TOXIC

I think that the problem is not that lowrance does not respond, it is that most do not like the answer they give. Lowrance is not in the repair business, their first and normally only offer is to replace for a fee or give a discount on an upgraded unit. Had a friend just go through this with 2 Touch 12's. One was continuously beeping and he is a whiz with his electronics so all of the proper updates were installed. He called lowrance and they wanted him to send it in so he did. Their reply was replace with the same unit for $$$, upgrade to 12" Carbon unit for more $$$$ or upgrade to 16" Carbon for even more $$$$. All were discounted prices. He chose to upgrade to a 12 Carbon. It was the best deal. As luck would have it, not long after he got the new unit, his other 12 started doing the same thing. He did the same deal. Sucks that he had to pay but the units were 2 and 4 years old respectively and that was his only option. No offer to fix or replace free of charge. They were both out of warranty.

While I agree in the practice, I would have my doubts as to how, if there were hundreds of smallmouth stacked up in a few areas, they would be able to binge feed stocking up reserves for the winter? I doubt that there would be enough forage also stacked up in a small area to be able to sustain that many fish. As a rule, I never well fish for pictures unless it is for a TX and during the time of year it is allowed. Here in Virginia, we don't even do it in the summer with largemouths due to not wanting to stress them out. When we fish St Clair for smallies, it is catch and immediate release season so there is no debate. We do fish beds and that is up for debate. Mainly due to the fact that during the time of year we fish there, more than likely you are catching them off the beds even if you can't see them on the beds but we will spend some time in the shallows actually sight fishing them. Science backs up that in the big picture, it does not harm the spawn.

I may be the oddball here but through the years I have conditioned my hands to fish in the cold. I never have been able to get used to gloves of any type. I will put my hands in my jacket occasionally to make sure they haven't got frostbite!! That being said, it is a painful process at the beginning of the year or fall of the year getting my hands used to the cold. I have tried neoprene, finger-less, fleece, wool, surgical gloves and probably a lot more I am forgetting but none have worked. I have found fighting the cold is a losing proposition so I just embrace the suck.

Most all of my "trophy" or citation size here in Virginia (2lbs+) have come from fishing for them like I would for when I am fishing for numbers. I have never tried to target just the bigger crappie, I find them with the schools of others. To me, it's a numbers game. If I am catching them on my regular crappie baits then sooner or later I am going to hook into the larger ones. I don't see the advantage of changing up my baits to target just the larger ones. If I am in a school of smaller fish, I will move because I have found that they do school by size.

Having guided for Woo Daves annual get together a number of years, I am well versed on the technique he utilized a lot when he was fishing the Elites albeit for bass not crappie with his trademarked push button reels I never thought about it for crappie though. Seems it would be harder with the lighter weights of the lures but I'm sure it would work.

Yepper, those are the male reproductive organs. If it were a female those would be replaced by egg sacks.

Spinning and Baitcasters both have their place. I use both in multiple sizes and weights. Not because someone told me to, it was through trial and error and what felt best to me. I have waaaaaay too many setups to list.

Good Job!! We have all been there. Put this picture of my old guide boat up yesterday. Getting to the lake was the worst trailer pulling experience I have ever had. Once on the water all was good. Remember to spray your guides with Reel Magic, WD40 or Reel Snot to keep the ice to a minimum.

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!!

You are aware you can switch the handle to either side on a spinning reel correct? I switch all of my spinning rods to be reeled with my right hand and held in my left, the same as a baitcaster.

Generally just the dock slips both empty and with boats in them. With the longer rod, we can go into an empty slip and fish across the dock between a boat and the dock itself. If you are an accurate caster, you can cast in from the front of the slip. Where we fish it's all structure. No brushpiles. We do target schools of crappie on the electronics.

The Quantum Smoke MH are not as stiff as you would imagine. I could go lighter with the casting rod because I am not normally making very long casts. I have found that the lb test line I use is more important because the 8lb on the casting rod really reduces distance and doesn't let the light jighead get deep enough on an average retrieve speed. That's why I drop to 4 or 6lb test on the casting rod and stay at 8 on the float rod and also on the longer rod for vertical fishing docks.

