Deep water crappie

[Danny Lang]

Fished today after 2 inches of rain last night and some this morning, all baitfish I could find were 45-53 feet deep, so I started fishing the drop offs going into the river channel in the shad at 50-55 ft deep and caught 10 crappie and about 20 catfish, did I say 20 big catfish. Anyone out there ever caught crappie at that depth, here in Ga, this time of year if your gonna chase baitfish to catch crappie, your gonna be in those depths. I am not saying that you cannot catch them any shallower, but if you want the bigger crappie you will have to fish deep.

[DockShootinJack]

Those big cats had to be fun on crappie gear

[Kevin22]

I have, up to 60ft. Better keep all you catch though because they do not release well from that deep. This is when i use jigging spoons, they sure do work good and help to keep you vertical below your electronics

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

[ultraslab]

Danny I'm assuming you have livescope. I live on Jackson not far from you and fish my lake and Sinclair and Oconee. Livescope has opened a whole new world especially for wintertime fishing and sniping them. While you are totally correct in that at any time in the winter their are deep crappie, but you might be amazed at just how many of them are cruising at 12' or less with the really big girls most of the time at 4-8' . I'm sniping them every day and though I seem fish deep those are not the ones I target. I rarely even cast at a fish deeper than 18' as even with a 1/8th oz. jig takes too long to sink. I have some 1/4oz. jigs that I can use to go deeper but don't have to. Christmas day with water temps at 46 I caught 15-18 in an less than 2 hours with 2 over 2lbs. and most a pound or better. I've said before Jan. - end of Feb. is my favorite 2 months of the year for sniping and crushing the big girls. Almost without exception the bigger fish I catch maybe over 40' of water but only 2-4' deep. Scott

[Danny Lang]

Danny I'm assuming you have livescope. I live on Jackson not far from you and fish my lake and Sinclair and Oconee. Livescope has opened a whole new world especially for wintertime fishing and sniping them. While you are totally correct in that at any time in the winter their are deep crappie, but you might be amazed at just how many of them are cruising at 12' or less with the really big girls most of the time at 4-8' . I'm sniping them every day and though I seem fish deep those are not the ones I target. I rarely even cast at a fish deeper than 18' as even with a 1/8th oz. jig takes too long to sink. I have some 1/4oz. jigs that I can use to go deeper but don't have to. Christmas day with water temps at 46 I caught 15-18 in an less than 2 hours with 2 over 2lbs. and most a pound or better. I've said before Jan. - end of Feb. is my favorite 2 months of the year for sniping and crushing the big girls. Almost without exception the bigger fish I catch maybe over 40' of water but only 2-4' deep. Scott

I have livescope in a box in the living room, just ordered me a new boat waiting on it to come in. Right now using regular down sonar. Man 12 feet or less, that’s good man. It’s been years since I fished Jackson, I love to dock shoot on that lake, just a lot of small fish there, or use to be, I cannot wait to install this livescope on my boat, don’t know anyone around here to ask questions about how to set this up. I know utube full of settings, will be a big learning curve, and I hope to help you take care of those angry roaming crappie here on Sinclair and Oconee, and maybe trips to Jackson. Thanks Scott for your input.

[Danny Lang]

I have, up to 60ft. Better keep all you catch though because they do not release well from that deep. This is when i use jigging spoons, they sure do work good and help to keep you vertical below your electronics

Sent from my SM-A516U using Crappie.com mobile app

kevin I really like to jig spoons, but now here they shut down the power plant so no moving water anymore so it really hurt the spoon fishing, not saying you can’t catch some, but minnows are working great. And yea if you catch one 50 feet deep you have to keep it no matter what the size. Thanks man for your input.

[Danny Lang]

Danny I'm assuming you have livescope. I live on Jackson not far from you and fish my lake and Sinclair and Oconee. Livescope has opened a whole new world especially for wintertime fishing and sniping them. While you are totally correct in that at any time in the winter their are deep crappie, but you might be amazed at just how many of them are cruising at 12' or less with the really big girls most of the time at 4-8' . I'm sniping them every day and though I seem fish deep those are not the ones I target. I rarely even cast at a fish deeper than 18' as even with a 1/8th oz. jig takes too long to sink. I have some 1/4oz. jigs that I can use to go deeper but don't have to. Christmas day with water temps at 46 I caught 15-18 in an less than 2 hours with 2 over 2lbs. and most a pound or better. I've said before Jan. - end of Feb. is my favorite 2 months of the year for sniping and crushing the big girls. Almost without exception the bigger fish I catch maybe over 40' of water but only 2-4' deep. Scott

how do you find these roaming crappie? With sidescan, down imageing, or just moving around with your livescope. Do you start in the middle of a cove or just over deep water? Got me thinking of where to start, when I get my boat, right now fishing with my dad a lot, buiding a new shop for my boat. I am ready though, do you fish with a livescope pole or is it attached to the trolling motor. I would like to elevate my livescope screen up a little also, haven’t figured that out neither.

