Crappies on the Flasher?

Ok, i am not having any troubles reading my flasher, but i still want to get better at reading it. Some people claim they can tell the difference between a crappie, perch, or bluegill when it appears on the screen…. Maybe i just need some more experience, but i am not seeing any difference whatsoever between fish flashes. I know that crappies tend to suspend, but is that the only way to tell that they are crappies? I would really like to find some crappies while using my flasher this winter, and i figured this would be a good place to start looking for help. Anything you know about perch on a flasher would be helpful as well…heck im open to any suggestions that will help me become a better ice fisherman.
Thanks,
Cade

“Typically” crappies are suspended and that is how I can tell. But, not always so All fish can be suspended at times. Perch tend to be lower in the water column, but we have been getting them 1-2 feet off the bottom. Gills can be anywhere from just under the ice to hugging bottom. Most times the fish you can see as little blinking lines on the bottom are “usually” perch.
As far as finding crappies this winter, the easiest way to start is go where you know has a good population of crappies. Lake Onalaska in our area is a good start. Then find some of the deeper water where they will be hanging out and suspending. The lake has several areas that have fish cribs as well as the dredge channel all through the lake. From there you just need to drill a series of holes and put that flasher to work. I am pretty positive when crappies show up on the vex on the lake. Any point, breakline, and weed edge has the possibility of the crappie being there. The problem I have with crappie is they are really nomadic. Once they are found then it gets a little easier Bret should chime in here as well, he seems to have a really good idea on finding and catching crappie

Someone that tells you they can tell the difference between fish on a flasher is full of BS. About the only thing you can tell on a flasher is approx. how far from the center of the cone the fish is. If you see suspended fish there’s a good chance it’s crappies but it’s not for sure. If you want to know for sure what those fish are your seeing, have several rods set up with different lures/baits and coax em into biting. Or, get a Aqua View.

BIRDDOG

I don’t think it’s bs, you can in part make a quality guess of what the fish is by catching a couple and and remembering how they react, normally sunfish are agressive and will follow a bait aggressively up and down, perch tend to hang on the bottom until they are ready to hit, then they normally come pretty fast walleye tend to be about the same. Crappie “tend to” suspend a bit and will genereally come up to your bait much slower than most fish and don’t genereally tend to follow you bait too much before they lose interest. To know exaclty? I highly doubt you could, but these are the observations I’ve made and the tend to hold mostly true, on a average day. If the bite is really on, there’s no telling.

Go ahead call me full if it, it wouldn’t be the first time, but I do use my flasher more than probably 98% of the people out there.

I’m with you Bird dog; I think they’re full of it.

I am with M-R-R on this one. Plus the yellow bass will come off the bottom but lose interest and zip back down. I rarely catch anything but crappie following these patterns

WOW!!!!! It’s true that you can guess the variety of the fish you see on your flasher based on past experience, but to actuall TRULY know is b.s. Almost all species will suspend at some point in the year depending on the food, oxygen, etc… I go to LOTW every year the first week of Feb, and anyone who’s fished that time of year knows the walleyes like to suspend, as do the northerns, tullibees, perch. I have guessed as to what fish I’m seeing on the vex, but been totally wrong.

When you see something, anything, on a depth finder what you’re actuially seeing is a change in density down there. When you see a fish what you’re manily seeing is the air bladder. I don’t know of any way for a relatively siimple machine like a flasher to differentiate between fish species. As some have suggested, you cn sometimes guess what you’re seeing down there based on the way they are acting but it’s a guess. I’ll bet everybody on this site has sat over a bunch of suckers or carp and hoped they were Crappies

Rootski

thanks guys…i guess i wasn’t specific enough…I didn’t mean to say that people tell me they can tell the differenece between fish as they appear..i worded it wrong i guess…but i had heard however, as M-R-R said, that you can tell the difference by how the fish bite or act. I just really haven’t noticed much difference. thanks for the help though..ill try to watch for the differences next time. Thanks a million…any more suggestions are great!

