Outdoor Guide
March-April 2021
Page 25
Video cast & catch for crappie
Photos and Text By TIM HUFFMAN
I’m conservative, old and resistant to change, especially electronics. But the best fishermen in the country aren’t resistant to change. Garmin was the first company to design LiveScope, a real-time graph showing a fish in action, along with its direction, depth and distance from the boat. Guides, tournament competitors and serious fishermen all across the country have made the change and have proven it’s the best improvement in fishing in many years. People often call today’s crappie fishing “Video Crappie” because the process includes watching a screen, finding a fish and pitching or casting to it. So how efficient is it for catching crappie? For several decades, many tournaments have been won by slow trolling (spider rigging). During 2020 on the major circuits, LiveScope was responsible for about 90 percent of wins and top ten finishes. THE TECHNIQUE Equipment is simple. A fisherman needs a 12-foot jigging pole, a 6-foot spinning rod, a good trolling motor and LiveScope or equivalent. Areas and spots are found in traditional ways with maps, side imaging and sonar. After these steps, nothing else looks like normal fishing. A fisherman uses a trolling motor to
guide a transducer back and forth looking at vertical slices of water. When a fish is seen, its distance from the boat and its depth are shown. An experienced LiveScoper can recognize the fish as a crappie and determine its general size. Bait presentation is with a long jigging pole or by casting. Pitching is easiest but casting has gained popularity because crappie are spookier than once believed. Casting allows the bait to be presented 30, 40 or more feet from the boat before a crappie has the chance to realize danger. The fisherman can watch the bait and see the reaction of the fish. WHICH JIGS? Jigs are top pick when casting. Experts often choose 1/32- or 1/16-ounce when casting so the fall is slow and control is best. Heavier jigs fall quickly so they can’t be fished as slowly. Pitching with a long pole calls for 1/16- or 1/8-ounce to quickly get down to a fish. Small hair jigs have become more popular because they can entice strikes when plastic won’t. Like other methods, baits are matched to the situation with fish depth, wind, current and water clarity all playing a role in selecting the right weight and look. CHASING FISH Tournament angler and Truman Lake expert Mark McClure says, “LiveScope helps us pinpoint fish and
chase them down. We’ve gone 150 yards chasing a fish before we caught it. We’ve noticed that as long as a fish doesn’t go down toward the bottom, we’ll catch it. “Another thing that helps, when seeing a big fish on a stump, is that we stay with it longer,” he adds. “We know it’s there and it’s a big one, so we keep baits on the fish. Before, if we pitched beside a tree and didn’t get a bite, we would move on. “Every few years a new product or technique shows up that helps people catch fish,” McClure said. “I believe this technique will be around for a while. I like this style of fishing because we don’t have to mess with eight poles slow trolling. It’s one pole for each fisherman and it’s a lot of fun.” The first person pitching or casting to a fish has the best opportunity to catch it. However, having a second fisherman with a different bait, maybe a minnow on a jig head if the partner is using a jig, provides a one-two punch that can entice a fish to bite. EVIL VS. HERO Negatives about LiveScoping begin with the cost of the unit, starting at around $3,000, but a medium-size display runs $4,000. The learning curve is tough for many, with young, tech-savvy fishermen having an advantage. This technique can teach a fisherman more in a month than what used to take decades to figure out,
so fishing experience means much less than before. Also, the technique targets big crappie, so the verdict is out if there will be a long-term negative impact by removing the biggest crappie from a lake. It also takes a hit because many fishermen consider it the equivalent of spotlighting deer, with much of the sporting aspect is removed. There are many advantages. Fishermen who learn it love it and say it’s fun. There is more interest by younger fishermen to get into the sport because it’s basically a video game. Fishermen have learned so much about crappie, including how spooky they are from noises and a boat, how they react to bait and how many of the bigger slabs are suspended in open water. A fish can be followed and caught. It’s an efficient technique because a fisherman targets casts directly to fish. Video cast and catch fishing is here to stay. It’s not inexpensive and it has a steep learning curve, but it is a proven technique that leads to more and bigger crappie.
Video cast and catch are about getting into an area with fish and watching the screen. Bait is presented only when a target fish is within range.
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Mark McClure swings a fish to the boat as pre-spawn fishing brings fast action and fun.
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