# Crappie Secrets!



## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

The regular season is winding down for some of us and others will be getting out the Ice equipment. So what did you learn this year that can help others?? Any new lures you tried??? Did they work or not?? Any new techniques that you tried?? What did you learn about the Crappie?? 
I'm interested to see how everyone else did and interested to learn anything new to help me "Perfect" my Crappie fishing even more! If anyone want's more info just PM me.



I now fish for Crappie 100% of the time with swimbaits...nothing else! I tried every brand of swimbait on the market and not one comes close to the normal one I use...I wasted alot of $$ to find that out!

I found a person on OGF that makes all of my jig heads...exactly to my specs.

I use 1/16 and 1/8 oz jigheads (Reg and Weedless) for Crappie, with BIG hooks #1 or 1/0, and 3 to 3.8" inch swimbaits. I never gut hooked a fish all year, caught fewer dinks, filled my freezer faster, and my average size of Crappie increased considerably!

Found out that BIG Crappie swim and feed with the WB at CJ...find the WB and you will find SLABS. They wait for the young WB to tear up the school of Shad and then they join in on the feast without exerting much energy. To catch them your lure has to sink down under the WB, which is sometimes hard getting it past them. I use a 1/8 oz jig for faster sinks and when it hits bottom I make the swimmer act like it's dying! 

Besides being "Smart" (following WB), Crappie also see color in the daytime exactly the way we do,....then you have to learn what the water color does to those colors...and MATCH IT! At night they have excellent eye-sight and see in "Balck and White"! Night Fishing is VERY productive and color contrast is the key!


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## jiggerjohn (Sep 25, 2007)

Sounds like you had a great season! My son and I also had really good trips to Pymatuning,using special custom jigheads (special shape,hooks, and poured out of pure tin) and a 3" Charlie Brewer bass grub (swimbait with paddle tail). We'd fish near deeper brush piles in 12-18' of water and do a steady retreive with pauses (to reacquire depth). Crappies slammed 'em,and many good coolers with crappies,perch,bass,bluegills, and channel cats! As you said,the swimbait approach is deadly!! What brand do you use?


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

What brand do you use?[/QUOTE said:


> I can tell your new here jiggerjohn! lol


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

The biggest thing i tried new this year is a fish finder. I know... way behind the times, but I have always been able to find Crappie w/o one so i thought there would not be a huge difference..... I was wrong. my sonor put a bunch more crappie in the boat. especially the last few weeks, finding Crappie was always a chore in the Fall, ive cut alot of time off searching, and now theres more catching going on. Number wise it was a great year for me, but the slabs were few and far between. I also did alot of trolling small shad crankbaits. Although i was trying for Walleye when doing so, i picked up 30 or so Crappie this year trolling... and like the swimbaits(which i have to give an honest shot) the crappie picked up trolling were bigger then avg. Instead of using mono for my deeper water jigging this year, i tried out some Power Pro line with a mono leader. The feel is unbeliveable, only problem was id start pulling up to quicly when i felt a hit, once i controled the urge and waited a bit before lifting the rod it worked better then mono for jigging.


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## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

buckzye11 said:


> The biggest thing i tried new this year is a fish finder. I know... way behind the times, but I have always been able to find Crappie w/o one so i thought there would not be a huge difference..... I was wrong. my sonor put a bunch more crappie in the boat. especially the last few weeks, finding Crappie was always a chore in the Fall, ive cut alot of time off searching, and now theres more catching going on. Number wise it was a great year for me, but the slabs were few and far between. I also did alot of trolling small shad crankbaits. Although i was trying for Walleye when doing so, i picked up 30 or so Crappie this year trolling... and like the swimbaits(which i have to give an honest shot) the crappie picked up trolling were bigger then avg. Instead of using mono for my deeper water jigging this year, i tried out some Power Pro line with a mono leader. The feel is unbeliveable, only problem was id start pulling up to quicly when i felt a hit, once i controled the urge and waited a bit before lifting the rod it worked better then mono for jigging.


Hey, I sent JiggerJohn a PM!

