Chain O Lakes State Park Crappies Yesterday

[chicagill34]

Started the day off for Gills again but just all dinks..quit and decided to go for the Crappies..Went out a little deeper,was marking them but they was not hitting..after a half a day in between 30 ft and 50 ft of water I was catching some here n there and then I realized,the ones that only hit were near this black cloud or mass on my graph..looked like baitfish..so I motored around and looked for these black masses with hopefully fish around them and caught these..It was hard to stay on top of them because of the wind and I think they was moving as well..so when I went to clean the Crappies I checked all their stomachs for minnows or baitfish and all of them had that stuff loaded in their stomachs...some kind of plankton???  and will plankton or something else in that matter show up in like a black cloud on the graph??  I just have a Humminbird with a transducer on the front motor..The Crappies hit a tube jig fished vertical with a big split shot.

[stinkybaits]

Nice eaters Jim! Black stuff Hmmm mercury cloud lol? Lol! Hatch perhaps suspended leaves maybe. Need a camera!

[chicagill34]

What does them stomach contents look like to you Scott??  and dont say fish poop...lol   all them Crappies were caught in a different area and all had their tummys loaded with that...and dont say Mcdonalds!!..lol Your the Guru on this stuff!!

[stinkybaits]

Hmmmm kinda hard to tell. Almost looks like some type of hatch going on. Any minnows at all? Some looked like small fry.

[chicagill34]

no minnows whatsoever...now I had these other larvae black eyed thingys in the Crappies from Blue Lake in the spring but they turned out to be Dragonfly Larvae

[crappiehunter]

Nice eater size, congrats on figuring them out.

[MC_angler]

might be zooplankton of some kind, they'll key on cladocerans in fall and winter especially.

good article on panfish and zooplankters http://www.in-fisherman.com/panfish/fishing-for-panfish/

[chicagill34]

thanks  Ill have to find that!!

[Valparaiso_Girl]

BLAH!  Ya got me-- I'm innocently looking at pretty fish, and then a lake scene, and then GROSS MYSTERY STUFF!  Yikes, warn me next time will ya?  For heaven's sake, I was sipping a green smoothie!   

[wally13]

nice cali's calico's crappies

[chicagill34]

Sorry Valpo..lol   next time I shall heed warning!!