Thread: Finding summer crappies on the rocks with Humminbird Side Imaging

Summer crappie, like other panfish species that are abundant and easy to locate in the spring, can be quite challenging to locate during the heat of the summer. A common summer pattern is to search open water basin areas for towering schools of crappie, contacting them by trolling crankbaits or jigs. Fishing can be fast as long as the angler maintains contact with the school; however, once the school "zigs" while the angler "zags", catch rates rapidly decline. An alternate pattern exists on current-influenced bodies of water, one that brings the crappie shallow in search of food, oxygenated water, and relief from the force of the current. These fish can be easy to locate with the use of Humminbird Side Imaging, and catch with VMC hot skirt jigs. Check out this article to learn more about these methods:

Finding summer crappie with Humminbird Side Imaging and VMC jigs

I have been catching most of my fish on purple albino or pink pearl VMC hot skirt jigs, 1/16 oz. A large fraction of my fish yesterday came to the boat after tipping the jig with the back half of a Trigger X 3" walleye minnow. I usually use natural colored Trigger X minnows in this particular application, as long as the water has decent clarity (which is does on my portion of the Mississippi).