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Ok crappie guys……

redblood said:
Any value in the scent attractants to spray on your baits or just another gimmick.
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if its oil based your wasting your money and time. about the only thing that ive found that halfway works is gulp waxies or lil minnows. when black crappie are on wood or sucking bugs in the pads waxies work wonders, either real or gulp. if they are bulking up on minnows heading into fall, lil minnows will work.
 
Tn Joe said:
If you want to just sit on a piece of structure and really catch em. Try winter fishing. The fish are usually piled up together and you can have the lake all to yourself. My favorite time!
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I watch a ton of brandon lester and he absolutely destroys them on the same lakes i fish in the falll to Christmas window. If the leaves are orange, hes catching huge crappie and lots of them. 60 degree water seems to be his sweet spot
 
I am far from a good crappie fisherman but a guy down the road who I hunt and fish with sometimes is one of the best locals around. Honestly, he's too smart for his own good at times which can be frustrating but he knows his stuff! He even has the nick name of "Crappie Ed" lol. We have bumped into a few livescope guys and whenever we came across them I shut my mouth, and would just listen to what he'd be asking or telling them. What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward lol.

Stuff like live scope is no different(IMO)than a cell phone in that it will probably dumb people down to what they really need to be doing or learning. Crappie are finicky as heck! Make 100 casts and not get a nibble. Move that cast just a hair in one direction and you have a limit before you realize it. JMHO.


Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL😁😁😉
 
I'm no expert by any means but I am catching 14 to 16 inch white crappie right now when my livescope buddies are doing good to catch 7 to 9 inch black crappie and wondering what the heck I am doing different and how I'm catching fish without live scope. From here on thru the fall when the water dips into the 50s I am pulling crankbaits and covering lots of water. I'm watching a screen...but it's a split screen of the lake mapping and down scan. I'm following contours and fishing flats and some ledges. The fish I catch are scattered. Catch a couple in one spot...make a few more passes and once that Peter's out, keep moving. Get a couple more. I may only get 7 to 10 fish in a morning trip but they'll be sure nuff big uns that you don't even have to measure to know they are keepers. It gets better in the fall when they start really bunching up again. Some of those days will keep you REAL busy on the crankbait rods. Note the screen shot of my down imaging. Note that fish to the left of it...but hardly nothing actually in cover. That's a crappie hotel thing I sunk . You can see my trolling lanes on the map...following an old creek channel.
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redblood said:
I watch a ton of brandon lester and he absolutely destroys them on the same lakes i fish in the falll to Christmas window. If the leaves are orange, hes catching huge crappie and lots of them. 60 degree water seems to be his sweet spot
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Another channel to check out if you haven't already is Gordon Pettie Fishing. He fishes Tim's Ford, Woods, and down here on Guntersville. He bass fishes a good bit, but has lots of livescope crappie videos. Pretty sure he's from Lincoln County.
 
Mud Creek said:
I am far from a good crappie fisherman but a guy down the road who I hunt and fish with sometimes is one of the best locals around. Honestly, he's too smart for his own good at times which can be frustrating but he knows his stuff! He even has the nick name of "Crappie Ed" lol. We have bumped into a few livescope guys and whenever we came across them I shut my mouth, and would just listen to what he'd be asking or telling them. What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward lol.

Stuff like live scope is no different(IMO)than a cell phone in that it will probably dumb people down to what they really need to be doing or learning. Crappie are finicky as heck! Make 100 casts and not get a nibble. Move that cast just a hair in one direction and you have a limit before you realize it. JMHO.


Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL😁😁😉
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its made some young average joes into some outstanding pros. prior to 2019 no one had heard of some of these guys. kind of fun looking at their winnings stats and seeing goose eggs for the most part before FFS.
 
Crow Terminator said:
I'm no expert by any means but I am catching 14 to 16 inch white crappie right now when my livescope buddies are doing good to catch 7 to 9 inch black crappie and wondering what the heck I am doing different and how I'm catching fish without live scope. From here on thru the fall when the water dips into the 50s I am pulling crankbaits and covering lots of water. I'm watching a screen...but it's a split screen of the lake mapping and down scan. I'm following contours and fishing flats and some ledges. The fish I catch are scattered. Catch a couple in one spot...make a few more passes and once that Peter's out, keep moving. Get a couple more. I may only get 7 to 10 fish in a morning trip but they'll be sure nuff big uns that you don't even have to measure to know they are keepers. It gets better in the fall when they start really bunching up again. Some of those days will keep you REAL busy on the crankbait rods. Note the screen shot of my down imaging. Note that fish to the left of it...but hardly nothing actually in cover. That's a crappie hotel thing I sunk . You can see my trolling lanes on the map...following an old creek channel. View attachment 185484View attachment 185483
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Exactly what we ran into as well. We'd have limits(or good hauls everytime)of big crappie and VERY few dinks, while they'd have a few keepers with a boat load of shorts that got thrown back. I also want to clear a line from my previous post.

"What I have learned is I have yet to talk with someone who wasn't a good crappie fisherman before livescope that turned into one afterward"

I think a better way to word that would have been the ones we ran into who had them specifically for targeting crappie in hopes that it would improve their success were usually the dissapointed ones. I didn't mean to come across like a jerk lol.
 
WTM said:
its made some young average joes into some outstanding pros. prior to 2019 no one had heard of some of these guys. kind of fun looking at their winnings stats and seeing goose eggs for the most part before FFS.
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Youngsters and their technology! I'm a proud live scope hater lol I think it is going to mess things up. Cell phones are a great thing to have. They can get us out of emergencies, etc. Now they've evolved into something else. They're also also ruining an entire generation. We are in the good years of live scope, let's see where it is in 10-20 years. The younger guys relying on it so heavily worries me more than anything. Hopefully I'm wrong. I don't see it as a catching all the fish issue, more of just crowded areas and over pressured fish. I'm far from a crappie master so my opinion doesn't amount to much.
 
