Best baits to use for Crappie fishing

If you like Crappie Fishing or want to know more about how to catch them! Todays Tackle Tip Tuesday will be just what you need! If you have a different way to target these slabs please share it below!

Slabs and panfish in general attack a large number of soft plastic lures, some of which I posted before.
In any case, rod, reel, line and retrieve choices are crucial elements along with sonar and knowing the water fished. I agree with mostly what’s in the video except using the lures used with straight retrieves. I rack up the numbers mostly with lures I can pause, twitch-in-place and slowly retrieve. Recently the strikes have been slamming! All panfish species and bass as well as catfish have been hitting light jigs with soft plastics.

Last Sat. we caught 76 fish from 8am – 12:30 pm mostly in the south section of a local lake. Crappie, perch and sunfish hit the same lures and were decent in size. The day was sunny, water temp. 82 degrees with a breeze. The day before, I fished from 9-3:30 and caught 55 fish – mostly panfish and a few bass with some of the slabs measuring 12″. In both waters, 6′ was the depth I caught most fish.

I to like baits you can pause so slow to a crawl but I get a lot of reaction strikes on the slender spoons and cranks but it really depends on the mood of the fish! I was debating on getting out for a late afternoon bite to see if that could bring some big slabs topside but not sure if its time yet?

A bud of mine says the evening bite is alive and well in a local lake we both fish. Couldn’t do any harm to try.

I will have to get out this week then and see what I can get topside!

Here are examples of lures I have total confidence in for any species:
Clear plastic lures catch fish – either all clear body or clear tails:

7.5 lb catfish:

Wacky clear stick:

Spike tail grubs:

Flat thin tail:

Grub bodies joined together after the curl tails were removed:

The Crappie Magnet double tail (sold in the US) catches all species:

Claw design formed by taking the claw off a bass lure and attaching it to a grub body:

I really like the Tadpole looking style and the Welded Double Grub! lol You got panfish DILED!

DWSDave31 wrote:

I really like the Tadpole looking style and the Welded Double Grub! lol You got panfish DILED!

Heck, I got all species dialed ! Interesting find recently:
My partner and I started catching bluegills in an area offshore in 6′.
We move parallel to shore and further south and then started catching yellow perch in 7′. Going even further to the south shore in 7-9′ we got into nice crappie. Guess there’s a first time for everything!

76 fish total for the two of us caught in 4.5 hours. Not bad.

I have found them like that in cooler waters but what were the water temps for that day?

DWSDave31 wrote:

I have found them like that in cooler waters but what were the water temps for that day?

No matter the waters fished locally, the average surface temps have been 80-85 degrees. Today the temperature was 81 degrees after a front moved in yesterday with a cooling rain. Fish that bit different my soft plastic lures were found in 6′ near weed beds and deeper water. I used a weedless jigs I made rigged with a Kut Tail worm and small bass and crappie clobbered it.

And now I have to try everything different again to see if I am missing any BIG Panfish spots!

Kut Tail and grub body melted together with weedless hook:

Almost the entire worm was in this sunnie’s mouth! :

Magnet on a 1/24 oz jig

All lures caught all species.

That weedless worm and jig setup looks perfect for some heavy cover creek and river fishing

When the bite is aggressive even smaller fish get hooked.

Now I need to get myself a Plastics making kit!!! lol You’re going to cost me a bunch of money!!!!

I’ve been playing with small crankbaits like these which I have weighted a bit. Cast, count down and slow retrieve. Light line….4 pound mono is about the best. Get these near some submerged cover with shade on it and hold on.

The waters around here have been messed up for quite a while after the frequent heavy rainfalls we had, but couple local retention lakes/ponds have been putting some decent crappies in the hooks of these little baits.

DWSDave31 wrote:

Now I need to get myself a Plastics making kit!!! lol You’re going to cost me a bunch of money!!!!

Really though, all you need is a candle, a pair of scissors or razor blade and a steady hand to make hybrid lures – lure’s made up of the parts from two different lures. It may shock you how well they work and at times they will far better than what you can buy. Small unpainted jig heads in different weights and hook sizes are essential and best bought on Ebay.

