Can't find them during the day

[tschneid]

This is a local lake I fish often. My issue is that I can't find the crappie during the day. In the attached image you will see two pins where I can find the crappie from 5pm and later. I don't use a camera often but when I do during the day I rarely see crappie. As you can see it is not a big body of water.

Orange = 10-14ft
Red = 14-16ft

Deep hole on north end goes to 28ft. Hole on south end only goes to 22ish. Water is clear and lots of weeds any where it is shallower than 12ft and then they thin out completely at 15ft. I've drilled holes at all depths and all over the lake. What approach would you take to find them during the day.

[adkRoy]

Find the weed beds.  Try putting 4 spikes on a hali-jig and jig just above the weeds.

[Jigger nut]

Try fishing 4 foot off the bottom.

[sra61]

We were set up in a place that we had been getting a few crappie. It was dead about noon so I decided to take the Livescope and find em. I started farther into the basin maybe 200 ft. from where we were set up. I drilled one hole and there were crappie right there! I caught one right off, and before I could get the jig and minnow back down they were gone. So I looked around with the Livescope, and there they were about 40' away, so I drilled a hole and boom, another one! These were all 12-15" slabs, none smaller than that. Of course one of my buddies was there and ran back to tell everybody I was on em and here they all came. I caught one more following them around like that and then when everybody got there with 4 wheelers and flipovers and augers, I didn't catch another one all day! Some of the guys did. One guy caught 6 when he drilled two jigging holes and dropped jigs down without even scooping the hole, but then it slowed down for him too. I would see schools coming toward me and then hear someone walking toward me with cleats on the bare ice , and they would scatter like they were shot! The water was 16.5' deep. I was amazed how spooky those fish were! Obviously those fish were really tuned into what was going on. They would tolerate me with an electric auger and quietly working them, but when the noisy crowd showed up they went away. I tried looking for them again after they vanished, and I couldn't find them. I'm sure they went up shallower into the weeds and hunkered down until dark. We would still get a few after dark with green lights down, but noise was still a problem.

[Fat Boy]

We were set up in a place that we had been getting a few crappie. It was dead about noon so I decided to take the Livescope and find em. I started farther into the basin maybe 200 ft. from where we were set up. I drilled one hole and there were crappie right there! I caught one right off, and before I could get the jig and minnow back down they were gone. So I looked around with the Livescope, and there they were about 40' away, so I drilled a hole and boom, another one! These were all 12-15" slabs, none smaller than that. Of course one of my buddies was there and ran back to tell everybody I was on em and here they all came. I caught one more following them around like that and then when everybody got there with 4 wheelers and flipovers and augers, I didn't catch another one all day! Some of the guys did. One guy caught 6 when he drilled two jigging holes and dropped jigs down without even scooping the hole, but then it slowed down for him too. I would see schools coming toward me and then hear someone walking toward me with cleats on the bare ice , and they would scatter like they were shot! The water was 16.5' deep. I was amazed how spooky those fish were! Obviously those fish were really tuned into what was going on. They would tolerate me with an electric auger and quietly working them, but when the noisy crowd showed up they went away. I tried looking for them again after they vanished, and I couldn't find them. I'm sure they went up shallower into the weeds and hunkered down until dark. We would still get a few after dark with green lights down, but noise was still a problem.

Good points about noise and your observations are very interesting.  It kind of explains a lot.  Although crappie are notorious for biting at night anyway, open water or through the ice, one has to wonder if they bite better though the ice at night because most people vacate the lake then.  I never thought about that.  I love fishing at night for crappie, and maybe that's partly why.  1)  I have it all to myself or 2) the crappie feel more comfortable then?  Plus, when you're already set up, you don't make much noise fishing for them.  It could also explain why walking around and trying to cut holes to search for them at night is difficult, because then, you're the noise maker... (maybe?).

As for trying to find them during the day.  Usually, for me, it depends on how late into the ice season we are.  In early season, the deep weed lines would be good places to try, or woody cover along shorelines (places you'd expect them before the lake ices up).  In mid-ice season, I'd search either the dam area of man made lakes, or the deep water basins.

During late ice, I think crappies could be found just about anywhere, deep water, or maybe edges of weeds again.  They follow bait, and as the days get longer, weeds grow more, which attracts more bait, etc.  I don't have any scientific evidence to back up my ideas, but those are my thoughts about where I search and, more times than not, find them.

[Mr. Charlie]

I agree with a lot of the above. Early season edges mid season basins late season deep structure near weeds.

[Iceassin]

In my experience, a few things could be happening and some here have touched on it...

Crappie are most actively feeding in the early morning/early evening (and into the night) and are generally suspended almost anywhere in the water column. Fairly easy to find and catch...usually.

During the day, and I find this with Bluegill as well, a couple of things could be happening. 1) If it's a bright sunny day, which usually means high pressure, fish will go right to the bottom (or in thick cover) and "pin" themselves there with little to no movement making it difficult to even pick up on the locator. They are just plain inactive. 2) On the flip side, fish can be constantly on the move making it just as tough to locate. 2 lakes that I fish, especially during the day, I am chasing. Constantly. Once I find a school.. and they are usually suspended...it becomes a game to see how fast and how many times I can get the jig down there to pick off a few until they move. Then it might be 3 or 4 more holes to drill before I find them again. Repeat. A buddy and I do this together until one of us find them, then the other will drill a hole...or holes...close by until fish are found. Again, once they move, we start all over. True hole hopping. And yes, this ol' boy is tired after a day of this. 

Anyway, these could be a couple of reasons you're not finding or staying on fish. Good luck.