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Thread: Any thoughts on this?

  1. #1
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    Default Any thoughts on this?


    Our family has recently gotten back into crappie fishing after a loooooong hiatus. Fishing Kentucky Lake. Today, we were out and were finding fish but having trouble getting them to bite.

    Using electronics to find brush piles on drop-offs in about 12-15 feet of water, then straightlining down to them with jigs tipped with minnows. Water was stained, surface temperature of about 83. Fished from 6:00 a.m. until 10 something. We tried a few different color jigs.

    I've done enough bass fishing and using electronics to get okay at identifying fish and distinguishing between them based on size, how they are schooled up, etc. We were definitely on fish most of the day, at 3 or 4 stops. And based on their size and how they were schooled up I'm pretty sure they were crappie (or possibly white bass).

    On the Livescope, I repeatedly watched the same thing: a fish dart toward my jig/minnow, stare at it for a few seconds, and then swim off. The few bites I would get were so light that I was only able to hook a couple. The couple I did hook and get to the surface were in fact crappie.

    I watched this over and over on the Livescope. If this were happening in bass fishing, I would conclude that I was in the right ballpark but something about my presentation was scaring them off or at least not convincing them.

    Any ideas? In particular, I'm skeptical about the bright green Mr. Crappie 8 lb. line we all have spooled up. I know lots of people use this for crappie. But there just seems like something about our presentation that is causing them to not commit and bite.

    Dang Livescope. In the old days I would have had no idea this was all going on down there LOL.

  2. #2
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    I can’t help with anything livescope related. I push jigs and minnows 98% of the time and single pole standing trees the other 2%.
    That being said my last couple of outings with water temps in the 80’s, crappie would not hit a standing jig or slow presentation. I had to increase my speed of presentation from .2mph up to .4mph before getting hit.


    Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app
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  3. #3
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    My opinion is it coulda been a few different things. Line dia.(lb. test) or color. Maybe downsizing would work. Maybe plain hook an minnow. I will agree when you can see them and they act like that, it makes you scratch your head. Point is, just keep switching til something works. It's always possible too they won't change either. Good luck....
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  4. #4
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    I've seen them do the same thing when my buddy & I were LS fishing a local lake. I had 6# test hi-vis on one rod, 8# test clear on another, and he was using 10# test fluorocarbon. Many would come up to meet the jigs & then turn away. Sometimes I would shake my rod tip a little and get their attention back, but only rarely did it make them commit. My buddy tried that early on in his LS fishing days and it actually spooked the fish. He also noted that in some instances when a fish was caught out of a group hanging around a submerged tree ... the other fish would move to the opposite side, away from the caught fish.

    What few times I've fished with him, flipping double jig rigs out past the cover and letting them glide back over the tops or letting the jigs fall down into gaps in the cover, I've rarely actually felt the "thump". Most of the time when I've caught a fish it's been when I see fish at the jig and raise my rod up & feel "weight". My buddy say he feels the fish hit, most of the time, but he's been LS fishing a lot longer than me (and a lot more often).

    One of the things I have learned while fishing with him is how slow the jigs fall, yet how a little rod tip movement makes them jump farther than what you'd think. Sometimes color changes work & sometimes downsizing works ... then other times they don't. Then there's times you leave those fish and go to other brushpiles & come back later and catch a few more.

    Livescope can show you whether or not there's fish on a piece of cover & where on that cover they're holding, but what it can't do is make them accept any & every offer you throw to them ... alive or artificial.
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  5. #5
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    Full moon, could be feeding at night....
    When is generation kicking on and off, sometimes a change in flow in or out of the reservoir can trigger some feeding.
    What about the shadow of your boat, did you fish it from multiple angles.

    Definitely frustrating.
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  6. #6
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    Multiple reports I read in texas last week said the bite didn't turn on until 10. Whether that is full moon or something else I haven't a clue.
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  7. #7
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    Next time clean and scale a crappie above the ones you are fishing for. I have seen this sometimes turn on the bite.
    If this does not work, then a visit to a voodoo princess may help. But, probably won't help the fishing.
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  8. #8
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    Bite windows very somewhat and to be sure the bite is Very light right now . Thumps are a pretty much a thing of the past until the water starts to chill again . Minnow fishermen and women are doing well , but again it’s a no bite situation .
    Many of the fish I ketch right now either peck or are just there when I move my jig or grab it on the fall . I do know a few weeks ago a jig raising up steady and quickly in a smooth motion past fish triggered bites from fish that wouldn’t commit and that much I could clearly see on my buds livescope .
    My 2 cents
    sum kawl me tha outlaw ketchn whales
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  9. #9
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    They have been feeding evenings better this week with the moon phase we’ve been pulling crankbaits over the top of the brush piles in the same depths your talking and doing real well, I think the crankbaits going past them faster makes them commit to a reaction bite unlike the jig that they can decide if they want to bite
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  10. #10
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    I made a started a thread not too long ago about bad days like these. I had two in a row where nothing i did seemed the matter, the voodoo princesses herself was keeping them away from me.

    She must have moved on to you as the next time i went out my line wasn't in the water for 20 seconds before I had a fish and that kept up the rest of the evening.

    Some days it's just like that...
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