Forgot to put up the pic of the float setup.....

Dry is much more important than warm. Of course I fish year round here in Virginia but made the mistake of getting the boat ready the night before and going ahead and putting my rods on deck. This was my old guide boat. My hands were cold all day long.

I will throw a shakeyhead, dropshot, Ned and weightless Senko in the cold water months. Just remember to slow way down.

Congrats on one of the happiest days (you know in the boat world there are 2) !! I would have to move that bump board asap. I'm clumsy enough that I could see that taking a chunk out of my shin!!

There was a good conversation last time I posted my crappie trip results and I promised that I would go into more detail on my next trip. Well, that trip was yesterday. Although they were not biting as well as the last time out (if you can consider 40 vs 80 fish a slow day) we were able to bring home some slabs for a friend who had never had crappie. That also meant I got to clean fish which was not what I wanted to do. This is my version of a crappie 101 and I'm sure others have setups they prefer. Gear: I included pictures of my 2 main setups. Obviously, I only use spinning rods for crappie but you could throw the float setup on a baitcaster if you are so inclined. Both of my spinning rods/reels are Quantum Smoke. Rods are 6'8" MH. I have 6lb mono on the casting rig and 8lb mono on my float rig. I have one longer rod that is a JLM Elite that I use for dropping baits between boats and docks. Presentation: There are 3 main ways I catch crappie. 1. Simple cast and retrieve on the rod with 6lb mono. Vary your retrieve depending where in the water column you want the bait to run. 2. Dropping and jigging the bait between boats and docks. Simply freespool the bait to the bottom (many times that's when you will get bit.) reel up about 2 turns of the reel and simply raise and drop your lure vertically. 3. Casting with a float. This is a great way to catch them and can be used from shore or a boat. I use the 8lb mono on this rig. Run your line through the float, tie on your jighead, put a small pinch weight about 3" up the line from the jighead (this helps the line feed through the float after you cast, acts as a stopper from reeling your jighead all the way to the float and gives better castability). Once you determine the depth you want your bait to be, I just tie a piece of fishing line above the float at that depth (you can use bobber stops). The line will reel up through the guides if I am fishing really deep but I like to keep my depth at around 6' if possible (that's why my rods are 6'8"). I cast the float setup out, let it settle, and then slowly lift my rod tip and pull the float, then let it drop. Pause for 30 seconds, then pull it again reeling up the slack and letting it sit. I do this all the way back to the boat. Most of the bites come as soon as the bait settles. Terminal Tackle: Although you might see a small spoon or a roadrunner or a hair jig in my bait box picture, 99.9% of the time I am throwing the Gamakatsu jighead I pictured. I also have small pinch weights and of course floats. I like the line through floats since crappie are light biters and will spit a bait very quickly. The Jigheads I posted are a personal favorite and are super sharp but it's a challenge getting 8lb mono through double for a Palomar knot. Scents: Most of the juices nibbles, etc., are a matter of personal preference. I us the 2 I pictured. I have found that the casting setup without the float normally doesn't need anything due to the moving action of the bait. I will say the Crappie Nibbles get stolen a lot and are sometimes frustrating trying to rig up. I use them to tip the jigs with either the tubes or curlytail jigs. I personally like the Smelly Jelly because it stays on the lure longer. I will admit, there are time either will increase bites. So there you have it. My go to set ups for crappie fishing and we had a great day. Any questions, just ask. Best of all, everything I showed fits in a small tackle bag and is easy to carry and transport. 3 rods and I can fish for crappie most anywhere. Sorry for the sideways pictures. This site flips and turns them and even if I go back in and edit them based on what shows on the site, they are never right.

Personally, I use a tonneau because a cap limits the height of anything taller than the cap itself. I used to have an Undercover for my old truck. It was a solid 1 piece plastic unit that I could remove if I needed to haul a large item. On my new truck I have a quad fold aluminum that has 4 sections that fold from back to front or the single panel next to the cab can fold back 1 section. It locks on both ends. The new style shown above makes that truck look like a SUV.

