What is your favorite way to fish for Crappies?

Good afternoon all! What is your favorite way to fish for Crappies during the summer? Your opinions please, and as always, Thank You!

right below the ice, over a 20 foot hole.

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right below the ice, over a 20 foot hole.

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but I would like to find a way to target them in the dog days as well! When I have been able to find them I like to use a white or pink flu/flu or beetle spin seem to be pretty effective!

Come on guys…he’s talking summer!

I like to fish them on a four oz sinker and a size 10/0 Gamagatzu hook. Darkness is best…those flatheads just lovem!

…I know this because of the WI guys I’ve talked to.

Ok Ok…

I’ve heard rumor that they’re picking some up on P4. Casting something that looks like a flu-flu to some spots with less current.
I would love to get out there with my fly rod!

if you can find cabbage weeds in ur lake/river that usually works.. find the weedline and sit just on top of the weeds.. cast out to deeper water and pull little tube jigs up to the weeds.. that usually works for us!

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right below the ice, over a 20 foot hole.

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but I would like to find a way to target them in the dog days as well! When I have been able to find them I like to use a white or pink flu/flu or beetle spin seem to be pretty effective!

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THose are the only ways I do it.

There are crappie fisherman,
and,
There there area ice-crappie fisherman.

The difference?
The crappie fisherman can find fish all 12 months.
The ice-crappie fisherman can only find them on community holes in the winter.

Just like any species of fish, sometimes they want live bait, other times they slam the plastics.

I do like working little tube jigs, casted over open water off of structure for the suspended fish.
But, there is a little fun of watching that bobber slowly sink out of sight with just a colored hook and crappie minnow.

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right below the ice, over a 20 foot hole.

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Dang, you beat me to it!

I’ll give you my absolute best kept secret on pounding mid summer slabs. Send me a PM.

Pink and white flu flu tipped with minnow works wonders up here on the Miss River. Drift until you find them, mark the spot on the gps and drop the anchor for some nice slabs.

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I would love to get out there with my fly rod!

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Let’s do it BK!

Down here I tend to cruise around over the main lake basin and look for suspended fish then toss a light jig and minnow over the side. Usually a crappie or a very nice bluegill.

Casting or trolling Gene Larew Baby Shad. I’ll be doing a whole bunch of it for two weeks, starting one week from today!!!!!!

In the dog days of summer in lakes I fish, the crappies suspend over structure, in the thermocline. To explain what this is the next time you swim let your feet hang down, when you feel the water get colder that is the thermocline. 1. Troll main lake structure. 2.Use a 1/32 ounce pink jig head. 3. Use a small shiner or a black crappie minnow. 4. Cast out as far as you can behind the boat and then pull off 4 more tugs of line. 5. Set your trolling motor on 2 or about .75 to 1.25 mph. 6. Pick up the pole and real in your crappie, don’t set the hook because you usually pull the hook out of their mouth. This method works almost anywhere. I’ve had great success in clear water Wisconsin lakes as well as Iowa lakes like Big Creek & Saguema. Let me know how it works. One more thing once you located them make 3 or 4 passes as you will pick them up every pass.

1/32 pink & white home made hair jig. Cast around brush during the spawn and drift deep water and flats in the summer vertical jigging.

I don’t have anything constructive to say so I’ll just shut up for once.

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In the dog days of summer in lakes I fish, the crappies suspend over structure, in the thermocline. To explain what this is the next time you swim let your feet hang down, when you feel the water get colder that is the thermocline. 1. Troll main lake structure. 2.Use a 1/32 ounce pink jig head. 3. Use a small shiner or a black crappie minnow. 4. Cast out as far as you can behind the boat and then pull off 4 more tugs of line. 5. Set your trolling motor on 2 or about .75 to 1.25 mph. 6. Pick up the pole and real in your crappie, don’t set the hook because you usually pull the hook out of their mouth. This method works almost anywhere. I’ve had great success in clear water Wisconsin lakes as well as Iowa lakes like Big Creek & Saguema. Let me know how it works. One more thing once you located them make 3 or 4 passes as you will pick them up every pass.

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Yep thats the one for me. We never know the speed though. We use an OLD OLD 20 foot pontoon (Think Steel cage and wood floor.) with a 9.9 johnson on the back. When the motor idles in gear and runs without killing the speed is jus right.

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B.K., Are You always a smart [censored]? It comes across to me you are?

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I gather you have’nt met him yet have you ?

by far the best and most fun way is how i used to do it years ago!

You c back in the day i had a great walker coon hound that would do anything i asked of him. this was the smartest dog i ever owned!

me and the dog would get a buddy or 2 and head out to a populated lake with lots of guys out ice fishing on the colder windy days! we would drive around and find a good spot with lots of people and set up! soon as we would catch a fish i would let old Kirby sniff the fish and tell him to go get em and let him out the door!

wouldn’t be long and he would come scratching to get in and would have a fish in his mouth.

one day he got like 20 fish in 5 minutes so we kept him inside and would watch people realize they had been fish napped! man we would laugh thinking them poor old guys are going to catch hell when they get home and have no fish for momma!

