Have a question for the Fork regulars; I live on Fork and when I'm down towards the dam crappie fishing deep on structure; I graph /side image a lot of schools of fish and was wondering if y'all are catching a lot of sand bass ?? Seems I " think" that the school is crappie only to catch sandies? Anyone have this problem? Thanks I'm new to deep water crappie fishing.

I rarely catch sand bass in the winter. Last couple of years I have not done near as well on crappie as I use to either. I normally anchor but next time out I am going to use the TM. If I was catching lots of sand bass I would move.

I am fairly new to crappie fishing also but what I have noticed is that this time of year crappie are more lethargic. They tend more to be in groups and not really aggressive. You have to put the bait in their face. Sand bass are moving alot more as you see the streaks on your sonar. Crappie are more stationary. I fished Fork last Saturday and scanned some open water only to see huge schools of shad and sand bass right with them. We caught all our crappie under 154 bridge. They are easy to spot with sidescan. They were stacked in the water column also. What we saw were 20' to 27' in 34' of water.

Thanks for replies; yea I've caught crappie "not many" but was getting to thinking I was scanning crappie only to turn out catching some sandies. But I was at humps from say 40' to 25 and the scans were fish on bottom. Again thanks for input

Crappie tend to relate to the channels more at this time of the year. Timber and brush near channel edges are good areas. Finding a channel bend with timber and brush are bonus areas.