Crow Terminator said:
I am pulling crankbaits and covering lots of water.
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No doubt you can catch some big crappie pulling crankbaits, but I despise it. It's like reeling in an old shoe. The fish just lays on top of the water and skis to the boat. I'd rather catch 1 crappie livescoping than 10 pulling cranks. I get the anticipation of seeing him turn and come for the jig, I get to feel the thump, and I get to fight a 12+ inch crappie on a 15 foot livescope rod. That is some big fun.
 
Mud Creek said:
Boats with live scope will be the equivalent to squatted trucks and party boats before too long. Every time you want to hit the lake every bit of structure will be surrounded by these yahoos watching their TV screens LOL😁😁😉
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The difference is squatted trucks and party boats are a nothing but a nuisance. Livescope is beneficial! 😁
 
Mud Creek said:
We'd have limits(or good hauls everytime)of big crappie and VERY few dinks, while they'd have a few keepers with a boat load of shorts that got thrown back.
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I'm not sure why a livescoper would be catching a boatload of dinks. You can tell how big the fish is and if you waste your time fishing for dinks you won't catch the big ones. We don't even waste our time fishing for dinks. What's the point? That's time I can spend looking for and fishing for known keepers.
 
No clue it just seemed they couldn't keep away from the small ones. They had to go through lots of shorts to get a few tanks and it was opposite for us. The guys who could wear them out before live scope would really hammer them with it. Maybe seeing the piles of fish just makes it hard for some to leave a spot. After all, you're watching your bait drop right in front of their face so why won't they bite? I imagine it's super frustrating watching it, It's bad enough when I can't see it lol.
Spurhunter said:
The difference is squatted trucks and party boats are a nothing but a nuisance. Livescope is beneficial! 😁
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Lol it kind of boils down to that though. I don't like them but they are pretty cool and can be useful.
 
Mud Creek said:
After all, you're watching your bait drop right in front of their face so why won't they bite? I imagine it's super frustrating watching it, It's bad enough when I can't see it lol.
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Super frustrating? Try infuriating! I've had days where none of the fish wanted to bite. They'd just chase the jig all the way up or sit there and stare at it if I held it still. After a few hours that will make you crazy!
 
Spurhunter said:
I'm not sure why a livescoper would be catching a boatload of dinks. You can tell how big the fish is and if you waste your time fishing for dinks you won't catch the big ones. We don't even waste our time fishing for dinks. What's the point? That's time I can spend looking for and fishing for known keepers.
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the crappie in the picture was exactly 10.25 inches- it was my sons first crappie ever (why i took the pic). It also the first fish i saw hit a bait on livescope (active target). He looked tiny on the screen but was decent. I guess it takes awhile to be able to discern size. I can see bigger longer fish moving on structure. I guess bass or catfish?
 

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redblood said:
I guess it takes awhile to be able to discern size. I can see bigger longer fish moving on structure. I guess bass or catfish?
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I would guess bass, catfish, gar, or something else. When I see a big "submarine" go across my screen I just ignore it because I know it's not a crappie. As far as size, I use the grid feature on Livescope. I see you have yours turned off if Active Target has that option. I can click my forward range down until the grid square is 2 foot wide. If the fish isn't roughly half as long as the square he's probably not a keeper where I fish. It's not exact, but gives you an idea. And yes, I still get fooled. The more you do it the better you will get at knowing which ones to fish for.
 
Spurhunter said:
Super frustrating? Try infuriating! I've had days where none of the fish wanted to bite. They'd just chase the jig all the way up or sit there and stare at it if I held it still. After a few hours that will make you crazy!
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Lol no way I could take that.
 
Crow Terminator said:
I'm no expert by any means but I am catching 14 to 16 inch white crappie right now when my livescope buddies are doing good to catch 7 to 9 inch black crappie and wondering what the heck I am doing different and how I'm catching fish without live scope. From here on thru the fall when the water dips into the 50s I am pulling crankbaits and covering lots of water. I'm watching a screen...but it's a split screen of the lake mapping and down scan. I'm following contours and fishing flats and some ledges. The fish I catch are scattered. Catch a couple in one spot...make a few more passes and once that Peter's out, keep moving. Get a couple more. I may only get 7 to 10 fish in a morning trip but they'll be sure nuff big uns that you don't even have to measure to know they are keepers. It gets better in the fall when they start really bunching up again. Some of those days will keep you REAL busy on the crankbait rods. Note the screen shot of my down imaging. Note that fish to the left of it...but hardly nothing actually in cover. That's a crappie hotel thing I sunk . You can see my trolling lanes on the map...following an old creek channel. View attachment 185484View attachment 185483
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Great white crappie. I dont think we have many white crappie this way .
 
Spurhunter said:
Fall is definitely the best time of year for crappie fishing IMO.
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June is the best month of the yr on kylake a blind man can even catch rhem in june🤣Stable weather patterns,light winds usually and fish are usually hungry in june.
 
Spurhunter said:
No doubt you can catch some big crappie pulling crankbaits, but I despise it. It's like reeling in an old shoe. The fish just lays on top of the water and skis to the boat. I'd rather catch 1 crappie livescoping than 10 pulling cranks. I get the anticipation of seeing him turn and come for the jig, I get to feel the thump, and I get to fight a 12+ inch crappie on a 15 foot livescope rod. That is some big fun.
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Cranks are fun when its hot and you can set under an umbrella and troll around.But i have to agree,its hard to crank when you have livescope.With livescope i can usually get fish in the boat alot quicker.If someone wants to get better whatch you tube videos and watch hayden jefferies interviews,he has some grest advice.
 

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