how do ya find em in open water?

[T.C.]

How do you fellas locate your fish in the summer? I know all the diff techniques to catch em, i just wanna know how ya find the fish. I know if you find the shad, you will find the crappie. I know they will not be below the thermocline, i know how to find the thermocline. My prob is just finding shad so i will know where i can start fishing. I went yesterday and finished with 16 but i caught em all shootin minows under docks. There are other lakes i fish that the docks are not productive so i need to get in open water and catch em. I just dont wanna waste my time sittin in the blazin sun pullin jigs and spider riggin minnows where the fish dont wanna be. I fish in Florida and many of the lakes i fish arent any deeper that 14ft at the deepest, i have been pullin jigs and spider riggin minnows in the deepest parts of the lake i can find and i am having no luck, i always go back to the docks time after time.

["G"]

Are you seeing crappie on your fish finder? Crappie tend to stack up and they will look stacked like this...... x
x
x x
x
x
x x



Other fish will be kinda strung out like this.........x x x xx

[rocket rich]

stay with what works....Do try to fool Mother Nature

[T.C.]

Are you seeing crappie on your fish finder? Crappie tend to stack up and they will look stacked like this...... x
x
x x
x
x
x x



Other fish will be kinda strung out like this.........x x x xx

I think i need a new unit. I gotta brand new hummningbird pirahnna. It was only $100 so i think it may just not be good enough. I mainly got it for showing depth ans water temp. I may not have the sensitivity set right bc i dont see anything on it really. I usually longline at .9 to 1.1, should i just troll faster so i can cover more water then slow down when i hit a area with fish?

[skiptomylu]

Also know that bass will show on your screen lots of times from the bottom to the top even in water 20' and deeper, but crappie will most likely be in a 5' level. In other words lets just say your in water 25' deep and you see fish holding from 17' up to 12' or 20'-15', that is a good possibility that they are crappie.

Skip

["G"]

You can see fish on that HB pirahnna. Turn your sensitivity up a little and turn your Fish ID on.....The bait fish will show up as dots and the fish will be fish shaped and will be sized according to how big they are.

[GCD]

Creek mouths can be productive at times. Do the lakes you fish have any springs in them? You can find these sometimes by watching your temp gauge and watching for bunched up fish.

Try watching the water surface during unproductive hours for shad flipping and sucking on the surface water. They know the fish aren't feeding and take advantage of their near the top. Tis will happen around mid morning and mid afternoon.

Locating fish with sonar in water that shallow can be tough because of the size of the cone produced by your sonar isn't really big enough to show a decent sized area. What kind of unit do you have and how many watts is it? Too strong of a sonar unit in shallow water can spook some fish.

You may want to make some structure and sink it in the deep parts of your lakes. The water may not have enough oxygen in it for the crappie to get into the structure, but they'll suspend above it.

You've really got to put the time into trolling, and this means unproductive hours to find the fish sometimes... but once you find them and figure them out you will start catching them regularly.

Another thing, are you catching any other species of fish while you're trolling? If not you may want to change colors and sizes until you start catching something... anything!

[Cane Pole]

That's the problem!!!! There is no such thing as a fish finder.:p:p

[GCD]

I think i need a new unit. I gotta brand new hummningbird pirahnna. It was only $100 so i think it may just not be good enough. I mainly got it for showing depth ans water temp. I may not have the sensitivity set right bc i dont see anything on it really. I usually longline at .9 to 1.1, should i just troll faster so i can cover more water then slow down when i hit a area with fish?

Try a speed up and slow down trolling speed if you suspect fish are around, the rise and fall of the jigs in the water column can trigger strikes.

.9 may be a little fast for your water temp, the fish have slowed down some because of the hot water. If you're pulling jigs and grubs, hold one on your line beside the boat and adjust your speed to just get a good action on the tail going. About .7 or .8 mph works with the grubs I use. I like to go slow for a couple hundred feet and then speed up to about 1.1 or 1.2 for 50-100' then drop the speed back down to .7 or.8.

Another thing, are you catching any other species of fish while you're trolling? If not you may want to change colors and sizes until you start catching something... anything! There's some colors and sizes the fish (any fish) don't want at all sometimes. For instance, I'll pull some Acid rain on one pole and weiss lake killer on another and then tennessee shad on another. Most of the time if there's a color on there that they like I'll catch everything on that color, crappie, bass, catfish, stripe and gills. One of the other colors may catch some fish but not like the best color, and the third color won't catch anything... not even a sniff! Color can be very important when the fish are picky.

[CrappiePappy]

That's the problem!!!! There is no such thing as a fish finder.:p:p

... it's called a "jig"

... cp


********************************

Young Gun .... try around shallow cover early in the day.

AND .... If you aren't connecting with Crappie in the open water ... go to the "SHADE" (lily pads, grass mats, downed trees, or any other object that creates a shaded area) They don't JUST feed on Shad .... grass shrimp, fish fry, bugs, etc. are also on the menu :p (and the shade keeps the water a little cooler than open water ... so it's like a air conditioned restaurant :D )

... cp