MyFishFinder Forum
MyFishFinder By Species => Crappie => Topic started by: fishboy899 on Dec 30, 2003, 10:12 PM
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What do you find to be the best bait for crappie. I have used minnows, wax worms, mousie's about everything and can never seem to get a whole lot. I know they are there. Or maybe I am doing domething else wrong.
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Your presentation of the bait may be the key.
Meaning the way the lure/jig is tied to your line, the speed of your retrieve, the shaking of the jig during the retrieve . So many variables and you just need to kee
p experimenting and keep a positive attitude.
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yeh i think it was because the past two days we killed t he crappie just lettin the jig sit still... thanks for the info. ;)
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Hi guys,
Fishboy, once you find something is working for you, you tend to keep going with it. What I have found is you still have to keep experimenting with other baits and presentations to make sure the fish haven't moved on. This is hard to do when you have a good thing going, but there might be something better or you might start hitting bigger fish.
Mike
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Ratsos! (made by Custom Jigs n Spins)
Awesome. ;)
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what are mousies
???
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Mousies are similar to spikes, maggots, only the mousies have a thin "mouse" like tail.
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http://www.iceshanty.com/iceshanty/mar01/choicebaits3.shtml
Mousies
(https://www.myfishfinder.com/fishing_forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iceshanty.com%2Ficeshanty%2Fmar01%2Fmoussies.jpg&hash=f4ed3df91dd4723dcf4a2811518acf40)
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thanks never heard of them or seen them how do ya fish them
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I like to just put them on a jig or whatever you usally use and either let it sit or jig it. Soemtimes the fish want it just sitting still and other times they want it jigged. Other times they dont care.
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Nothing beats a night crawler. Pull a chunk off him and use SMALL lures. The smaller the better. I like the very tiny Swedish Pimples with a single hook for Crappie.
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Open water fatheads ussually work of a little mepps ive fly fished for them before and also used panfish assasians which all work good
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Small silver & gray Fin S Or a punpkinseed or grape panfish tube on a jighead.
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I like a small fathead on a shad dart or lead head.The horizontal lures dance better.When they are biting no bait is needed.Riverjet is right on the money about the Fin S rubber lures.Crappies LOVE those.They don't look like anything special,but have great action.
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ive caught them on size 10 and 8 bead head hares ear nymph on a casting bubble and also on a whole nightcrawler on a hook with no wieght on an ultra light rod and that thing was huge biggest ive ever caught 18 1/2" long and 1 1/2' thick it was a beast
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in the spring we catch a ton of crappie fishing a chartruse tube jig 2' under a small float--just toss it in and let the wave action work the bait. :o
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I use 1/64 and 1/32 oz maribou jigs tipped with a waxie or a couple of spikes under a slip bobber. Give it a twitch every now and then with long pauses.It drives them nuts.
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In open water I like a fathead or small shiner on a slip bobber. I've also had success on a fly rod with a streamer pattern.
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Last fall I hamered them on a smallest
gitzet tube. I use a Castmaster 1/25oz for weight then put about 6" dropper and fished over the hump's. I find it work's better if you take the treble hook off the castmaster (no hook at all) Just vertacal jigging.
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I prefer to use jigs/fatheads. I find these prduce my biggest crappies. The key I find w/ the jigs is to use those w/ all or at least some marabou feathers on them. The marabou when wet will shimmy in a very lfe like manner w/ even the slightest breeze, jigging, waves, etc. Try to hold a marabou jig absolutley still. Impossible. I like them better than tubes or curly tails. I also tie them on w/a knot creating a loop just above the jig for maximun action. A standard clinch knot causes the jig to hang unnaturally sometimes and requires much more jigging than the loop knot.
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Somers,
I like the marabou myself, especially the pink and white. How do you tie a knot with a loop? Are there any sites out there that have the different knots?
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Somers,
I like the marabou myself, especially the pink and white. How do you tie a knot with a loop? Are there any sites out there that have the different knots?
