Why should I keep my jig above the crappie, never below?
A crappie's eyes sit high on the skull and angle upward, and its mouth opens upward too — the whole fish is built to spot prey silhouetted against the light overhead and rise to sip it. Prey below the school falls into a visual dead zone, and crappie almost never tip downward to chase. That is why the working rule is to fish at the school's depth or slightly above it: a jig 30 cm (1 ft) over their heads gets eaten, while the same jig 30 cm below them may as well not exist.
The full story
This answer is one piece of a longer lesson — setups, diagrams and the reasoning behind it.
More questions about Vision
- Why does fishing around lights at night work so well for crappie?
- Do black crappie and white crappie prefer different water?
- How should I pick jig colors for crappie?
- Do crappie feed at night?
- Do crappie really see colour? Where do white, yellow, green and blue jigs fit?
- Are glow jigs worth it for crappie?
- How do moonlight, wind and rain change the crappie bite?
Same topic, other species
- What colors can a largemouth actually see? — Largemouth Bass
- Why do muskie follow a lure all the way to the boat without hitting? — Muskellunge (Muskie)
- Why does the perch bite die completely at dusk? — Yellow Perch
- Why does flash work so well on pike? — Northern Pike
- Why are smallmouth so line-shy in clear water? — Smallmouth Bass
- Why do trout refuse my fly or lure even when they are clearly feeding? — Trout (Rainbow · Brook · Lake)
- Why are dusk, dawn, and night the best walleye hours? — Walleye