I know i have worn you out but crappie is a new challenge for me, even as a lifelong angler. Heres the final question (well not really but it sounds good)- i have attached a couple pics i took on my active target 2 (livescope lowrance). On every structure we found fish- lots and lots of fish. And caught enough to confirm they were crappie- black and black nose. However, you would have thought they had no interest in eating. They would follow, then pull up. Or totally ignore. We through everything at them. Caught enough to call it a good day ( all 10 to 11"). At 9 they totally stopped. Just a few bream and a small walleye after 9- we left at 11. So my question- whats the secret. Different color, different bait, live minnows. Is it just heat ? Water was 84 degrees. Just crappie being crappie? I think the livescope only makes it more frustrating when you see more fish than your livewell could hold, giving you the finger!
Ok crappie guys……
- Thread starter redblood
- Start date
I've had my livescope for a couple months now. I'm new to livescope, but have crappie fished exclusively for 30 years. Everything you have said describes exactly what I have experienced with livescope thus far. I am able to catch a few with it, but it seems that I have to pretty much drop it on top of their heads. I know the experts will chime in, but right now I'm having the exact same experience as your describing.
Sometimes they just aren't hungry. Maybe try a smaller jig
Just because you can see them doesn't mean you can make them bite.
When I'm fishing I don't sit on in one spot very long (maybe 5 mins) then I'm moving unless they're biting. Usually the active fish will bite pretty quick.
When I'm fishing I don't sit on in one spot very long (maybe 5 mins) then I'm moving unless they're biting. Usually the active fish will bite pretty quick.
TITANSFAN2104
Well-Known Member
Thats what i have to make myself do. I tend to stay too long. I tell my buddies after 10 minutes we are going but they seem to try and want to stick with it. I tell them we need to keep moving until we find the ones that want to play!!
I know. But its hard for me to leave 200 fish in standing timber. I cant help but think it is water temp to a certain degree
i wrote some posts on black crappie a few years ago you might be interested in, pre-livescope of course. a few disagreed and i quit posting tips, until they installed livescope and started catching more blacks on ky lake.
one tip i will give you, quit parking over the top of them like you would white crappie. once you spook them theyre done and they are very spooky. when they are tight lipped cast a slip float or float and fly rig and pull it thru them slow. a black hair jig, popeye feather jig or black and chart crappie magnet will usually get a few more bites. 85 degree water temps doesnt phase blacks like it will whites.
good kuck
one tip i will give you, quit parking over the top of them like you would white crappie. once you spook them theyre done and they are very spooky. when they are tight lipped cast a slip float or float and fly rig and pull it thru them slow. a black hair jig, popeye feather jig or black and chart crappie magnet will usually get a few more bites. 85 degree water temps doesnt phase blacks like it will whites.
good kuck
TITANSFAN2104
Well-Known Member
Leave and go back ... do it 5 times. You wont ever make em bite. Saturday morning, No telling how many we had turn and come up to our baits and didnt take .
I know your right. Its just hard to do
Leaving non-biting fish becomes easier once you do it a while.
Kinda like letting small bucks walk.
Kinda like letting small bucks walk.
So where are the pics? No pics, didn't happen.
If you find 10 spots or so and you can catch 2-3 keepers off each one you'll have a nice mess of fish. Might even rotate back through those spots later in the day.
Im marking waypoints as i find them
Lol. They are a few posted in other thread . We kept 6 crappie 4 rock bass and 2 bluegill. Not a bad morning. But the bite wasnt as frantic as i would have expectedSo where are the pics? No pics, didn't happen.
I'm still a novice, but I fish with some guys that are incredible with a livescope and a sniping pole in their hands. According to them: Color doesn't matter. Jig type doesn't matter. Presentation and finding fish that want to bite is everything. Two of these guys fish together 3 or 4 times a week. Usually they catch the limit. They move fast, are always scanning, and they are experts at presenting the bait. Keep in mind, they are mostly fishing open water for suspending fish. They just fish with whatever is tied on their poles. One day a couple weeks ago one of them used a blue and white rubber jig and the other one used a chartreuse hair jig. They caught the limit. They keys are bait presentation, finding fish that want to bite, and not wasting time on fish that aren't feeding. The only thing I've seen that changes that is minnows. I've seen days where it was really tough and a couple of the guys in our group would go get minnows, start tipping their jigs, and start catching them pretty good.
I've been trying it some and I don't see any value in it. I've also tried crappie nibbles with no positive results. It really seems like the fish that want to bite will bite anything and the ones that don't want to bite won't bite no matter what.
Treat it how you would if you weren't staring at them on the screen knowing exactly what they're doing. Before live scope what would you have done to make them bite? Change baits? Bigger/smaller presentation? Change casting locations/positions? Dead stick or give it a wiggle, etc. If it weren't for the screen, instinct would probably tell you "this is a bust right now" and you would try elsewhere.
The fish aren't doing anything different down there. People see all those fish on the screen and think it's going to be easy, but the old saying still holds true: It's called fishing not catching.
The fish aren't doing anything different down there. People see all those fish on the screen and think it's going to be easy, but the old saying still holds true: It's called fishing not catching.