There was another post on this subject, a certain Marcum Pro Staffer said the LX 5 can do just this………”if you know how to read a flasher” I still thinks its a crock.

Careful guys
On my post you can see how i put the generalities in parenthesis I am not sure you can tell the species, but I do beleive you can get a pretty good idea by knowing a fish’s habits and the habitat in which you are fishing.

Don’t take this personal, but it’s hard to call a crock a crock unless you’ve seen and know what a crock is.

I would be a skeptic too, but I now can tell the differance between a gill and a perch by the strenght or weakness of the signal. Sometimes I have been fooled by a little gill.

I truley think that before one can label it BS or a Crock, the label maker should check it out.

I will say this, on the fl-18 you probably can’t, I couldn’t. On the lx-5, I can tell a huge difference between a crappie jig, and a glo-devil. If you can do this, you can differentiate between sizes of fish, and pull your bait away from smaller fish. I can tell the difference between a walleye, and a perch on the bottom.
And lets be careful about what we say about a “certain marcum prostaffer”
As he is on the pro staff for a reason…

Post deleted by Cade Laufenberg

Sorry guys, but if somebody can explain to me the technology that allows the flasher to tell fish apart I would appreciate it.

Flashers are nothing more than sonar readings of objects that bounce off it’s signal. Having a “good idea” of what the fish are sounds more like it to me.

The only way this might be remotely possible is simply to return a signal (colored) per the size of whatever it’s reading. But even then I don’t think it would be 100%.

But if there is something out there that will tell me when my Ranger is sitting over a school of smallies, let me know and i’ll buy 2.

I haven’t used my 5 yet…but I have used the 3. As was posted above, I can tell the differance in size of fish. No, it doesn’t “label” them, perch, gill or eye. But I can guess because of the area I’m fishing and the color on the flasher.

I can certainly understand where CSP8 is coming from, if he’s not used a 3 or a 5 yet…as I would be questioning that statement too!

I was lucky enough to get a Lowrance X-19c a couple years ago. It’s a spendy unit with color. While still learning, I’ve found that I can tell the differance between what I tought was catfish on the bottom with a grey scale locator, to what they really were…rocks!

Point here is as flashers get better and better, it’s going to be amazing what a person can do with them. Just a year ago, I would be saying Scott or anyone else claiming this type of accuracy was giveing me “a crock” too.

I think Scott said it best, “all I ask is that you try it before …..”

I’m not Pro Staff, I’m not sponsored by MarCum….I’m just a VERY happy LX-3 user wait to try my LX-5. If I’m not happy…I’ll share that too…guarenteed!

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But even then I don’t think it would be 100%

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Slop, you posted while I was typing.

No, the area and other known fish in the area helps with the guess….and that’s it…it’s an educated guess…although very educated.

I caught a channel on Zumbro a week ago…since it was the first cat I caught…I could tell it was either a BIG gill…or something else coming to my lure. Once the hook was set and the fight started…even Mike, sitting at the next hole knew it was a cat…

Agian, experiance in the area that your fishing and the size of the return is what makes Id possable.

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Slop, you posted while I was typing.

No, the area and other known fish in the area helps with the guess….and that’s it…it’s an educated guess…although very educated.

Agian, experiance in the area that your fishing and the size of the return is what makes Id possable.

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How true. And this only comes with time spent on the Ice/Water

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Flashers are nothing more than sonar readings of objects that bounce off it’s signal. Having a “good idea” of what the fish are sounds more like it to me.

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My point exactly!!! Whether you are using a FL-18 or a LX 5. And I’m not bashing…..just stating my opinion of what some people claim their flashers can do.

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I will say this, on the fl-18 you probably can’t, I couldn’t. On the lx-5, I can tell a huge difference between a crappie jig, and a glo-devil.

