Question for the experts

[CRAZYEYES]

Last night I was out on a lake with a buddy Crappie fishing in about 42 ft of water. Before dark we can turn out vexilar's gain way up with no problem because its a fairly clear lake. My question is' that abbout a half hour after dark lots of little flickers start to apear down twoards the bottom and within about another half hour they fill the water column all the way from about ten feet under the ice to bottom. It gets so bad that there is no way that you can find your jig on a flasher. I am assuming that they are some kind of bug but we have not had a camera with infered to get a better look. All I know is about the time that they come out the crappies come out with them. Can anybody pinpont what these might be.

[DTro]

99% sure it’s plankton, it happens a lot, especially right after dark. This is a big reason why underwater cameras don’t work as well after dark.

There’s a small chance your battery was getting weak because the same thing will start to happen, but my money is on plankton.

[CRAZYEYES]

I'm positive that its not either of our batteries because it happens in the same spot this time of year every year. I've seen it on other lakes but never this bad.

[goblueM]

like dtro said its most likely plankton, they do something that is called diel vertical migration - essentially they move around in the water column to avoid predation while still maximizing their feeding/reproduction needs

[Deitz Dittrich]

i will also give a strong vote for zooplankton

Some lakes just have a higher population...

[CRAZYEYES]

Thats what we were thinking. It gets kind of frustrating not being able to find your jig after dark. You have to take out the old fashioned lead depth finder and find 3 ft off the bottom the manual way.

[Deitz Dittrich]

they can get quite thick.. I have not done all that well on lakes that get that way.. if you think about it, lots of fun moving around natural bait..

[CRAZYEYES]

MY buddy lives on the lake and most of the year we don't do that well there either. Its an experimental regulation lake and has some monster crappies but they are finicky and tough to find but when they bite they really go. He has spent years trying to figure the lake out. Nice though, there were a fair number of people out there last night but no one within about 2 miles of us!

[Neiko]

Bloodworms

[hamms-scooter]

I also say zoolankton. They also move in the morning I credit this to the good morning and evening bite of panfish.They swim with their mouths open and fill up on this easy to get food. Blood worms lay in the mud on the bottom this is why the perch typically are on bottom.

[mr_jman]

If you are fishing without a bobber or a spring bobber you could still tie on the bobber stop and get your depth at 3' off the bottom and pull the knot right to line that would come off the spool next. Then you can drop your line till the knot and close your bail. The knot shouldn't have to go through the bail or any of the rods "eyes" unless the fish takes line I suppose. Either that or a small rubber band around the spool at the correct depth will keep you from going below the depth you want.

[Ed Carlson]

Last night I was out on a lake with a buddy Crappie fishing in about 42 ft of water. Before dark we can turn out vexilar's gain way up with no problem because its a fairly clear lake. My question is' that abbout a half hour after dark lots of little flickers start to apear down twoards the bottom and within about another half hour they fill the water column all the way from about ten feet under the ice to bottom. It gets so bad that there is no way that you can find your jig on a flasher. I am assuming that they are some kind of bug but we have not had a camera with infered to get a better look. All I know is about the time that they come out the crappies come out with them. Can anybody pinpont what these might be.

What style of sonar are you using, what model is helpful for me to know also?

The LP Mode and/or the S-Cable on a Vexilar is there to help address this undesirable clutter concern. It will better allow you to tune out the undesirable clutter caused by the Bug-Farts and concentrate on the task at hand.

Bug-Fart TIP: A helpful fishing pattern can often be established in this Bug-Fart clutter, with the aid of your electronics.

When you turn up the gain you will notice a more concentrated band on the top edge of the rising sheet of bugs, they tend to thicken at this point and look somewhat like a thermocline on a graph might.

What I have noticed over the years is the larger panfish tend to feed on this depth line, so you now have possibly determined what zone you should be fishing in for the greatest effect.

Once that Bug-Zone has been determined you can adjust the Gain and clean up the Bug-Fart clutter on your display to better read your jig and the fish.

This Zone often will change over the night or even during the day in low light situations...so it pays to check on it from time to time by dirtying up the Gain to see if it has moved.