Great advice. I actually never crappie fished till now. I was a stream fishermen and fished the same rivers and creeks that i grew up on. In the rivers we floated, i knew every bluff. I couldnt see the fish, but if the weather was right and i oicked the color of the day- the fish would bite. M some days fair, some days great. But typically didnt have to make a lot of casts to catch a fish. I guess spotted bass and smallmouth are just less picky than crappie
If you want to just sit on a piece of structure and really catch em. Try winter fishing. The fish are usually piled up together and you can have the lake all to yourself. My favorite time!
if its oil based your wasting your money and time. about the only thing that ive found that halfway works is gulp waxies or lil minnows. when black crappie are on wood or sucking bugs in the pads waxies work wonders, either real or gulp. if they are bulking up on minnows heading into fall, lil minnows will work.
I watch a ton of brandon lester and he absolutely destroys them on the same lakes i fish in the falll to Christmas window. If the leaves are orange, hes catching huge crappie and lots of them. 60 degree water seems to be his sweet spot
I am far from a good crappie fisherman but a guy down the road who I hunt and fish with sometimes is one of the best locals around. Honestly, he's too smart for his own good at times which can be frustrating but he knows his stuff! He even has the nick name of "Crappie Ed" lol. We have bumped into a few livescope guys and whenever we came across them I shut my mouth, and would just listen to what he'd be asking or telling them. What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward lol.
Stuff like live scope is no different(IMO)than a cell phone in that it will probably dumb people down to what they really need to be doing or learning. Crappie are finicky as heck! Make 100 casts and not get a nibble. Move that cast just a hair in one direction and you have a limit before you realize it. JMHO.
Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL
Stuff like live scope is no different(IMO)than a cell phone in that it will probably dumb people down to what they really need to be doing or learning. Crappie are finicky as heck! Make 100 casts and not get a nibble. Move that cast just a hair in one direction and you have a limit before you realize it. JMHO.
Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL
I'm no expert by any means but I am catching 14 to 16 inch white crappie right now when my livescope buddies are doing good to catch 7 to 9 inch black crappie and wondering what the heck I am doing different and how I'm catching fish without live scope. From here on thru the fall when the water dips into the 50s I am pulling crankbaits and covering lots of water. I'm watching a screen...but it's a split screen of the lake mapping and down scan. I'm following contours and fishing flats and some ledges. The fish I catch are scattered. Catch a couple in one spot...make a few more passes and once that Peter's out, keep moving. Get a couple more. I may only get 7 to 10 fish in a morning trip but they'll be sure nuff big uns that you don't even have to measure to know they are keepers. It gets better in the fall when they start really bunching up again. Some of those days will keep you REAL busy on the crankbait rods. Note the screen shot of my down imaging. Note that fish to the left of it...but hardly nothing actually in cover. That's a crappie hotel thing I sunk . You can see my trolling lanes on the map...following an old creek channel.
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Another channel to check out if you haven't already is Gordon Pettie Fishing. He fishes Tim's Ford, Woods, and down here on Guntersville. He bass fishes a good bit, but has lots of livescope crappie videos. Pretty sure he's from Lincoln County.
its made some young average joes into some outstanding pros. prior to 2019 no one had heard of some of these guys. kind of fun looking at their winnings stats and seeing goose eggs for the most part before FFS.I am far from a good crappie fisherman but a guy down the road who I hunt and fish with sometimes is one of the best locals around. Honestly, he's too smart for his own good at times which can be frustrating but he knows his stuff! He even has the nick name of "Crappie Ed" lol. We have bumped into a few livescope guys and whenever we came across them I shut my mouth, and would just listen to what he'd be asking or telling them. What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward lol.
Stuff like live scope is no different(IMO)than a cell phone in that it will probably dumb people down to what they really need to be doing or learning. Crappie are finicky as heck! Make 100 casts and not get a nibble. Move that cast just a hair in one direction and you have a limit before you realize it. JMHO.
Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL
Exactly what we ran into as well. We'd have limits(or good hauls everytime)of big crappie and VERY few dinks, while they'd have a few keepers with a boat load of shorts that got thrown back. I also want to clear a line from my previous post.
"What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward"
I think a better way to word that would have been the ones we ran into who had them specifically for targeting crappie in hopes that it would improve their success were usually the dissapointed ones. I didn't mean to come across like a jerk lol.
Youngsters and their technology! I'm a proud live scope hater lol I think it is going to mess things up. Cell phones are a great thing to have. They can get us out of emergencies, etc. Now they've evolved into something else. They're also also ruining an entire generation. We are in the good years of live scope, let's see where it is in 10-20 years. The younger guys relying on it so heavily worries me more than anything. Hopefully I'm wrong. I don't see it as a catching all the fish issue, more of just crowded areas and over pressured fish. I'm far from a crappie master so my opinion doesn't amount to much.
Fall is definitely the best time of year for crappie fishing IMO.
No doubt you can catch some big crappie pulling crankbaits, but I despise it. It's like reeling in an old shoe. The fish just lays on top of the water and skis to the boat. I'd rather catch 1 crappie livescoping than 10 pulling cranks. I get the anticipation of seeing him turn and come for the jig, I get to feel the thump, and I get to fight a 12+ inch crappie on a 15 foot livescope rod. That is some big fun.