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Your comparing sonar signals reading off lead v.s reading off a fish which is apples to oranges. Sonar signals are bounced off a fishes swim bladder. Fish are primarily made up of muscle and water. Their swim bladders keep them afloat and its the most dense part of the fish. I think it could be possible to see fish size on a LCD but a flasher could be difficult.

Wouldn’t the bladder in a 10″ crappie be smaller than the bladder in a 20″ walleye….? Yes…

I believe with the lx-5 you can call your fish most of the time.

Well I guess theory would say that. But I cant confirm it. Vexilar does state you can tell the size of a fish on their flashers. I haven’t tried to confirm those findings. I do believe fish reaction is more visible on the screen v.s size.

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Wouldn’t the bladder in a 10″ crappie be smaller than the bladder in a 20″ walleye….? Yes…
I believe with the lx-5 you can call your fish most of the time.

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Q: A 20″ walleye probably graphs the same as a 20″ Northern…so how do you then tell the difference?

A: Knowledge of what and where you are fishing….., but even then, it’s not 100%…It’s still nothing more than an educated guess.

Slop, I think that is what they have been saying. From what i have heard, it is all edjucated guesses judging on the fishes Behavior, and judging by the environment you are fishing and types of fish you normally catch in that area. At least thats what i understand from the posts.

You can tell the size of fish on the flashers to a degree. I can’t tell you there is a 13″ crappie or a 7″ gill of course. But, say you are fishing panfish and you have a lot of lines the same size on the flasher 1′ off the bottom in 12 fow. In this scenario you have been nailing small gills pretty consistantly. Then a wide red band appears on the flasher a little higher up. You bring your jig up and the fish follows and then hits the jig. You reel it up and it is a crappie. I have had that scenario enough times to know that I can call the bigger fish more times than not. But sometimes that wide red band can also be a bull gill or a bass. So, I do believe you can tell the bigger fish from the dinks.

all you have to do is stick your camera down the hole and find out what they are for sure..

thats another tool i wish i had!
Maybe next christmas huh?

The camera would answer the question pretty quick

i was talkiing to a guy last year on the lake and he was telling me that he was fishing around some other guys and they were all amazed on how many fish there were and couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t bite and so he stuck his camera down the hole and they all shad and suckers ,still can’t forget that just cause your fishing for crappies doesn’t mean your just gonna catch and mark only crappies..

Very interesting topic. With the LX-5 I am reasonably certain what type of fish I am reading. The following all assumes the gain settings are held constant.

First, signal return from every type of fish is different. When you are fishing Perch on Mille Lacs perch signal is the same, the only thing that changes is the color (strength) of the return signal. When I bounce from hole to hole I am looking for the darker red returns. You do not get this from small male perch. When you are fishing perch and a walleye enters the cone it is obvious because there is a second reflection from the tail of the fish you do not get with perch. In this same situation you may have a pout come in. Their return signal is very easy to tell, as they show up with almost a double signal (they appear to be two fish almost because of tail). Pike show up as one constant, big return signal.

Now, can I say I am 100% certain. No! But, now that I am 90% certain what the fish is, the other 10% comes from how a fish reacts on the flasher. When a small signal follows by bait up and darts back down to the bottom…no doubt Perch. When a larger signal with a small secondary signal shows and they slowly follow the bait up..walleye. When a big double signal shows and they go up and down in and out…Pout. When a solid signal is there and just sits there and looks at your bait…Pike.

The difference between bluegill and crappie in shallow water is the hardest to tell because they usually behave the same in shallow water and their signal returns are very close to each other.

I am using the flasher return to tell me what the fish is. The return off each type of fish is unique. I am also using fish behavior to confirm by beliefs. With time and use you will be able to feel very confident what you are marking. It is the LX-5 that makes this possible, as the return is super sensative and easy to read. With my LX-3’s last year I was not able to do this nor was I able to do this when I ran Vexilars. Once you try the LX-5 you will know what I am talking about.