my experience is that there are a lot less crappie willing to feed on most days than those that are. this confirms something ive always felt that gamefish primarily feed at night.
I am of the thinking right now that the ability to frequently locate fish relating to cover and structure, and catch many or most of them is causing the fish to scatter more especially on smaller lakes.

something else ive noticed is that many times crappie will swim out of a brushpile and just bite the jig, but not eat it.
so determining what mood the crappie are in has become part of pattern recognition for me. what is fascinating is how crappie on most of a lake will be in the same mood at a given time..
I have also noticed that at times, a crappie will swim up to a jig, and look at it,, and as soon as you move it, they bolt back into the brushpile.. like it startled them for some reason. dont know if they see the flash of the hook or what it is, but they instantly decide they dont like it. so shiny hooks may be something that I will start to phase out of my presentation.. I think it may make a difference.

This may be the most informative fishing post I have ever read and I have been actively on many boards since 2008

That a crappie will strike a bait again and again after you missed it...

My experience with spooking fish seems to be different than others. In fact, one of the things I learned from experience is that I would often 'accidentally' catch a fish while leaving my jig in the water when moving spots. This is why when moving between piles that are close to each other I always leave my jig in the water (cover permitting). I often catch a fish from the pile that I just "exhausted" as I'm leaving when I troll away. Even with a 12 foot pole, the momentum of the boat will cause the jig to angle considerably back toward the boat meaning the jig is very close to the trolling motor.

Obviously depth (I rarely fish shallower than 10 FOW) plays a role here and some fish are more skittish than others but I generally don't worry about my trolling motor spooking fish in 10+ FOW. I do always pitch to a pile before moving on top of it. I don't do this to prevent spooking fish, I do it to rotate through presentations ... maybe I'm just catching the skittish fish first before I move on top without really considering skittishness.

Two age old questions before livescope when fishing brush piles

#1 are they there and not biting or are they not there ?
Way more often that not , they are there and not biting.
#2 After catching one fish immediately when pulling up to a spot ,
and then nothing . Was that the only fish there ?

again way more often than not , There will be plenty of
fish there , only one aggressive fish.

MO

EXACTLY...

Live technology has taught me that some Crappie are wiser than others! I once saw a helicopter spook three black tail deer in a canyon on a hunting show. They all bolted however one of the three ,A Buck, decided to seek refuge beneath some huge boulders. A thermal imaging camera revealed that He remained there until dusk before he emerged under the cover of darkness.In NATURE some creatures are a little more intelligent than their peers & I`ve learned that some of the larger fish on a BP will just sit in there until they feel it safe enough to venture out & feed while the smaller fish are more ferocious & reckless to their own demise.What`s the lesson here?They don`t get BIG being stupid.

it's taught me, there are more rich fisherman/ video gamers, than ever before. too rich for me !

I figured out the secret to not being rich but still having the toys:

Don't buy a nice boat.

Electronics are FAR more important than your boat.

I have a 40 year old bass tracker (first year release) with the original motor that needs a screwdriver involved to start it (seriously)....but the money I saved on the boat gave me plenty to save for a terrova with spotlock, some nice millennium chairs, and now the livescope plus.

Very Good post, lots of good information shared here!!!

I’ve learned that fishing is fishing still,,an art of learning locating, presenting baits and praying what you did invites those fish to want to feed,,,,,compared to watching a giant screen Tv/ radar detection system and sticking a meal in the mouth of the largest picture I see,,,these electronic devices take away from the true art of Fishing,,,imho…

Just like the modern day rod and reel did to the old cane pole and surely you shouldn't use any depth finder or flasher to be a purist.

This has been perhaps the most informative and instructional post I've seen on TFF. Shout out to you all who commented your lessons learned for us guys without the electronics. Tight lines!

One other thing it has taught me is that ENVY still exist in others on how you catch fish.