Running over the fish?

[EDDY CREEK BANDIT]

Here we go, when I learned to fish many years ago I was taught not to run over the fish with my motor running. Triangulate and anchor short of the cover. Since then I have fished with a number of guys that will run the trolling motor over the cover, mark it and anchor back away and cast at the marker. I now know several guys that will run over the cover with the 25 Merc just putting along (one doesn't even own a trolling motor) and drop markers and fish the markers. All of the methods seem to put fish in the boat but, the numbers of fish off a given spot don't add up like they once did. How do you guys do it and why? I think it does spook some fish when you run over their heads. Some others say fish hear motors all day long and they don't react at all to the noise.

THE BANDIT

[Speck]

I'm from the same school of thought that you are Bandit. I try to stay back from the cover and cast to it. Also never let the trolling motor wash toward the cover.

[skiptomylu]

If you are talking about deep fish I try to ease in on the structure to tie up since there are so many trees in this lake I already know where I am going to be most of the time.

If you mean in the spring I troll with my trolling motor and I find a place I can go down a bank for some distance, like say 75 to 100 yards long. Sometimes much shorter and some times longer, but that is probably average. I try to stay on some contour line, say 6' deep and will zig zag with that depth. I usually can get in a spot that I will catch fish at 3 to 4 spots on that trail and I will put a marker at any bend in my path to I know when a slight turn is coming and where it is.

The really cool part of this is the fish don't act the same as if you tie up. Meaning I can go back and forth for a pretty long time and they don't stop biting like they do when you pull one after another out of the same hole.

I have a place that I have not been back to in years (just foolish I guess), but I had this spot near deep water very near by and 12'-14' deep over grass where I trolled back and forth. If my memory serves me right the length was only about 40 yards long total. I never went to that spot that we didn't average 60-70 fish per hour. Needless to say we didn't need to fish there very long each time. I also had a place on that trail that I could branch off of that was a little deeper on the edge of grass and did the same there and the leg was only about 20-30 yards long.

So for me I think trolling over them with the TM has less effect than running over them with the big motor and much less effect than catching them out of the same spot one after another. Also all spots need a rest from time to time IMHO.

Skip

[drfishjd]

I've heard some guys say that if you have to run over fish, that it's better not be switching your trolling motor off and on, and that a steady run with a tm won't spook them as bad as on, off, on, off. I don't really know, because I've never caught any of the fish I spooked (that I know of).

[Barnacle Bill]

I believe that some days noise will attract them and others spook them. I know for a fact white perch are attracted to noise. So why not crappie at times?

[catdaddy75]

i'd say running over the area they are in could stir up algae.this in turn would create bait fish to feed increasing the crappie action.never tried it but maybe a slow day will have to
cat

[harleyrider04]

Fished with a guy, who would fish his brushpile, when they slowed down would crank big motor for a few seconds, and lots of time they would start up again.We almost alway hunt with big motor, for them in 10 ft or more, wish I knew if it hurt or not . sometimes they bite and sometimes they don't. maybe they have been around boat traffic so long they don't care, but it is fun to sneak up on them..

[SpeckWick]

I try not to run over top the cover with either motor, but when looking for some submerged cover on the graph sometimes it is inevitable. Sometimes it seems to spook 'em, but there have been times when I have bumped the cover and still caught fish from it a few minutes later. But like Skip said, it seems dragging one after another out of the same spot kills a spot faster than anything. Especially if you bounce 'em off the branches on their way out. Vertical fishing pulling one after another seems to have less of an effect than dragging them through a laydown or something, so I always fish from the outside in or top down. I have heard guys talk about running over or around a piece of submerged brush with their big motor to stir things up when the fishing slows down. Never tried it and really don't know that I ever will, but maybe it does stir the algae and get the baitfish feeding and starts a frenzy? For me, I'll stay back if I can. The boat might not spook 'em, but if ya don't go over them, you won't have to find out.

[flyflinger]

I have not been crappie fishing but a year. I do know that boat traffic will turn trout on in the river. When I used to wade and fly cast, when a boat would come by, I would cast directly into the white foam of the wake. Catch a trout nearly every time. Tight lines

[Brush Buster]

good artical on this in Crappie World this month