Man, if. I keep it In front of them for 1 0 minutes and I don't get bit , I'm changing!
I have a bad habit of staying in a place too long without a bite or continuing to use the same bait, jighead, color, plastic, grub, etc. What do some of you do differently to locate fish and find what the crappie want to hit.
One day last year, I used a mustard colored bait and they tore it up. Next time, I had it rigged on two rods ready to whack them again and couldn't buy a hit.
My biggest problem is I'm slow to change. 4 keepers Saturday afternoon verifies what I just said. I can tell you they weren't biting for me on chartreuse in 15-23' of water but that's about it.
How about you?
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Man, if. I keep it In front of them for 1 0 minutes and I don't get bit , I'm changing!
I seldom change my bait but depth and location very often and watch electronics till I find them. Most give up too quickly or blame fish for not biting or what bait their offering. First you must be where the fish are and present your bait to the fish. Confidence means alot ,even more so on slow days.
I thinks it depends a lot on which presentation your using. I'm more reluctant to change when I'm spider rigging due to the amount of time it would take, but I will take a minnow off my jig or put one on if I didn't have one prior or just run my jig head with a minnow and no skirt. If I'm single poling I'll change more often and run back through the same spot. Depth is a big key as well and before I change I will always change depths several times. The fish are just like us and need to eat and their appetite changes as well. Think of it as when you're hungry but nothing sounds good and you won't eat until it's right In front you. Fish are the same so be as flexible as you want but be sure and run different depths to try and put your bait in front of them and you'll eventually start developing patterns
I long line and I'll troll the entire area if nothing I leave. As far as color I usually have four poles with standard colors that usually work and I change periodically on two other rods. If I get a consistent bite on one of the two rods I'm changing I'll slowly start changing others. In my experience there are some days where color makes all the difference.
I single pole so it sometimes takes me a little longer to get it figured out. I have my confidence baits and have a stack of rods rigged on both sides of me to try. Usually only have to use one, possibly two but know I'm guilty of staying to long and using what I want them to bite instead of what the fish want.
Good advice given, I think I know what to do, I just need to break myself of "old bad habits." Thanks for the input. I knew this was a tough question and didn't expect to many to want to tackle it.
I'm guilty of the same thing you are. I'll spend an hour on a bait that has been consistent for me. In my experience, the lake/body of water has a lot to do with it. The crappie in some lakes really don't seem to care too much on color as long as its there at the right speed and depth. Others, it makes all the difference in the world. My go-to colors are red/white and black/chart. and I have a terrible time convincing myself to change to anything else because of my confidence in them.
for me jig color seems to change from day to day.so I wont keep trying something very long just because it worked the day before.it is hard to change sometime,i guess I thnk they should bite the same every day.
When I was mostly a jig slinger (95% of the time) and was using blue/chartreuse tube jigs ... I'd hardly ever have to change color. More often than not, I'd have to change depth or speed before color. Even though I have a ton of different shapes, sizes, and colors to choose from, I still seem to do just as good on blue/char as any other color combination ... overall.
But, as far as "moving" from a place ... I'll usually give it 15-30mins without catching any fish (depending on the size of the spot), and 1hr if I am catching fish (but, don't catch anything in the last 30mins). That's if I'm casting jigs, or drifting minnows over an area with brush. I don't do much trolling (longline), and I really don't Spider Rig in the traditional sense ... so, I don't fish large areas of water. If I can hit 8-12 spots in a 6-8hr day's fishing, then I'm usually hopping from spot to spot rather than area to area.
... cp
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On a slow day I may fish 40 or more condos , stakebeds, or brushpiles picking off aggressive Crappie. Once I find which depth cover they are holding and if tight or above them it's usually easy. Colors are least of my worry.