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Finding and Catching Suspended Crappie On October 26, 2013

I love fishing because of the challenge. There isn't any one answer on how to catch them and there are multiple pieces to the puzzle to catching suspended crappies. This example is just one way to put some fish in the livewell.

First we find them with sonar.

Notice the depth the fish are at. The top of the fish arch is the most accurate method to determining depth of the target. My transducer is 18 inches below the water and sonar measures the distance from the transducer to the target to get the depth of the target (fish).

The fish are at 22 feet so I added 18 inches and I used a Sharpie to mark my FireLine at 4 arm lengths of line which is about 24 feet. I am 5’ 11” and arm length is about the same as your height. This gives me a reference so when I get bit I can repeat the depth. This length is just a starting point since any angle on the line as the boat moves changes the depth of your jig. I use the ¼ oz. jig so I can stay vertical since it was windy.

If you look at the above image you will see I drove over the fish and prop wash when I stopped the boat by hitting reverse. I then used my Min Kota i-Pilot and Spot Lock to sit on the fish.

Spot Lock is a virtual anchoring system used by the Terrova i-pilot. The Terrova has a GPS in the head and Spot Lock creates a waypoint and directs the trolling motor to stay close to the waypoint. You can use an anchor if the water isn’t too deep or a regular trolling motor if you don’t have Spot Lock.

Since the crappies are suspended they may move away so I only stay in that spot if I don’t see any fish on the sonar or catch any.

I dropped ¼ oz. green jig with a white 2 inch Power Grub. You can see the jig dropping on the below image.

I saw this image many times as I dropped my jig. I wanted it under the transducer so I could see when it was at the level of the crappie and where the mark I made with the Sharpie on my line was so I knew the depth my jig was at when I got bit. Repeating the exact depth is important if the fish prefer a certain depth.