Doing without

[Gone Fishin']

I have no doubt a live scope would improve my crappie catching after a learning period. I'll stay old school and make do with older style ways.
Nothing against live scope, they are amazing.

[DWILL]

I have boundaries even if they seem fairly obscure, just saying
But that gives me an idea , might be the newest thing , matching my nail color to my jig color....

Until the jig is dayglo orange or hot pink!

[NatePressotto]

Sometimes by choice . Sometimes for other reasons.
One must learn to do without.
Keep in mind this about that , learning to do without will quite possibly make you better at something that needs to be accomplished with a less than full bag of tricks.
Had a discussion yesterday with someone who was surprised by how much another person had invested in a 3,000 dollar boat .
The boat owner had 10,000 in electroctronics added to his rig !
So fast forward to the task at hand , ketchn crappie.
Ketchn lots of crappie can be a mindset thing and learning to adjust to what you do NOT have in your arsenal.
Sent a buddy with LS to a spot the other day and he flat out hammered a pile of nice ones pretty quickly. Sent another buddy to that spot and he did well too.
Second buddy did not have LS but still left with a pile of nice ones as well.
So keep in mind how it all works, a farm truck won't compete on the road well in speed with a Ferrari, but it will likely get you to the same location.
Here in lies the moral to this story , crappie ketchn has been around a good while and you can do without and still ketch piles of them.
Knowing how they operate and where they are and with nothing more than a jig on a rod and the want to succeed at it, will often times lead to piles of crappie.
Just a quick FYI out to those that think they have to do "with " ...
KABOOM is the word off the dock on my lunch break doing without....

Nj and nice post ketchn. Congrats on a successful lunch time passion fill .

Sent from my SM-N981U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Ketchn]

I agree that you don't need livescope or fancy electronics to catch crappie. But it is so much fun watching how they react to what you do. I do know you enjoy watching them as much as I do.

LS is sure enough cool stuff , but it really distracts me terribly sometimes, been watching fish look at my jig many times to look up and see my line slack because they had it in their mouth already

[Mstr Dan]

This thread interests me. It shows there are many varied and different approaches to fishing for the great white crappie (black also). From the techies to the "don't bother me, I'm fish'n" folk (as they doze off). Some people enjoy the challenge of tournaments or hitting limits. As for me, I have never found it necessary to compete against anyone in anything. I tried playing team sports as a younger fellow, when it was not fun, I lost interest. For me fishing is the same, I fish to enjoy what God has given us. the beauty of his work, the thrill of achieving a goal of my own making. My greatest opponent is myself. Although those crappie creatures are always a challenge! Reading the post here from folks like Ketchn, Slab, and others, is a great blessing to which I give thanks for. So be it LS, DV, SV, or no view fish on my friends and please keep me in your prayers and enjoy your time on the water.
P.S. Ketchn if ya need new polish maybe we can start a Go fund me page!

[Chuck Adams]

Sometimes I turn my Livescope OFF and fish old school.

A lot of days I don’t even keep fish or give them to others at the ramp.

An old high school buddy just stopped by to visit and I gave him a couple bags.

I fish alone and even with Livescope get skunked from time to time.

As for doing without, I spent most of my childhood and even my adulthood doing without. Worked 2 jobs for over 20 years to provide for my family.
Cops salaries weren’t what they are today!! Lol

So now that all the kids are gone, house and everything is paid off I thought pull the trigger on Livescope and wife said you deserve it. Shock.

I still tried to talk myself out of it for several months before buying. On most stuff myself wins not buying.
Already had 3 other graphs on the boat.

Don’t know if this pertains to original post but thought I would chime in.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and enjoys family time.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Charlie47]

I have boundaries even if they seem fairly obscure, just saying
But that gives me an idea , might be the newest thing , matching my nail color to my jig color....

Hey Ketchn, would I have to change nail polish when I change jigs? I think I'd have to quit fishin' to go home and have my wife paint my nails. I'm probably too nervous!

[Ketchn]

Sometimes I turn my Livescope OFF and fish old school.

A lot of days I don’t even keep fish or give them to others at the ramp.

An old high school buddy just stopped by to visit and I gave him a couple bags.

I fish alone and even with Livescope get skunked from time to time.

As for doing without, I spent most of my childhood and even my adulthood doing without. Worked 2 jobs for over 20 years to provide for my family.
Cops salaries weren’t what they are today!! Lol

So now that all the kids are gone, house and everything is paid off I thought pull the trigger on Livescope and wife said you deserve it. Shock.

I still tried to talk myself out of it for several months before buying. On most stuff myself wins not buying.
Already had 3 other graphs on the boat.

Don’t know if this pertains to original post but thought I would chime in.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and enjoys family time.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Such are crappie, some days they are just difficult. Struggled in lots of scenarios, from the best of boat rides to the waders.
Some days they just don't wanna be ketched

[Grainraiser]

One of my favorite fishing spots is the two mile bridge at Tawakoni (some here are familiar with the body of water). There are crappie under this bridge year round but they move from column to column. There is 4 bridge columns every 25 yards under this bridge. There is 3520 yards in 2 miles. This means there is 140 sets of bridge columns and 563 individual bridge columns that may hold crappie. Add the fact that most of the water under said bridge is 10-30ft deep and based on my experience crappie can be anywhere from 5ft down to hugging the bottom. I would guess around 25% of these bridge columns hold fish at a given time. I have been fishing this spot for 20 years and I can tell you it is a daunting task to find fish. I started with a simple jon boat and a trolling motor (there are ramps at the base of each end of the bridge) and I seldom got skunked but limits were hard to come by unless you hit the motherlode. I then got electronics with side scan and my catch went way up. I started to fish with a friend with Livescope and my entire thought process regarding crappie changed. I quickly learned that a bridge column can be loaded but those fish are inactive and they will not bite anything you drop down to them. I also learned that you can put a jig right in their face and they will not budge until you slowly lift that jig away from them. They will then chase and hammer it. Sometimes they will follow it for 8ft and turn away at the last second. Some times crappie will suspend at 5ft in 25 ft of water and you will scare all them off when you troll over them. In the summer time they will return and set up directly under you boat to avoid the sun. I say all this to say that Livescope will totally change the way you have thought about crappie fishing. Many folks see it is video game fishing. What I have found is that it shows you the behavior of crappie in real time. It can be truly mind blowing. I would advised anyone to take a ride with someone with Livescope and never drop a bait. Just simply watch how they react to jigs/minnows placed in their face. I can promise you your whole mindset will change regarding those critters. For me I see Livescope as a tool to eliminate unproductive water. It will not make a papermouth bite and if you think your going to limit out on every trip your in for a big surprise. I have only so many hours to fish a week and I would rather have 2k Livescope unit in a 2k boat than have a 30k boat without it. Just my .02

[Ketchn]

LS reduces the learning to ketch crappie thing drastically if you get it set up right . Sadly by the time it was invented most of what I saw and or see I already knew .
Was surprised only one time when I first used it years ago when it came out . I was really surprised how fast a crappie can move in certain scenarios. They can easily rival other freshwater faster species if they desire .
Watching one fly like a sand bass across the screen is amazing and not only just to escape, seen one do it going after my jig as well.
Never could figure out how it knew my bait was there at that distance, came in like a torpedo from off screen in a flash ,several of us saw it and that of course started the great debate.
We tried to decide if it was sight , vibrations or scent and or a combination thing ....