Thread: Normal to see fish on sonar that refuse to bite?

Been out 3 times in the last week longlining on Falls Lake and nary a bite despite seeing tons of fish and bait on sonar views and knowing that my fin spin jigs are at or above their depth at about 10-12 ft at 1 mph.

water is about 51-54 degrees and stained with only about one ft of clarity. Various color jig heads and plastics, mostly bobby garland s’trollers.

Will tipping with minnows make a huge difference? Fish will be moving into shallow water in the next month I would assume but figure I must be doing something wrong to have zero luck so far. Any advice?

I've heard some say they start trolling cranks at those temps in the Western part of the state. Me personally, I'd slow down to 0.5mph Pulling (or Pushing) jigs in water at those temps. You may even want to try Spider Rigging

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

I've heard some say they start trolling cranks at those temps in the Western part of the state. Me personally, I'd slow down to 0.5mph Pulling (or Pushing) jigs in water at those temps. You may even want to try Spider Rigging

Thanks. I'll slow it down. Didn't think cranks were a viable option this time of the year, interesting.

My thoughts are slow down too. I single pole fish and have to hold it in front of them to get a reaction sometimes.

Originally Posted by SuperDave336

My thoughts are slow down too. I single pole fish and have to hold it in front of them to get a reaction sometimes.

Same for me. Once they react I can speed up a bit, but just reeling it by them ain’t workin for me either.


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Originally Posted by tackleboat

Same for me. Once they react I can speed up a bit, but just reeling it by them ain’t workin for me either.


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

Appreciate the confirmation.

I don't longline at all and surely some of the members here know FAR better than I would, but does the average underspin actually run 10-12 feet deep when pulled at 1MPH? I don't know how heavy they are, but if they're your standard 1/16 ounce type jig or maybe even 1/8 ounce, I would think at that speed that they'd pull pretty close to the surface. Crappie feed up, yes, but if the water really is stained and if the water temps are fairly low, I'm not sure that they're chasing 8 or 10 feet to clobber a jig. I'd agree with the others, slow down a bit and see if that helps, partly because I suspect you'd be pulling your jig closer to their level and partly because I think they'll just see the jig and react, possibly have a larger strike zone if they sense it coming and know that they can catch it easily.

Originally Posted by Brag

I don't longline at all and surely some of the members here know FAR better than I would, but does the average underspin actually run 10-12 feet deep when pulled at 1MPH? I don't know how heavy they are, but if they're your standard 1/16 ounce type jig or maybe even 1/8 ounce, I would think at that speed that they'd pull pretty close to the surface. Crappie feed up, yes, but if the water really is stained and if the water temps are fairly low, I'm not sure that they're chasing 8 or 10 feet to clobber a jig. I'd agree with the others, slow down a bit and see if that helps, partly because I suspect you'd be pulling your jig closer to their level and partly because I think they'll just see the jig and react, possibly have a larger strike zone if they sense it coming and know that they can catch it easily.

You're probably right. I'm pulling 1/8 oz heads and my tests showed me in the 8-10 ft depths but they were not scientific really. Maybe I'm still above their depth and the speed is too much. Will slow down.

Big gizzard shad look a lot like crappie on traditional sonar. That might be what you're seeing, especially this time of year.
As others have said, unless you are pulling some heavier than normal jigs or adding a split shot above your jig, I doubt you're getting to 12 ft. at 1.0 MPH. As reference, my 1/16 oz. curly tail jigs run about 6 ft at 1.0 with 4 lb test mono.
To get an education on depth at a certain speed and weight, find a flat to test your current setup then you'll know for sure what speed equals what depth.

Chris