Are these crappie or gizzard shad? Caught a 3 or so Crappie from each spot.

[jym]

Not much luck on these spots this cold morning. Occurred to me that we might be looking at shad. Opinions?
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[tweakjr]

I've notice crappie will paint nice round dinner plate looking shadows.

[jym]

I've notice crappie will paint nice round dinner plate looking shadows.

Like the shadows in upper right corner of first photo? Could this be a mixture of crappie and shad?

Is my markup on this shot correct?
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Thanks for your help.

[ezfishn]

Those shadows look more like beds to me.

[jym]

Those shadows look more like beds to me.

In 24' water? I thought beds were made in shallower water.

[ezfishn]

I don't believe the area you indicated is in 24' FOW. It appears to be a rise in elevation based on the returns being brighter on that side. I have seen beds in 15-20' of water but more common to find them shallower. Not easy to spot them though in most water conditions and that is probably based on water temps.

[jym]

I don't believe the area you indicated is in 24' FOW. It appears to be a rise in elevation based on the returns being brighter on that side. I have seen beds in 15-20' of water but more common to find them shallower. Not easy to spot them though in most water conditions and that is probably based on water temps.

Thank you for your help. Do you agree that I've marked crappie and shad correctly? I didn't mark the other groups of shad.

[ezfishn]

I believe so but not certain all the predators are crappie though. Might be a few other hungry predators mixed in.

[SLYDoggie]

The fish shadows are in direct line of the fish from your transducer so I believe those to be fish shadows and not beds... Also, I agree that they are too deep to be beds.

Definitely a mixture of bait and fish. Crappie is a good guess for the fish as they are pretty tightly bunched. Most of my fishing is for Stripers and Hybrids. Although they school up, the schools aren't typically this tight and the returns are more long and slender, although small Hybrids can look a lot like Crappie on the sonar returns.

[Wayne P.]

This is shad with bass getting an afternoon snack:

[SLYDoggie]

This is shad with bass getting an afternoon snack:

I caught a 3 lb Largemouth last week while trolling for Stripers with U-Rigs. In addition to my lure, he had a large crawdad and 3 shad in his mouth... Voracious feeders!

[jym]

Thanks, Wayne. Do you have any input on my original question? In the first picture, is that predator and bait or just a large school of crappie? We caught 3 crappie there - difficult to fish from the boat with the cable in front and the boat lift in one slip.

This is shad with bass getting an afternoon snack:

[Wayne P.]

Thanks, Wayne. Do you have any input on my original question? In the first picture, is that predator and bait or just a large school of crappie? We caught 3 crappie there - difficult to fish from the boat with the cable in front and the boat lift in one slip.

Without using FishID, what you did via catching is the best way to determine what a species is. All you have in that image is different size fish and even some of the larger ones could be larger predators (the individual ones to the right of the marked Crappie and close to the large bait fish school that is getting strung out avoiding the predators). Not unusual to have crappie, shad, and bass together--I see it a lot.

[Wayne P.]

This is bass, crappie, and shad with the original 360. I caught some of the bass and some of the crappie:

[jym]

These shots look like the many I am getting right now. I suppose I should have known there is bait mixed in there. We've caught a few bass and catfish while trying to catch crappie. I started worrying that the Mega 360 was making the bait look bigger, so there weren't really many crappie. We have never pulled eating size crappie out one after the other like my brothers do in MS. I have a lot to learn about catching them after I find them. :) Thanks again for your help. I'm determined to get the most out of our electronics even if we are just fishing for food!

This is bass, crappie, and shad with the original 360. I caught some of the bass and some of the crappie:

[jym]

It amazes me that fish try to eat plastic.

I caught a 3 lb Largemouth last week while trolling for Stripers with U-Rigs. In addition to my lure, he had a large crawdad and 3 shad in his mouth... Voracious feeders!

[SLYDoggie]

It amazes me that fish try to eat plastic.

I'm glad they eat plastic!!!

In Tennessee we can have as many teasers as we want on an A-Rig or U-Rig but can have only 3 lures with hooks. I have had several times when I've caught 2 or 3 Stripers, Hybrids, or combination on a single lure at the same time... especially when trolling through a school of Stripers/Hybrids in the jumps.

[BigFishSteve]

A few years ago I was spider rigging for crappie in December in a tidal river flat. 8-9’ of water. Marking tons of fish but not catching many. After much frustration I dug deep in a compartment and retrieved a 5’ cast cast. Tossed it and brought up a mix. Mostly gizzard Shad but had crappie, small catfish and a bream together.