Just when you think you figured something out, you're wrong.

casts_by_fly · May 6, 2024

Hi gents,

Due to a new job and lots more time in the gym, I've not been able to get out 2-3 times a week like I have for the past 3 years. So, I'm getting 1 days a week and making the most of it. I managed to get out saturday morning and with the time of year I decided I wanted to catch smallies. One of my locals has a secret smallie population and its where I caught the 4-03# 2 years ago in March. This lake is largely a silty bottom, flat bowl of a lake that gets weeded in pretty heavily. It means the two places on the lake which are sandy and rocky are the only two spots worth fishing for smallies. This time of year they are up on the shallow flats to spawn and when you hit it right they will slam topwaters. Well I was a week or two too late. The water was already up to 64-65 and only the smaller males were around. Managed 5 with the best one just under 15". All great fun for the first two hours of the morning until they shut off on top. Can't beat a great sunrise.

This lake also has a good largemouth population so I decided to beat the bank. If the smallies are done, the largemouth must be inching up ready. Alas, I never saw a single largemouth bed so they weren't quite there yet. I had one follow a jackhammer back to the boat but not take it. But, I thought I had a PB largemouth about 3 casts in. When he rolled on the surface, it was clearly not a largemouth rather a 31" northern. Might be a PB northern for me, certainly the biggest I've caught in recent memory.

I got tired of cast and crank and the wind was too much to really slow down and pick apart cover so I dropped the FFS in the water and glued the spinning rod to my hand. Crossing the lake I found a school on SI and was pretty sure they were crappie. Yup. Could have sat there and caught dozens if I wanted. Kept crossing and found a dozen similar schools. I knew there were a lot of crappie in the lake, but never thought they would be roaming open water with no cover.

I went back to one of the rocky areas figuring that if the smallies had backed off the flats they'd be on the deeper side of the drop (the lake only goes to 12'). Now I understand what the pro's mean when they say that isolated large crappie are the easiest fish to confuse for a bass on FFS. Same thing last weekend. Crappie in the 12-15" bracket look like bass on FFS. Apparently so do pike. After catching a couple crappie to prove the point, I thought for sure I had zero'd in on bass. Larger profile on the screen, behaving differently while lightly cruising around. I put a mini fluke on a jighead in front of it and set the hook. Halfway back to the boat the line breaks. I thought I must have tied a crappy knot and had my drag set too light for the 6 lb mono leader I was using. Second cast and I'm hooked up to a good one again. I thought for sure it was a good bass until it rolled on the surface. 26" pike. I can't complain about catching a bunch of fish and really being able to dial in FFS. I just need those fish to be bass from now on.

gim · May 6, 2024

I find it interesting that a 26 or 21 inch pike looks the same as a 12 inch crappie on live sonar. The shape and size of those fish is really nothing alike. I've heard some people say they can easily tell the difference between species of fish with this technology.

casts_by_fly · May 6, 2024

15 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I find it interesting that a 26 or 21 inch pike looks the same as a 12 inch crappie on live sonar. The shape and size of those fish is really nothing alike. I've heard some people say they can easily tell the difference between species of fish with this technology.

some of it has to do with how the fish is facing. I've seen small muskies that are turned sideways and its clear they are long skinny fish. But when they turn towards you they look like a round blob. In the picture above, the one on the left is the pike and its turned 3/4 away (or towards) the transducer. Side on, a 12" crappie and a 26" pike are quite different. But when you're staring at 12" crappie all day and then you see a much larger return you immediately think nice bass. Or at least I do. I can't tell you what all 5 dots are in that image, but I can tell you the bigger one on the left is a 26" pike. In the image further up the post, those are crappie.

Settings also play into it a lot. If you increase the contrast the fish image shrinks a bit. The crappie up top are like that. That's pretty high contrast so you lose the fuzzyness aroudn the edges. On the bottom I had turned down contrast a bunch and you can see more 'flare' around the edges of the fish.

Also, Garmin LVS34 is better than Mega live. So while I'm happy with these and they are usable, the LVS34 images are incredible.

TnRiver46 · May 6, 2024

I’d have a ball catching those pike! Keep after em, they pull harder than the bass anyway

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

I find it interesting that a 26 or 21 inch pike looks the same as a 12 inch crappie on live sonar. The shape and size of those fish is really nothing alike. I've heard some people say they can easily tell the difference between species of fish with this technology.

the top pros misidentify them regularly, catfish and drum have been extremely common FFS catches on tour this season. One guy even fished for a crappie on a bed for 3 hours before finally catching it