I taught a friend finesse fishing and the first lure he used with confidence was the Crappie Magnet on a 1/16 oz jig. He now keeps up with me fish for fish and never planned on trying other lures. But yesterday he left his tackle at home to help me launch my bass boat, which had been in the shop since last year, and was forced to try a spike tail grub. First fish he caught was a 13″ white perch. I’m sure he’ll want me to make him some.

Problem is he can’t accept the idea that there are many soft plastic lure designs that can catch fish on any given day using many colors. It’s just a matter of the finding fish and letting the lure do the work.

Tom I have some of those! How did you weight them? Bigger hooks?

These are 7/10ths of an inch in length and carry size 12 trebles. I buy the un-finished bodies and they’re clear when I get them. Just in front of the hook hangar there’s an area of the body with a chamber on the inside that has a small bb in it. I measured a piece of #5 lead shot with a caliper then used a drill bit slightly larger so the shot would go in the hole easily without any squeezing shot in, chancing cracking the body. On these bait I have added four #5 shot, then used a thick formula super glue to seal the holes. I scuff the drilled/sealed are off with some 600 grit wet or dry sandpaper to knock off any rough stuff and paint as I want. The maker stated a size 10 treble but those were just ungainly on these and 12s do a great job.

These float and work at about 2 feet with a moderate retrieve on 4 pound mono as they come. Weighted they sink at a rate of about a foot/2 seconds. I count them down to the depth I want then use a slower to moderate retrieve, stopping once or twice to let them slick back down a bit and start up again. Most all of the hits come from the in initial start of the retrieve or when I allow them to settle during the retrieve. Some hits occur as I am counting them down.

While not pictured, I have a mess of micro cranks with a whole range of actions and bill sizes. Of those I actually order in the raw as I did all of these, lengths vary from the ones shown to 1 1/4″. All of them work great. Some I weigh just like I did these to get more utility out of them, again using the same drill and #5 shot.

These are right at 1 1/8″

Tom I envy your ingenuity and ability to get that all right! Now I want to go chase suspended crappies with cranks!

summertime water temps start uphill is a great time to put on a small crank to lure in some crappies. Right now is about as good as it gets. The biggest problem is finding a lure that will get down to where the crappies are without getting so large, especially the bill….just makes the profile way out of proportion. Drilling and weighting these smaller baits is the way to go and you get the bonus of the shot adding a lot more noise inside the bait. If done right they are almost neutrally buoyant so they’ll sink but retrieve nicely and when the retrieve is stopped they just slowly drop. Drives crappies nuts on the drop after being pulled forward.

It takes some getting used to the drop rate and the retrieve rate. Most people get into trouble with the little guys when they insist on braid or monos/flouros over 4 pound test or they try cranking too fast. They’re fun to fish and have a super action even when fished slow, but the biggie is that they catch good fish. I like swimming these just off limb tips on wood that submerged in deep water…..deep as in 25-30 feet with the wood somewhere between the surface and bottom. Swimming these with a start/stop thru the shaded water of vertical tree trunks in deep water is really productive on clear days.

Well apparently I need to go find Crappie this week ????

I am a stupid sucker for cranks. It’s just something I like. Something about a fake minnow profile and it’s a hard bait and it catches a fish.

All those small cranks or jerkbaits…1/8th oz weight mostly.

In addition with the slip bobber, don’t ever forget that even a jigging spoon or a casting spoon inline with a slip bobber makes a much more vertical presentation that stays more so in the zone vs just jigging it back.

Bob you just gave me a great idea!

DWSDave31 wrote:

Bob you just gave me a great idea!

I love using spoons, but sometimes I need that slower than slow cadence or that pause to seal the deal. The slip bobber combo allows me to achieve that and keep the spoon from falling below my target depth.

Dave, Would a Hopkins spoon do well under a float?

I’m thinking any light flutter spoons and or JB lures Bo Spoons will do well but as I’m sure you know you want as little floatation as possible so the fish don’t have to much resistance!