better but still find myself not moving fast enough.
BON TEMPS!!
When you say you have 3-6 rods rigged, is everything the same just a different color plastic? Or are you trying different weights too?Quote:
Originally Posted by mozingo1952
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Sometimes a Bigger bait is better than down sizing! When it looks like the photo below sometimes not much matters! :fingerdance
I started pre tying different jig head sizes, styles of bait and colors on about a 6 to 8 to inch leader with a split ring at the top, then on the main line a heaver weight with a snap swivel below the weight. I can quick change several times during the trip and can switch right back. Just un snap remove the jig and re snap a different one on.
No retying! I just throw the the one I was using on the deck, might reuse it later. Only one rod needed, although I allays have two rigged this way. Also braid main line and flouo leader. :cheers2
Attachment 495709
facts bro ....fall shad are big fellas ....case in point ....Quote:
Originally Posted by keeferfish
I know a location currently that one can fill the live well quickly with a regular size bait and regular size fish as well ....
but if you put on a large jig about 4 inches long and pitch it in the same location .....the fish size goes up to stupid big quickly :cheers2
Depends on time of the year. In the summer , when newly hatched shad are tiny, I will have some " tiny jigs" rigged up.Quote:
Originally Posted by Auston22688
Most of the year , the rods will all have 1/4 oz jig heads . Baits will be plastic , different colors and profiles. I still catch most of
my fish on white/chartreuse or blue/chartreuse.
I admit some days , if the first offering is catching fish , the other rods stay in the rod holders.
<MO
I catch a lot of fish that I do not feel. This is what I do. I use a double jig rig or have a split shot above the jig. If you are fishing vertically you can see the fish start to move off and your top jig or sinker is following the fish but never feel a thing. Something else I watch for is the reaction of the fish when it gets to my jig. If it makes a quick movement it probably got it in it mouth. Something else I do is if a fish is following my bait up I will stop and when the fish stop right at my bait I give it a jerk and if it is on then great but if not I will let it fall right back to the fish and it will bite more times than not IF it didn't run off when I jerked.. I have always heard that you can't feel most of the bites but I didn't believe it until I got livescope. For the past couple of months I have caught more fish that I didn't feel a thing than what I have caught when I felt a bite..
Never have and been using livescope over 5 years . May vary way it is presented a little .
If they don't move , usually means they have not seen it . A few times it has taken as many as a dozen drops to get one to move . Then get bait hammered .Quote:
Originally Posted by BON TEMPS
Many don't use heavy enough jig to keep in contact . They are missing lots of light bites . If I see a fish react I will set the hook and catch fish some saying are not biting .Quote:
Originally Posted by CrappiePappy
I’ve watched fish come up to my jig but never feel anything. I can never tell if they’ve got the jig or just in front of it blocking the sonar beam. Every time I set the hook, nothing’s there.
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Sometimes you don't feel anything. Try not to really set it just pull up a little faster, when you feel weight then pull harder.Quote:
Originally Posted by Auston22688
I do think I snatch it out of their mouth the majority of the time
Light hook set does not cost anything . Many fishermen miss light bite cause the hesitate to set a hook.:twocentsQuote:
Originally Posted by Auston22688
We all fish for that big Thump. :) but sometimes, and it is hard to describe , but the rod tip just feels different, it can feel lighter or heavier , In either case I set the hook.
Or just lift the rod tip slightly , if resistance is felt , then set the hook. I always use crappie nibbles.. I think it causes the fish to hold the
bait just a fraction of a second longer. One thing I have noticed since I started using livescope, I forget to watch my line. a bad habit.
I am making a conscious effort to shift my focus to my line when I see a fish approach my bait. Looking for that " tic " or momentary
slack.
your mileage may vary
MO