How to Find SHALLOW Crappie with Side Imaging

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krabimonster.com use promo code davis save 20 off your entire order today i wanted to talk about how to use side imaging specifically for shallower water crappie now typically i don't really fish crappie shallow as we get into the summer months because they stack up so well in deep water i'm actually going to show you both show the shallow water kind of brush that some of these crappie you're going to set up on and then the deeper water stuff the 15 to 20 foot is kind of the deeper stuff shallower is less than 10 feet the one thing i will say about shallow water crappie and the reason i don't typically fish for them is because our natural lakes up north that get down to the 20 30 foot max depth range those crop you're gonna stack up on the outside weed edge when i say outside weed edge it's the furthest weed growth that you can find on the lake so some lakes are super clear and you can find them the weeds growing in 20 feet of water that's going to be where those croppier set up on our natural lakes you're probably not going to catch crappie you know less than seven eight feet on our natural lakes as we get into the dog days of summer but on the river systems here because we have a ton of current and the bait fish population is massive as long as you got oxygen and food the crappie can survive in the shallow waters even though water temps are upper 70s low 80s which is pretty warm you know low 80s that's that's pretty warm for us up north for those of you down south i'm sure water temps get into the 90s through most of the summer time but i'm going to show you how to use side imaging i'm going to show you what i'm looking for and why i'm looking forward to specific spots on side imaging and we're going to jump up front i'm going to use the live scope obviously but i'm also going to turn the live scope off and show you how to just cast had a buoy marker so that if you don't have livescope there is a way to catch these fish up shallow so when it comes to using side imaging for shallow water crappie first you need to know where you're actually going to start scanning on a map the topographic map like we're looking here now what you can't see on this map is there's actually a power plant with a large current outflow and there's a big rock flatter like a gravel flat that drops off into the main current system here within a relatively close proximity i'm looking for these flatter areas in shallower water that are real close to steep drop-offs the reason that's important is crappie will seek deep water for safety reasons so if there's a huge storm front that comes through not only will crappie sink in the water column but they'll actually push off the deeper water because that's where the safer warmer or cooler water is depending on the time of year the other thing is because there's a lot of current moving through here that attracts a lot of bait fish especially in areas where there's a little bit of a backwater eddy system and so those bait fish move in and if there's bait fish and that current brings oxygen as well there's bait fish in oxygen those crop you're going to be there so what you want to do is set your side scan to 70 80 feet left and right and start scanning these areas that are near current flows and these steeper drop offs into the main current channel or the main river channel so as you can see here i found a little piece of brush in super shallow water through a waypoint on it and i'm going to circle back over it drop the live scope down if you don't have live scope go ahead throw a buoy marker out to uh to mark it the one thing about shallow water crappie fishing if you're going to throw a buoy marker out you might have to use 2d or down imaging to actually drive over the top of it to get an actual drop with your buoy marker might scare the fish so give them a little bit of time to school back up on that piece of brush but after that should be able to start catching fish that's a little piece of brush that i marked with side imaging there there he is took a minute to get him to bite there we go some shallow water river crappie anything less than 10 feet i'm gonna take is a win right now because typically it's not where i fish these crappie but if you can find little pieces of timber like this i think it's it's got to be a stump or something little piece of brush and there's a ton of bait fish on it too those aren't all crappie over the past few days we've had strong winds pushing into this bank and on friday i was out here catching a ton of crappie just kind of roaming around but there were his feeding on schools of bait fish that got pushed into this little rocky bank here and it looks like they're still here because the bait fish are still here there are a ton of fish down there and i know a lot of you don't don't like the live scope that's fine i don't i could probably throw a buoy marker on it because it looks like looks like it is a stump and they're holding there but there's a ton of crappie past it just sitting on the bottom in you know 10 feet of water but the only way you find this stuff is with side imaging not with livescope livescope helps you like precision cast to it but oh my goodness there's a big school of them back there but that side imaging that's did a screenshot or i think i screen recorded it for you guys that side imaging is what really helps it stand out there he is that's such a such a light bite come here buddy that's a good crappie though oh that's a that's a healthy crappie bottom lipped it which means