I don't know the knot with a loop,but when I tie two or three jigs on the same line I use a dropper knot.A guy on ice shanty turned me on to it.It's a little tricky at first but is a great knot.If you go to google and search for "dropper knot", all kinds of sites come up with instructions.Some even are animated(can't remember the name of that one.)
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check this out
http://www.marinews.com/fishing/Knots%20&%20Rigging/fk_droploop.htm
Is this what you mean N1N?
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I have had very good luck with Charlie Brewers sliders on 1/32 or 1/16 jig head. The grub has good action, usually fish this under a bobber with spikes.
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We use waxies and fatheads 99.9% of the time. The key we found to getting them to really hammer the bait was to make sure that NONE of the hook was visible. We used to just hook the head of the waxie to let it float around nice, now we thread them on to cover the hook, magic.
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The biggest Crappie I ever caught was on a nightcrawler believe it or not. I was fishing for bluegills on a tree. But I use a variety of baits for crappies, it all depends where I am fishing and what time of year. Right now I am doing really well on the Panish Asassin. It resembles a small minnow, and I put it on a smaller jighead with a long shaft. You can use this under a bobber of by using a slow jiggin retrievel. I also like to use shad darts with feathers on them. Sometimes I put a fathead on it, but I found that just the dart itself works wonders in the water. Sometimes the bite is best on the old hook and minnow technique. It all depends how the fish are bit'n.
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LilWill,
Do you use the shad darts with a flat face by the hook eye, tapered up or tapered down? Read an article about these. The gist was the flat face gives more action and allows you to swim the jig as well. More versatile than other styles. Sounds like something I want to try this year.
-Reelcharacter
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reelcharacter,
I use the ones that are tapered down. I try to use the smallest ones i can find. I like to use no more than 4 lb test with my littlest rods. What I usually do is find a spot where I know they are hanging out, and cast in there and let it sink down a few feet then pop it up then then let it sink down and then when the line is all down again i retrieve it a little bit and pop it again. Most of the time they hit it after you pop it and it is on the way down, when I see the line running i set the hook without feeling for them because they usually have it sucked in by then.
I will check out more about the flat faced ones.
thanks
lilwill aka ryan
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Somers,
I like the marabou myself, especially the pink and white. How do you tie a knot with a loop? Are there any sites out there that have the different knots?
netknots.com
rgfixit turned us on to this site.
Great resource.
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Well you cant really call the way i fished for them last year a technique... we know of this little pond that is full of bass panfish and pickeral...and as I found out one day CRAPPIE...i had a full nightcrawler on and i hucked it out in the middle all the sudden it bent over i reeled it in and it was a crappie, I went back to this spot and through out the same thing, a crawler and a hook and we killl the crappie on them ;D Not the most finesse style of fishing for them but it works
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Howie and RG,
Thanks for the Knot site, a new and soon oft to be used bookmark for me.
-Reelcharacter
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Sorry for the late reply.
I checked the netknot site and I don't see the loop knot I use. I'm not sure of the name and it's hard to relate w/o pics. Try the perfection loop on netknot. Looks like it'll work well enough. If I find out the name of the knot I use I'll post it.
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i like using the small bass assassins they call them panfish assassin put em on a small jig head cast out and real in slowly
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1.5" green/chartruse tubes on a 1/16 .oz lead head work good. put em about 2 ft under a bobber.
-good fishin' 8)
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For me lately it's been 3" Berkely grubs in chartruse on an 1/8 oz. head for the depth I'm fishing.
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my biggest "crappie" also came on a full nightcrawler under a bobber while fishing for trout, only about 10 feet off the dock. i was retrieving very slowly, and i turned to saysomething to my friend, and on the pause, bam, a nice 13 and a half incher
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worms
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ive caught the most on just plain old garden worms and a small jig or gold hook cast out and retrieved slowly or just left alone