Congrats to my friend Yusuke Miyazaki getting back into the Elites. Besides being a Yamamoto pro, he and his family have become friends. Yusuke is a grinder and between his lure designing for major manufacturers and the time he spends back in Japan promoting the sport and guiding, I hope he has a successful run. I met him through one of my sponsors (SPRO) when I lived in Florida and he stayed with me for 2 weeks prefishing. Gave me some real insight to the day in and day out work these guys put in. He and his family also stayed with me here in Virginia (wife and 3 kids) while he prefished the Potomac and I stored his boat while he and the family went back to Japan. Great guy, great family and a fantastic ambassador for the sport. Looks like I get house guests again. Pics are of his boat at my house in VA and him fine tuning some cranks in my pool in FL.

I have an onboard 4 bank charger. My cranking/accessory battery is a Sears PM1 AGM. Due to the age of my on board charger, it does not fully charge a AGM. I use a Shumacher portable to top it off because it has both a AGM setting and a Gel setting. I occasionally hook it up to my wet cell TM batteries to check the final charge level. I have been told that it doesn't matter if the onboard is plugged in but just as a precaution, I unplug it before I hook up the portable. I do not unhook it. I have been doing this for many years and my AGM is 5 years old and going strong. As a point of reference, my on board charges my wet cells to 98% and my AGM to 90% when all are showing green lights and in maintenance mode.

Guiding for 15 years has helped me in my "advanced" years.... I'm 61. I have always said that hardcore fishing works a whole set of muscle groups that you don't normally use and unless you tailor a workout routine to specifically address those groups, you can be really surprised on how someone can be in good shape and a day of "combat" fishing will tear them up. I've seen it hundreds of times on guide trips where clients are tuckered out and sitting down after 5 hours into an 8 hour trip. I may look fluffy and out of shape but I can still hardcore fish for 12 hours in any conditions. Yes, my back feels it a little more nowadays (losing some of my fluff would help with that) but otherwise, I'm good to go. Spending a lot of days on big water when it is rocking and not just fishing when conditions are perfect helps keep my balance sharp and me in what we call "fishing shape". After the winter lazyies, we make a very concerted effort to get in a couple of weeks of hardcore marathon fishing to get in fishing shape for our annual trip to St Clair. As anybody who fishes hardcore knows, a full week of sunup to sundown fishing on big water, no matter the conditions, will flat out tear you up if you are not ready for it. I don't ever want to let my body think that there is any other way to fish and barring a major injury or health problem, I have no plans to slow down.

Then most likely they are suspended and you are not retrieving your casts in the right depth. I could set the depth of my troll by the TM speed and line size, if I slowed down the crappie jig would go deeper, if I sped up it was higher in the water column. That always gave me a rough idea how deep they were. I would adjust my casting retrieve speed to match the depth. But you are right, some days it was easier to just put 2 rods out the back on rod holders and troll up a limit.

Disclaimer up front. I am sponsored by them. That being said, I really do like the Smoke series. I have been fishing it for a few years and that line of rods/reels holds up well and has a good pricepoint. You can go cheaper in the Quantum line or you can go more expensive, all of which I have access to and I still choose the Smoke Series. FWIW.

There is sooooooo much that goes into dissecting a lake or river that it would be impossible to have a set plan in place before you go out. It would depend on so many factors, time of year, location, water temp, water clarity, seasonal pattern, and on and on.......I have said in the past, when guiding, every day is like a tournament and I start with a clean slate. I consider the day like a 500 piece puzzle and start putting the pieces together. The more of the pieces I can get, the clearer the picture and the better chance I have on finding fish.

And just to add clutter to the conversation, some baits you can fish at more than one speed. For example, a spinnerbait can be "slow rolled" when the water is cold and you need the bait deep, medium speed to keep it in a specific depth in the water column and "burned" for a fast retrieve high in the water column sometimes actually creating a wake on top of the water.