I just got back from Linwood Lake (north of the cities in Anoka County) caught lots of black crappie but no white crappie. In fact I can’t remember ever catching a white. What kind of tactics work for them? Will you typically find them in the same areas as blacks? I know they are less common than the black crappie, but there has to be a way to catch them.
the secret is usually to target a lake that has a fair population of white crappies….. linwood is full of black crappies…. I think Ive only caught a couple of whites there…. the same basic tactics work for white crappies….. whites are usually MORE aggressive than black crappies… they usually suspend higher in the water column than blacks….. and Ive had good luck with active presentations for them… they seem to like flash… so jigging spoons will score them, as will jig spinners…. like beatle spins, or a small white maribou with a jig spinner…. I also used to use roadrunner jigs quite a bit…. and whites like them too…… white crappies are tend to be longer than black crappies but not as heavy.. and therefore I think they have larger mouths in general….. I have caught white crappies out of East and West Rush lake, Coon lake, Minnetonka, Medicine lake…. Im sure there are more lakes that contain them…… white crappies seem to adapt to warmer more eutrophic conditions than black crappies….. when I was in Iowa you almost always caught more white crappies then black…. up here its reversed…..
since you were in linwood…. I would try coon…. which is not far from there….
Carp chaser, one of my favorite summer baits is a small jigging rap. You can catch a crappie about every minute when you sit on top of them and vertical jig. I always carry my ice jig box in the boat for pansy’s. Give it a try need no bait ( thats the best part) Scott!!
thanks i will try those suggestions.
I would look for clearer water. Black crappies feed better than whites in stained water. I would agree that they are more aggresive and have bigger mouths, so using a bigger bait may help. I don’t fish alot for crappies but the whites I catch mainly come from some type of cover whereas most of the black crappies are suspended in open water.
The Jigging Rap is a killer on suspended crapie! I take off the trebble on the Rap’s center and put in its place a long shank gold crappie hook. This way you can reverse head hook (so the hook point goes out toward the minnows head) a minnow that hangs in a natural position, with a bigger hook that is eaiser to remove. This works!
Hoggie Hoggard
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