ding a new shop

[ultraslab]

In order to effectively snipe the transducer has to be on the trolling motor and not just any trolling motor. While their or many that will work, what does not work IMHO is a terrova or ulterra as the foot pedals are not sensitive enough to make the micro adjustments needed to track your jig and the fish as presentation is the key. You have to make a cast, I personally use a dock shooting cast to precisely place my jig where I want it, let it sink to just ABOVE their head and then slowly swim it by. NEVER let it go below them. It's a skill and takes practice but is so worth it once you master it. A pole mount won't work for doing this . My personal choice in a trolling motor is an ultrex . As to finding the fish 3 years of livescope has narrowed areas that I consistently find them but would suggest looking in the mouths of creeks, off long points and in the beginning ride with side scan on looking for shad and suspended fish then drop the trolling motor and start easing around staying on the trolling motor at a fairly slow speed until you see fish you want to target. I have 2 boats set up for this, a 22' sea ark set up for 2 people to sit sidie by side with a beatdown double stack 8616 on top and helix 10" . If I'm by myself I fish out of my Royal stick steer as it's more comfortable and I can scan more water by using the gas motor to idle along looking out at 70' and when I see something throw it into reverse cut the engine and go to work. If you'd like shoot me a pm and I'll invite you down and show you in person. I'll post a couple of pics in another post of my set up as I only know how to post pics. through the app. The where part is changing daily right now with all the rain and mud coming into the lakes. When we've got a ton of water coming in like we do now I try and stay ahead of the mudline as the shad and crappie will too until lake stabilizes in 4 or 5 day's. Scott

[TreednNC]

In order to effectively snipe the transducer has to be on the trolling motor and not just any trolling motor. While their or many that will work, what does not work IMHO is a terrova or ulterra as the foot pedals are not sensitive enough to make the micro adjustments needed to track your jig and the fish as presentation is the key. You have to make a cast, I personally use a dock shooting cast to precisely place my jig where I want it, let it sink to just ABOVE their head and then slowly swim it by. NEVER let it go below them. It's a skill and takes practice but is so worth it once you master it. A pole mount won't work for doing this . My personal choice in a trolling motor is an ultrex . As to finding the fish 3 years of livescope has narrowed areas that I consistently find them but would suggest looking in the mouths of creeks, off long points and in the beginning ride with side scan on looking for shad and suspended fish then drop the trolling motor and start easing around staying on the trolling motor at a fairly slow speed until you see fish you want to target. I have 2 boats set up for this, a 22' sea ark set up for 2 people to sit sidie by side with a beatdown double stack 8616 on top and helix 10" . If I'm by myself I fish out of my Royal stick steer as it's more comfortable and I can scan more water by using the gas motor to idle along looking out at 70' and when I see something throw it into reverse cut the engine and go to work. If you'd like shoot me a pm and I'll invite you down and show you in person. I'll post a couple of pics in another post of my set up as I only know how to post pics. through the app. The where part is changing daily right now with all the rain and mud coming into the lakes. When we've got a ton of water coming in like we do now I try and stay ahead of the mudline as the shad and crappie will too until lake stabilizes in 4 or 5 day's. Scott

We've got a member here that doesn't seem to know that you can't use it on a Terrova. His hardware and thousands won just this year alone don't need to know that either. Might hurt their feelings. While Ultrex might be the BEST, this guy flat out wins or top 3's most any state/regional tourny with a Terrova.

A pole mount does and most certainly work. Might not be as fast as efficient as an Ultrex but it absolutely works. We're not talking national touring tourny performance and efficiency but to say it won't work is absolutely false.

[ultraslab]

Not trying to start a fight and I should probably state with all my posts YMMV but unless you've got 3 hands I could not do what I do with a pole mount as it requires coordination of continuous adjustments to my motor while reeling my jig in a cast to keep the fish and jig on my screen . As to motors again YMMV but for me I've fished out of my partners boat that has a terrova and I can't duplicate what I do running his trolling motor. Not saying you can't catch any fish just that for me I catch more. My only intent in taking the time to type this is to share my experience in the hopes that someone else will get the same enjoyment that I get. Scott