Glad you're trying New Things!lol
Power Pro has a new 8 strand Braid out which is smaller, softer, and stronger...and with 4 colors, blue, green, hi vis, and Brown for stained water.
If you ever try it you will enjoy swimbait fishing (use Braid)...especially since you can quickly locate them now!


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## jiggerjohn (Sep 25, 2007)

Yep, Power pro in 5# test is great for jig fishing ,for crappie and everything else! I'll have to try some of the new,updated 8 strand stuff,tho!! As to size of jigs, years back I had success working long 6-8" jigs for pike on deep weed edges of NY's St Lawrence river-only to, at times, also nail HUGE crappies on the big jigs! These days,in addition to the Brewer tails, I also pour a few of my own custom designed plastics to give em something they've never seen!!


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## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

Hasn't anyone else tried any new lures or techniques...or caught Crappie in weird places or on unusual baits??


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## buckzye11 (Jul 16, 2009)

JiggerJohn, do you have a pic of your custom? never seen a tin head jig. I've seen the keitech's and will give them a try in the Spring.... the testimonials got me. How many less fish do you catch using swimbait? or does the quality, make up for numbers?
One more thing i found out..... Bass love a Crappie pattern lure when the males come in first to spawn.
A few lures, besides the 1/32 oz jig standby, that caught bigger Crappie


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## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

buckzye11 said:


> JiggerJohn, do you have a pic of your custom? never seen a tin head jig. I've seen the keitech's and will give them a try in the Spring.... the testimonials got me. How many less fish do you catch using swimbait? or does the quality, make up for numbers?
> One more thing i found out..... Bass love a Crappie pattern lure when the males come in first to spawn.


You can catch just as many fish as you want on a swimbait! You can vary your retrieve speeds, stop and start, twitch it, bounce it off the bottom, jig it, or put it under a bobber and set it in front of their noses!
I also use a larger hook (#1 with the 3", and 1/0 with Fats) to cut down on the number of deep hooked dinks I catch...my numbers of BIG fish has improved considerably from using normal 1/2" to 2" crappie lures.

I even use these swimbaits for trailers for my Chatterbaits and Bass jigs!!!


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## jiggerjohn (Sep 25, 2007)

Buck, I've actually increased quantity of crappies-even medium sizes ones with the Brewer bass grub -if the crappies are not huge, I just bite off a 3/4" section of the front of the Brewer tail -these inexpensive tails(in pearl) are so sensitive that they even swim on a drop with a 1/32 oz head pulling them down. My custom tails are very sensitive too,completely differant type tail, but are a bit bigger than Brewers. The head that scored best for me was the small HU head ,poured in tin, by my buddy in Hawaii (who does this for a living, and has very fast service.with no shipping charge!) at www.leadfreejigheads.com, where you can see pictures of his heads.


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## Intimidator (Nov 25, 2008)

buckzye11 said:


> JiggerJohn, do you have a pic of your custom? never seen a tin head jig. I've seen the keitech's and will give them a try in the Spring.... the testimonials got me. How many less fish do you catch using swimbait? or does the quality, make up for numbers?
> One more thing i found out..... Bass love a Crappie pattern lure when the males come in first to spawn.
> A few lures, besides the 1/32 oz jig standby, that caught bigger Crappie


You can use the Keitech swimmer behind the Mimic Minnow head and the Blue Fox! The tail design of the Mimic does not allow for constant or slow movement, it is angles like an airfoil so water passes under without alot of contact...a swimbait tail is one place you do not want aerodynamics!

The reason I started using Bigger Baits and swimmers was that while Bass fishing I was catching Big Slabs, I hated catching alot of dinks on small lures and hooks, now my small fish numbers have declined considerably and I have not deep hooked a Crappie all year....I was also tired of having big tackle boxes for Walleye, Crappie, and Bass. Now everything is in 1 box and I can pretty much use most of it for all the fish that I pursue.

I also use alot of lead-free jig heads but I went the other way...tungsten, it is denser than lead, so heads are smaller, but it costs alittle more also.


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