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Thread: The pa bite

  1. #21
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    Thanks chaunce. I’m new with the fish finders so maybe I will practice just what you said. Try to find new locations and as I’m doing it mark areas of interest.. it’s tough looking for new areas for me because I feel like I lack confidence in my abilities sometimes! I try to watch videos and it’s so deceiving, in videos they get to a spot show the fish finder loaded and smash the fish! I look at my fish finder and wonder if they are even crappie, I’ve got a few trips to figure it out though so will see.
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  2. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nwpacrappie View Post
    Thanks chaunce. I’m new with the fish finders so maybe I will practice just what you said. Try to find new locations and as I’m doing it mark areas of interest.. it’s tough looking for new areas for me because I feel like I lack confidence in my abilities sometimes! I try to watch videos and it’s so deceiving, in videos they get to a spot show the fish finder loaded and smash the fish! I look at my fish finder and wonder if they are even crappie, I’ve got a few trips to figure it out though so will see.
    I love all parts of the game from jig making to rigging the boat. Last year I bought a Helix 10. Wife said I needed something to get my mind off a medical problem I was facing. It was a rough summer and fall recovering from surgery and I never got out after May. Didn't get the Helix installed till this spring. Now my time on the water is focused on learning the new system. Quite a jump up from a 13 year old 787. Might not even take the rods out of the box but I will learn the new electronics. Finding them is as much fun as catching for me. There is no use fishing where they ain't.
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  3. #23
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    chaunc is online now 2014 Crappie.com Man of the Year * Crappie.com Supporter
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    Quote Originally Posted by mchech View Post
    I love all parts of the game from jig making to rigging the boat. Last year I bought a Helix 10. Wife said I needed something to get my mind off a medical problem I was facing. It was a rough summer and fall recovering from surgery and I never got out after May. Didn't get the Helix installed till this spring. Now my time on the water is focused on learning the new system. Quite a jump up from a 13 year old 787. Might not even take the rods out of the box but I will learn the new electronics. Finding them is as much fun as catching for me. There is no use fishing where they ain't.
    A very good friend that is a guide on Kentucky lake told me to trust my electronics. This was in 2005 and the lake was eight feet over normal pool. We still put 69 fish in the box that day. Your electronics can do more than you need to learn in helping you catch fish. Use the basic setup to find brush or whatever. Mark it and when you have time, sit over it and tweek your settings until you understand what you’re seeing. Then see which part the fish are holding on. Might be one part of it they like better than the rest of it. That’s why you can have 2 or 3 guys fishing the same spot but only one is catching fish every cast while everybody else struggles to get a bite. Take screenshots and study them. Your GPS will take you back to the spot. Your knowledge on how to fish it will fill the box. Don’t expect to use everything your locator can do. Use what you need to just get the job done.
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  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by chaunc View Post
    A very good friend that is a guide on Kentucky lake told me to trust my electronics. This was in 2005 and the lake was eight feet over normal pool. We still put 69 fish in the box that day. Your electronics can do more than you need to learn in helping you catch fish. Use the basic setup to find brush or whatever. Mark it and when you have time, sit over it and tweek your settings until you understand what you’re seeing. Then see which part the fish are holding on. Might be one part of it they like better than the rest of it. That’s why you can have 2 or 3 guys fishing the same spot but only one is catching fish every cast while everybody else struggles to get a bite. Take screenshots and study them. Your GPS will take you back to the spot. Your knowledge on how to fish it will fill the box. Don’t expect to use everything your locator can do. Use what you need to just get the job done.
    Thank you Chaunc. When advice comes from good sources one must open their eyes, ears and mind. You are a great source of info. Electronics are just a tool in the box and you need to learn what's useful. Last but not least put the time in on the water.

    Yesterday I spent 5 hours on Wilhelm. 3 1/2 hrs. spent cruising and learning the Helix. My wife seemed to be getting bored so I pulled in to and old bluegill spot to wet a line. We caught a bunch of bluegill, pumpkinseeds and a few undersized crappie. Not many keepers but that wasn't the goal. We relaxed and learned.