he hit it on the fall that is a healthy crappie though should get this guy on the bump board just to see what he is oh yeah he's 11 and a halfer all right yeah he's 11 and a half easy bud wow you got me you got me eleven and a half on the river shallow water crappie fishing gotta love it some of these crappie are roaming a little bit and so probably the best thing you could do is actually just kind of spider rig or long line unfortunately on this side of the river that i'm fishing i'm gonna fish on the minnesota side uh you can only have two lines with one jig tied to each line so you're only allowed two rods which you know if you have a few guys in the boat it might make sense to long line but with just two two rods i i don't know that's tough your best bet is probably throw a buoy marker on here and and just keep casting at it today big storm we got another storm coming through this afternoon oh swing and a miss got him again hit it on the second drop come here buddy little guy seems like those bigger crop here out past it you guys can see on the bottom there there's some big fish out there but the reason i use uh curly tails or paddle tail swim baits if you're gonna do a lot more casting is if you do have some sort of cold front come through when they hit it as this thing's dropping there's a lot of tail action both on the curly tails um the bee vibes that i use the little paddle tail swimbaits like that's that's the type of bait you want to use to help trigger a bite if you're doing a ton of casting if you're doing more vertical jigging or just like pitching out over a brush pile and like swinging it through those minnow profiles that i have been using like the small fry um or even some sort of insect larva pattern those work really well but to do this type of setup we're you're casting quite quite a few feet away from the boat you know 30 40 feet away from the boat and then reeling it over the top of them some sort of curly tailor oh dang there he was they're starting to get aggressive now curly tail or paddle tail swim bait to trigger a bite all right because i know you guys are sick of the glidescope for we're gonna throw a buoy on this thing pretty much nailed it that might be a little to the left which is fine that way i can cast on the left side of it now for a 1 16 this thing's dropping probably about four seconds for every about seven seven to eight feet so since we're in about ten feet of water it's probably gonna count down to about five and i'm gonna slow reel and just kind of bounce it and that will get me kind of close to where they're at in the strike zone there he is come here buddy he's a little guy but he's a chunker he's only going nine though see you bud there he is oh that's a that's a good fish there's a keeper there's another eater for the live well oh it's one of those little i don't know if you guys can see that it's one of those pontoon uh jet ski boats i think sea doo makes them remember what they're called i'm not sure how well you guys saw that but that is a chunker throw this guy on the bump board real quick what do we got here ten and a halfer ten and a half the one thing i love about river crappie the bait fish are really healthy in in a river system and then that means these crappie are going to feed up real well and so they're typically a lot bigger than our natural lakes you got to remember a lot of our natural lakes are only a couple thousand acres in size so that bait fish population if it's not a healthy bait fish population those crappie just aren't going to get that big and it's not just crappie i mean it could be bass walleye whatever else is in the lake it's got to have a healthy bait population river systems they have great bait populations like saint croix mississippi there's so many bait fish in here and that helps grow some really big crappie all right well that is going to wrap it up for today that is a 13 inch northern wisconsin stud of a crappie right there catch them on these curly tails see if we can get it in focus for you yeah little crappie monster curly tail so that's that's all i'm doing on the river systems right now scanning shallow water i'm actually set up right now on the same kind of brush pile set up scanning shallow water really nice fish gonna get her back in the live well but be sure to uh click the top link in the description it's for crappie monster use promo code davis 20 off so enjoy the last few weeks of summer here and get out in the water catch some crappie don't be afraid of shallow water on your river systems your flowages any type of creek channels or something that flows in there the natural lakes are not going to have you know as abundant of crappie in the shallows but these river systems can be really really good producers of quality crappie up shallow so if you've got any comments or questions post them in the comment section below or you can message me on either facebook or instagram i always appreciate hearing from you again be sure to click that top link in the video description get yourself some tackle and save some money we'll see in the next one [Music] foreign

Channel: Flopping Crappie

Views: 31,687

Keywords: How to find crappie, how to find crappie with side imaging, crappie, crappie fishing, crappie fishing with a jig, garmin echomap, livescope, crappie fishing September, how to locate crappie, Find crappie with side imaging, how to use side imaging, flopping crappie, september, crappie fishing a river, find crappie on a river, wisconsin, minnesota, crappie monster

Id: ycIqpjGiRIs

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 01 2022