Crappies

[fishingbuddy]

I was fishing on a lake in WI (Big Lake) and the Vex lit up at about 6 pm. Nothing would bite. I checked with several others and the same. Is this why they call it fishing or did I do something wrong. Tried everything I had in my tackle box. but still no bite. Any ideas?

[Guest]

dynamite jk

[Minnetonka]

Down size, and go slower. I use a dead stick with a small crappie minnow when they get real picky. Maybe switch to the smallest jig you can tipped with a eurolarva.

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"I'd rather be fishing"

Mike

[korn_fish]

ARe you sure that you were not marking plankton in the water.

There are a few lakes up north that I fish and same thing happens....lights up like a x-mas tree about an hour or hour and half after dark. Fish everywhere I am telling myself....everyone else is telling me plankton...and to pack up and go home.

I asked others on this forum about this same phenomenon and they all said plankton as well.

[fishingbuddy]

Interesting. Thanks I will check it out again tomorrow night

[HawgDangler]

Just yesterday I fished a lake that has a few distinct holes that top off around 55 feet deep. I was searching for a submerged hump in the lake near one of the holes and I saw something similar. The water was 45 feet deep but from 25 to 35 feet the old Vex was almost solid red.

I drop the camera down and saw a huge school of Crappies. I was fishing in my friend's permanent shack earlier but was scouting. I had forgotten my rods in the shack! My fishing bud was able to run my rods down and we caught 22 before I needed to run. They were neutral/negative and the best way to trigger the bite was to drop a crappie minnow down through the school and bring it back up. Sometimes this would trigger a bite above the school. If some fish would follow tenatively then we would bring the crappie/deamon jig up and drop a Ratso. The same fish, because it would stay above the school, would often suck in the smaller bait.

Good luck!

[cisco kid]

zooplankton

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[Corey Bechtold]

Try to downsize your tackle, use a small horizontal glow jig with a couple of larvae, Trust your locator and play it like a video game. It sounds like those were Crappies to me. That's why they call it fishing and not catching sometimes. Always fun no matter how you cut it.