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  5. #25
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    I’m headed out tomorrow to give the electronics a shot and try to put a limit in the boat. We shall see, will let you guys know how it goes. Not headed down until 3pm though so it will be an evening fish. Maybe do a little looking and marking, then settling in an evening spot that typically produces. I need to mark deeper structure or I am going to be lost very soon!
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  6. #26
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    Well reporting back from yesterday journey! It was absolutely horrible! I think I boated 3 crappie a million perch and a million blue gills. I tried anywhere from 1-3 feet out to 19ft.. I feel like I picked up some good marks but couldn’t get a fish to bite. I found a lot of bait and I believe fish on structure but I need a little practice. I will take pictures this Sunday of the fish finder and maybe you guys can give me a few pointers! Can’t catch them every time I guess, back to step 1 trying to figure out this whole fishing thing! In a way it’s not a bad thing because I am spending more time on electronics trying to locate.
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  7. #27
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    I fished the Jamestown area this morning. Put 17 crappies, 13 gills, and 2 perch in the live well. What bait are you using and are you fishing the drop offs? Would’ve put more gills in the box but the rain chased me off the lake.
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  8. #28
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    I have been using Bobby garland original baby shads, itty bitty,swimrs, strollrs, tipped with crappie nibbles or minnows.. was switching up pretty often. I originally focused on weed lines in 4-6 ft and caught 2 (white and a black crappie)... moved after 20 minutes or so, and found structure in the same area, off the weed beds a little deeper 8-12 ft and didn’t get a bite. There is a drop off there that goes from 4-12fow (I fished the bottom and checked suspended). Took a spin over to the flats, found great structure in 13 ft which appeared to be loaded, but once again no crappie. I did have a few hits, but nothing to brag about...could have been perch... Gave that about 20 minutes and tried trees sitting on water and that’s where the gills, perch, and bass were (picked up 1 crappie)Probably with an hour left of light I went back to where I started at and worked from 4fow to 19fow hitting drop offs and structure with no luck. I really did fish hard and came out with a swing and a miss. I fished both hard and mud bottoms, changed retrieval speeds, and fished bottoms and suspended bait. I was using my electronics and fishing by where I had previously caught fish just changing depths. I figured if I fished close to a spawning bays, fishing shallow to deep I would be able to find them with the help of electronics. Just the mentality that they didn’t go too far.
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  9. #29
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    Are you putting gas in your truck or boat on the way to the lake? Or using sunscreen or other type of lotion on your hands? If so, spray your hands with a fish attraction formula, like slabsauce or fish formula before you touch your baits. I’ve found that doing this will take away those other scents. Just trying to help you if I can.
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  10. #30
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    I typically do put gas in my car before the drive down. I fished last night and this morning with the same results!! Very bad outing once again. Ended up with a handful but that was it! I did get some slab sauce a bottle of each that I will give a shot. The fish that I caught were in 5-7fow off shallow weeds/white crappie spawn area. I did spend more time looking today, as I mentioned I only have DI and no SI so it takes time. I did get on some of the deeper structure from last time and ended up in the perch. Seems like most of the structure I was on I was getting perch. I tried structure from 8-12 fow maybe into the 13-15 fow on a few. I drifted quite a few edges of weed lines, but what I’ve been running into is weed lines in 3-4 fow, dropping into 7-12 fow with no weeds deep. Am I wasting my time, seems like that’s all I am finding? I know multiple spawning locations, and my approach has been fish shallow to deep within a few hundred yards, am I thinking properly? I caught the fish on this trip in a white crappie spawn area, they spawn in about 5-7 fow, within 50-75 yards out I would be sitting in 17 fow. I fished hard from that 5-7 fow spawning area out to that 17 fow and a handful were caught in the 5-7. I am not giving up yet!! Thanks guys!
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