Kids Love Crappie Video Fishing by Brad Wiegmann

[Slab]

“Do you know what Pac-Man is?” I asked Kason. “Yep, it’s that old video game my parents used to play a long time ago!” The young crappie angler responded.


PAC-MAN of course is the 1980 maze action video game that was first released in arcades across the North America where the player controls Pac-Man who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating a large flashing dot that were power pellets resulted in the ghost temporarily turning blue and could be eaten for bonus points.


So how does Pac-Man relate to crappie fishing? It’s because anglers using Lowrance Activetarget, Garmin Live Scope or Humminbird MEGA Live to catch crappie are noted to be video fishing. Truth is there’s a lot of similarity to Pac-Man and video fishing for crappie.


While the object of the Pac-Man is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. The object of crappie video fishing is to have a crappie eat your dot. The dot is a lure the angler is dangling in front or just above the crappie to eat.


Similar to Pac-Man crappie anglers are chasing the crappie through a maze of brush, lay downs or even open water. If an angler spooks or misses them the crappie will swim off without being caught, however, if the crappie eats the lure the angler wins.


Even stranger is the face the ghosts in Pac-Man have their own distinct artificial intelligence and act differently. That sounds just like crappie that seem to have an attitude where one day they are aggressive and actively chasing lures, but other days so spooky you can’t even get a lure near them.




“It’s great to have more kids getting involved in fishing and some of it is kids wanting to go because it’s like a video game,” said B’n’M Poles Pro John Harrison from Mississippi, continued, “It’s is similar to Pac-Man you just want the fish to eat your lure to win the game.”


On a recent outing Harrison was showing a young female angler how to use his live imaging sonar to actually watch the lure as it dropped down. She noted that fishing that way was like playing a video game.


Harrison has a unique setup with two units and two transducers allowing each angler to see and control the beams from the sonar unit. “I use a B’n’M Poles Diamond Series Jig Pole that’s 14 foot long with a baitcasting reel,” Harrison continued, “I actually just started using it and love it. It’s sensitive with some backbone and one of the best looking poles I own.



Crappie pro Kevin McCarley, Harrison’s team partner in crappie tournaments, agrees that video fishing is similar to video games. “Young anglers like watching the lure and seeing a crappie come up and bite a lure,” McCarley continued, “Although, I was positioning the boat the young man was catching them by himself without any problems. I think it’s great to get more anglers involved in fishing and it seems like video fishing will be bringing in more young anglers for sure.”


The lure size, color pattern and style all make a difference in the number of bites and crappie caught on any trip video fishing. Charlie Brewer’s Slider Company pro McCarley brings several bags of soft plastic Sliders out video fishing. “Slider has small grubs to big grubs to pick from. I normally pick according to the size of the baitfish crappie are eating,” McCarley continued, “I like matching the hatch.”


As for a fishing rod the B’n’M Poles pro McCarley uses the Mossy Oak Edition Brushcutter. He like the looks of it and the fact it’s well designed for live sonar fishing. It features the Mossy Oak Elements Agua Blacktip pattern, EVA foam handle and built with IM6 graphite blank.


It’s amazing to see how fast young anglers catch on to video fishing for crappie. That’s great for growing the sport of fishing and getting more young anglers out fishing.

[DockShootinJack]

Great article

[fredo]

Incredibly depressing article.

If we have to use video games to sell crappie fishing to youth, the future is bleak.

[fredo]

One of the saddest pictures I’ve ever seen.

“Ignore God’s beautiful creation. Just stare at the screen.”

[SuperDave336]

Good article and it’s awesome if it gets more kids interested and active in fishing.

[CrappiePappy]

Incredibly depressing article.

If we have to use video games to sell crappie fishing to youth, the future is bleak.

I tell ya what, bubba .... if I had a "video game" deal (Livescope/large screen depthfinder) back when I was a kid, just starting out Crappie fishing with my Grandparents, I'd have been much more interested in the whole "fishing deal", than I was sitting for hours on a board (row boat seat) watching the ends of my two rods ... waiting for one of them to start to bend down.

Over the course of my lifetime I've probably had 7 or 8 depthfinders on the 3 different boats I've owned, and until I got a DSI unit ... depth was about the only thing I paid any attention to on any of them. Then, a few years ago, I got a Livescope setup and I'm learning more about what's under the water, the various moods/temperaments of Crappie, their reactions to my baits & their presentations, and even their reactions to noise & even the presence of my boat in their neighborhood. None of that was possible back when I was a kid, and even as a mild mannered kid that loved to go to the lake & fish ... I did get antsy on occasion. Maybe not enough to complain about there not being any fish at this spot & suggest moving somewhere else ... but, if we'd have had a "video game" system back then, I'd say we wouldn't have spent hours at any one spot waiting for the fish to "come to us".

[BuckeyeCrappie]

Far from sad to me. Much better than the violent games and garbage Tv that’s on for kids today. Thanks for the article.

[Ketchn]

mixed emotions is me , yes if it is a video game it interests most kids bunches , so sure enough every kid I seen getting to use one of the new crappie video games is locked up on it bigtime .
I will stop from saying on here what I really think as it will really make some folks go sideways , but to be sure video games are NOT reality .