Crappie..

What are your favorite color ratso jigs?? What other lures have been good?

I like the pink/white body or glow/pink body for crappie.

BLACK! Black is my all time favorite. Either with a black or brown head. (I buy the bodies and jig heads separate so I can change the weight of the head as needed). The bodies are listed as Finesse Plastics on the CJ&S site. The heads I buy from guys who pour them. I use a #10 body 99% of the time unless I’m chasing bass. I use heads from 1/100 up to 1/32 on a #10 hook.

Some other colors that have done well for me in the past
Yellow chartreuse
Cotton Candy
White

Lately the fish have been shying away from the ratso (minnow profile) as they have been feeding on small bugs and worms, at least that’s what I’ve found in their stomachs. The last few trips out the northland impulse mayfly has been HOT. 1/32 head with a #10 VMC hook has been the ticket. Bluegill, crappie, and lots of little bass. Best colors have been the Natural, Sunrise, and Pink/White.

Also the CJ&S wedgee has been doing fairly well for me, bluegills are really liking the long slender profile. Motoroil color.

Glows, pink, white, chartreuse colors have been whats working for me this winter. Cant say Ive even spent a lot of time trying different colors this winter. Been more just working them for the reaction bite out of the crappies. Either keep hoping holes until a active one comes flying in to smack the jig or getting the right jigging motion until one turns and comes flying up to hit it. Seems to me that if a pie is just slowly coming up to the jig chances are Im just going to get a bump and missed fish. Maybe playing around with the colors might get more of these converted to being caught but my time on the water has been limited so tend to like to stick to more aggressive fish.

So Kevin you say black is it? Might have to order up a pack of them.

Do you guys play around much with the jigs sizes? Here again the larger size plays well into the aggressive presentation and depths I tend to fish. To light and it takes a while to get the jig down in that 20 to 30′ range.

I’ll never leave an area without dropping a black ratso down if I’m not catching fish. It just simply works. I’ve used it in dirty Miss backwaters and lakes with 10′ visibility.

I usually start with a 1/64 head and then if there is current or I’m fishing deeper than 10-12′ I’ll go to a 1/32. If I’m fishing real shallow and there is no wind to blow my line, I’ll drop down to 1/80 or even 1/100. Sometimes they like that light jig, totally different action between a 1/100 and a 1/32 with the same body.

Lately I’ve just been using a 1/32 head all the time and it seems to be working, but of course I’m hole hopping and chasing aggressive fish.

With different sized jig heads it sounds like you are paying closer attention to the fall rate. Do you notice the pies turning and rushing in you get the right fall rate? For me its just about the opposite. Its how fast I pull the jig away from the fish. On the real fun days Ill drop the jig well below them and do a nice slow retrieve right through he school and up. Sometimes you get on to come after it right away. Other times the jig is 3 to 5′ or more above them before a fish will turn and come rushing in.

Have also had a few crappie bites this year where they wanted it perfectly still. Ill catch those fish and then tell myself this is not why I crappie fish.

Where I fish we have mixed schools of bluegill and crappie, so I’m always fishing way up above the fish for the crappie. If you get too close to the school you’ll get 3 or 4 little bluegills to follow the jig up and the crappies will shy away. A lot of my fish do fire up for it on the fall, they’ll come up 3, 4, sometimes as much as 6-8 feet to hit the jig. With these mixed schools its all about picking out the crappies right away and then hopping to a new hole to get away from the gills. On one hand you want to drop quickly and pick off the fish, but on the other you want to see those fish rise so you know they are crappie and not bluegill. To compromise, lately I’ve been using a 1/32 head and lowering the jig instead of letting it free fall.

The ratso is by far my favorite jig for crappies. You’ll never see me without a #10 black ratso tied on, or at the very least a half doz in my box ready to be tied on.

Quote:

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BLACK! Black is my all time favorite. Either with a black or brown head. (I buy the bodies and jig heads separate so I can change the weight of the head as needed). The bodies are listed as Finesse Plastics on the CJ&S site. The heads I buy from guys who pour them. I use a #10 body 99% of the time unless I’m chasing bass. I use heads from 1/100 up to 1/32 on a #10 hook.

Some other colors that have done well for me in the past
Yellow chartreuse
Cotton Candy
White

Lately the fish have been shying away from the ratso (minnow profile) as they have been feeding on small bugs and worms, at least that’s what I’ve found in their stomachs. The last few trips out the northland impulse mayfly has been HOT. 1/32 head with a #10 VMC hook has been the ticket. Bluegill, crappie, and lots of little bass. Best colors have been the Natural, Sunrise, and Pink/White.

Also the CJ&S wedgee has been doing fairly well for me, bluegills are really liking the long slender profile. Motoroil color.

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I meant candy corn, not cotton candy

Its a light yellow/orangeish color.