Where are the crappie going?

[JRussell]

Alright, I'm no professional by no means, but I can usually find a few here and there. I've been catching pretty good early in the morning in 6-12' of water. By about say 10:00 it's like the big fish pack up and go somewhere. The water temp is about 62 degrees. I've looked up shallow and can't find them there. Where are they going?

[bamahound]

Sitting on the bottom. Especially on bright sunny days.

[Rojo]

Not only sitting on the bottom but scattered out to boot. Slow retrieving of GoGo minnows, 2in curly tails, tiny swim minnow plastics, even shiners on split shots gets bites. Slow retrieve is the secret as I don't find the fish even want to chase a bait down, more a reaction bite as it goes by near them to begin with.

[BobC]

Alright, I'm no professional by no means, but I can usually find a few here and there. I've been catching pretty good early in the morning in 6-12' of water. By about say 10:00 it's like the big fish pack up and go somewhere. The water temp is about 62 degrees. I've looked up shallow and can't find them there. Where are they going?

Probably over to Ketchn’s place! Will be interested to hear opinions.
Bob

[NIMROD]

Big ones can suspend over open water or so tight to cover next to the bottom hard to see on livescope.

[bamahound]

Yep and 5yrs from now Garmin will have Gen 6 transducers with target seperation even from structure and the mud that will make todays ducers look like the old Johnson Eagle Flashers. And you will need a second morgage on the house to get one

[Rojo]

Yep and 5yrs from now Garmin will have Gen 6 transducers with target seperation even from structure and the mud that will make todays ducers look like the old Johnson Eagle Flashers. And you will need a second morgage on the house to get one

So I run 999 Humminbird's still. Fellow member P-Nut gave me one he had as well as a old original Garmin 92sv. The Crappie fall prey to me without using something to watch them eat my jig. That Johnson Eagle Flasher would bring back memories for me today.

[JRussell]

Big ones can suspend over open water or so tight to cover next to the bottom hard to see on livescope.

Well first thing in the morning I can find them on cover and see them on live scope. Maybe they just scatter out as the day goes on. Can still see small crappie on cover and catch them just no big ones.

[JRussell]

Yep and 5yrs from now Garmin will have Gen 6 transducers with target seperation even from structure and the mud that will make todays ducers look like the old Johnson Eagle Flashers. And you will need a second morgage on the house to get one

You probably ain't wrong!

[Ketchn]

no clue for sure, but it is likely some of them hunker down in 6 to 10 fow tight to cover and wait for a run to the shallow water come dark thirty , the older fish seem a bit more wary of predation and tend to avoid getting eaten if possible.
the larger fish here are hard to pick off at high noon even in the shade , they seem far less active to me ...