When they disappear

[deltabound]

To all the folks out there that know way way more than I do... And that includes most of you I guarantee it. Wife and I went to the lake Sunday to fish a little, lake Jordan in case ya wonder. Ended up spending the whole time just riding and looking with my bird, surface water temp 52-57, been cloudy a few days, lots an lots of bait but never really marked enough fish to decide to set the rods out( I keep spider rig an pull rods with me). Marked a few what appeared to be crappie scattered around 25-30 ft in 35-40 fow but like I said, not enough to get after. I looked shallow(8-12 fow), mid down to 20fow an of course deep down into the 30s an 40s. Usually this time of year we can find fish to longline on that are 7-14 ft deep over whatever water depth or some schools on structure to rig. So here goes the question, when the fish get hard to find on your sonars what in the world do you decide to do, fish the bait, fish the structure, bump the bottom? Happens to me from time to time and I'm still at a loss as to what is worth trying. Thanks again for all the good reading.

[vic n]

I would love to see a nice easy answer to this question, too, because I tend to cruise around looking at electronics myself. And for me, it isn't just during a transition time. It's all year. If there aren't fish at the last place I found them, I have trouble re-locating them. The only thing I try that occasionally works, is to find a really good, reliable brushpile and drop all the way to the bottom, and then reel up slower than slow.

[M R Dux]

I live 10 miles from KY Lake so it isn't unusual for me to put the boat on the trailer and head back to the house on days like you mentioned. If I decide to stay, I'll go to places I have traditionally caught fish that time of the year and those water temps. I'll slow troll or longline the areas close to known cover. I can cover a lot of water and at some time during the day, the bite will pick up enough to make me glad I stayed out. I use a combination of different weight jigheads, different sized/color curly tail grubs and mix in some roadrunner heads with willow leaf or colorado blades.

We have a lot of black crappie here and they will tend to head toward the northern banks in bay mouths as soon as the sun starts to warm the water just a couple of degrees. You might be surprised how many fish are in very shallow water and how few other fishermen will be there.

[fishervet]

this will be a very good post......

[tenncrappie]

Was fishing the ETCC tournament Sat with my partner and 2 days before he was on lots of quality fish. Started in the same area Saturday and they were just not there. Lots of small male fish and as the day wore on the bass guys screamed by us to fish one stump for 3 throws and rite back out. after a while we knew it wasn't to be and we moved out closer to the main river channel and some shallower flats where we picked up good quality fish for the next 3 hrs on the north bank like Mr. Dux refed to above.

[chaunc]

With those water temps, i'll be looking for shallow brush or stumps. As you ride around looking at your locator, mark those stumps and brush you run across and come back some other time and give them a shot. I've learned so much by doing this.

[skinny]

turn off depth finder and go fishing

[huntinslabs]

^^^^^this! Fish were caught long before electronics were invented.

[crappiemax]

Like others have said with those temps I would be looking right on the bank.
1' deep in 1-3 fow especially on those north banks especially if there is some rock (even rip-rap), docks or wood. Mrdux is right on target on this one.

[maxwell328]

Agree with Dux, the Northwest end of the lake always warms up first. One of the most shocking things to me was when Juicy and I were fishing a tournament in November and it was in the 30 degree range and we caught very good fish in 5 FOW fishing 2 FD.