I quit using live bait several years ago and use plastics now. Small tubes, CSJ and Berkley stuff.
Mini mites in pink and white are deadly!
I haven’t used anything but flies and a fly rod for years now. You can use flies with a spinning rod, just get a “casting bubble”.
S.R.
Gulp for me 2″ ones. With a 1/16oz pink jig head I feel just as effective as minnows.
I have been using homemade hair jigs for years. Sometimes I will add a wax worm if the bit is tough but normally the jig by itself will do the trick.
Beetle spins or small spinner baits.
Slow trolling light jigs.
Lindy rigs are way under rated for crappies, but weights have to be really light.
Split shot rigs, once again light weights.
Small cranks are fun too.
If the bite is going good, it’s a good time to experiment.
I’ve learned quit a few new tactics over the years and the one that has produced the best is plastics…cover water pretty quickly to find the active fish…mini mites,minnow baits,etc
Plastics are great all year long. When we get into post spwan and warmer water and the crappies begin to suspend out over deep open water a great way to fish them is with what I refer to as “peanut baits”, ultra small crankbaits and stick baits.
Here’s a picture of one of my boxes shown with a bait on a standard tape measure for size reference. In the lower right hand corner of the box is a few drop shot weights and some three=way swivels in a bag. I tie a 6″ dropper to one ring of the three way and add a weight. One ring gets tied to the line. The other gets a leader of about 12-15″ with the other end being tied directly to the bait. Slow troll watching your locator and run this rig slightly higher than marks on the unit. Very, very effective approach.
Casting these little guys can be a challenge if there’s any wind or one is using line much heavier than 4 pound, but its still a great way to address timber that’s partially submerged. Casting past the visible wood and retrieving as close to the wood as you can get, stop the bait right at the wood and let it rest until the rings are gone on the surface. Then just twitch the rod a couple times. Do this two or three times, then cast to the other side of the wood or a different limb. Again, at times this can drive crappies nuts.
The plastics are great baits for most all crappie fishing though. Don’t get too hung up on Mini Mites, there are a lot of way better plastics to use that are more crappie specific. Mini Mites make great sunfish plastics if you can keep the tails on them. Sunfish have a way of plucking the tails off those MM.
IMG_1940_1.jpg
Crappie Scrubs from Kalin’s have fast become one of my favorite plastics…
Mark
1″ or smaller jigging raps for me. Of course this is vertically out of a boat but it is an awesome way to get into a school over deep water on new bodies of water. Trust your electronics and you can really have fun! Otherwise plastics are the ticket. Go into a Cabelas and check out the crappie go to lures. They have an aisle just for panfish and you can try hundreds of different kinds if you so desire. You really can’t go wrong with a twister tail. Just remember to let your jig sink down in the water column to get down to them as they typically suspend over deeper water or tuck in near weedlines depending on the time of year. Good luck.
X2 on slow trolling light jigs with plastics or beetle spins. Really helps finding the suspended schools once they move towards the basins for summer. You can take the depth guess work out by slow trolling the light jigs under slip bobbers too. Make a pass with 10′ of line out then one with 15′ or 20′ and see what works.
I’ve had good luck in southern MN trolling small hornets for crappies. It’s lots of fun once you find them as it’s constant action.
Jigging Ratso’s tipped with a larvae…. yummy.
Recently ive been catching a lot more crappies over the last couple years. Im looking for alternative ways to catch crappie besides using a minnow and bobber. would small rat L traps or little paddle tail swimbaits work? thanks
There are more ways to catch fish in general than you can shake a rod at. Discovering different lures that catch fish is exciting and revealing: fish don’t need to see a lure that looks like a prey animal and in fact bite lures that don’t look or move like one.
Other than the fine tips written above, the simplest lure to use is the light jig & soft plastic lure combination. Curl tail grubs have been popular for decades but they are limited in presentations that require a very slow retrieve. JMO
As for myself, I catch 5 species of fish using lures that are straight from head to tail. The cone tail is one of my best lures:
Another is the thin straight tail:
Paddle tail worms 2.5″ long work:
The double-tail Crappie Magnet from troutmagnet.com catch most species
For these lures to work best, I prefer the following:
light action rod, spinning or spincast reel
8-10# test braid line with a fluorocarbon leader of 6# test
1/32 1/16 3/24 oz unpainted ball head jigs with bronze hooks in sizes 4 6 8
Rig the lures straight, cast them as far as you can and slowly retrieve them pausing ever so often. Just make sure you’re working the lure at the right depth fish are biting at. You’ll feel a bump or loose line when they strike. Once that happens raise the rod tip away from the strike, reeling in line at the same time. Fish usually panic and hook themselves. One or two hook sets and the fish can’t get off.
A child can easily learn how to catch fish with soft plastics on light jig heads.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