I do a lot of dragging jigs, I’ll locate the crappies, then I take a small jig head in the past I’ve used a lot of tube bait, lately I’ve been using some twister tail grubs, most days, that’s all you need, I have found days where a crappie nibbler (Berkley product) was needed to get bit, but that seems to be a rare day, even though I always keep some on hand. I’ve also found in the past 3 inch Gulp minnow grubs caught the nicest crappies of the day, the littler ones wouldn’t hit the 3 inch grubs (for whatever reason).

Then what I do it drag my jig through the areas I marked the fish, and start fine tuning, weight for depth, and also speed I’ve found is certainly key, normally I’m right around 1.5 mph, too slow I don’t get bit, too fast I generally miss a lot of fish.

Now last week we went out, and usually I just stick to the jig setup, but fishing with my neighbor, he started trolling/drifting little rapala’s and that was working so I switched up to that for the rest of the day, I was hoping we see some bigger fish that way, maybe some different fish, but it was still 99% crappie and there was no size improvements Though I’ll chalk it up to lake and not the bait.

BTW I have no reason to push Crappie nibblers or Gulp, other than in these instances they have worked well for me.

I like to find the cabbage/weedline…. set up 20 feet outside of it, and cast pink/white tube jigs, set 3 feet below a bobber. Slow retrieve and wait for the tug We used to wear out the tube jigs Used them on a leadhead, Lindy Little Joes

big G

Tube jig or minnow under a bobber vary the depth til you find what they want also small rapala,s and beetle spins.I mostly fish weed edges and pockets from id say 3 to well as deep as you can find along cabbage beds.Also if the fish are popping on the surface i try either a small rapala twitched on the surface or a plain floating jighead with a minnow on it and no weight just let the minnow struggle on the suface.

And my favorite way to catch crappies is what ever the fish will bite. Always adapt to the situation at hand.

Ajs

Last week I was trolling a #5 blue shad rap and couldn’t keep the crappies off it.

What do ya say Jack? This is what I do on Hillsdale and I suppose you could do it on Smithville or Truman as well…
I get into some deep timber at night time with a few dozen minnows. I hang my lantern about 1 foot above the water from one of the trees. Then I back off of that tree and tie my boat up to another tree within casting distance. The lantern does three things for me it keeps the majority of the bugs away from me, gives me all the light I usually need, and most importantly it calls the shad fry’s from this years hatch in. They will circle under the lantern all night long as long as it stays light. Here in Kansas you can put two hooks on each line and I am reasonably sure you can do the same in Missouri. I use two 1/0 Aberdeen hooks about 12″ apart with enough split shot to keep the slip bobber upright. Sometimes the bobber starts dancing, others it might just lay down, and yes they will also pull it under. Either way they take your presentation all you have to do is give your line a little pop then you have the hook set just reel them in. You would be surprised how often you get doubles this way. I almost forgot I normally set the slip bobber at 6′ and adjust from there. Night time fishing is always a nice way to beat the heat in the dog days of summer.

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What do ya say Jack? This is what I do on Hillsdale and I suppose you could do it on Smithville or Truman as well…

I get into some deep timber at night time with a few dozen minnows. I hang my lantern about 1 foot above the water from one of the trees. Then I back off of that tree and tie my boat up to another tree within casting distance. The lantern does three things for me it keeps the majority of the bugs away from me, gives me all the light I usually need, and most importantly it calls the shad fry’s from this years hatch in. They will circle under the lantern all night long as long as it stays light. Here in Kansas you can put two hooks on each line and I am reasonably sure you can do the same in Missouri. I use two 1/0 Aberdeen hooks about 12″ apart with enough split shot to keep the slip bobber upright. Sometimes the bobber starts dancing, others it might just lay down, and yes they will also pull it under. Either way they take your presentation all you have to do is give your line a little pop then you have the hook set just reel them in. You would be surprised how often you get doubles this way. I almost forgot I normally set the slip bobber at 6′ and adjust from there. Night time fishing is always a nice way to beat the heat in the dog days of summer.

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FWIW in MN I highly doubt this would be legal.

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FWIW in MN I highly doubt this would be legal.

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No Nick it sure is not legal in Minnesota, but down here is another story. We can do a lot of thing down here that is not legal in MN.

BTW what does FWIW stand for?

FWIW = for what its worth.

big G

As usual, lots of great info (EXCEPT for BrianK) sooner or later, I’ll give them all a try. Keep the tips coming, the printer is loaded with paper. BTW and FWIW we can do these things in Missouri and Kansas,cause we’re loaded with hillbillies!

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EXCEPT for BrianK

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MO?? You should be able to use specks for bait!

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EXCEPT for BrianK

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MO?? You should be able to use specks for bait!

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Hence my question. Most of the Crappies I catch you COULD use for bait!