Crappie baits

Once the water warms up some and the fish are a little more active I like to throw some of the small cranks.  Think they are made by strike king.  Some days they seem to work well, others not so much.  I'll usually catch a few fish from an area on them, then switch to a small jig when the action on the crank slows down.  The bro bloodworm is quickly becoming my goto soft plastic. 

I have good luck trolling with rapala Shad raps, and glass Shad raps that dive 10-12' and Norman deep little Ns. They're bigger than what I would have thought would work, but they've caught me some big crappies. Also this is mainly post spawn. Especially when the mud line at my local lake pushes any remaining fish off shore a bit.

Bogeyjoker, just wondering. What is your reason for not using live bait? Just wondering because I seem to do the best with pieces of nightcrawlers or minnows. I can say that I haven't caught a lot of crappies in my life. I always thought its because I fish from shore. Just seemed to me that I always see guys pulling them in from boats.

I'm still a sucker for bringing minnows.  Very often let 90% go after the day is over.  But definitely days that they are the only thing producing for me.
 
As for my favorites - I am a fan of the Gulp minnows, both 1" and 2.5".  Also like to make my own jigs, either with the 1/32-1/8 jig heads or a hook with glass bead head.  Either plain if willing or tipped.  Little pieces of the bright colored trout worms work well for tipping, but Gulp seems to have them hold on.  Definitely days that they will take a certain color tube over anything else.
 
I do find a boat to help a ton with crappie, and most fish for that matter.  You can hit many more brush piles and easier access to most submerged structure, as well as ease of moving from spot to spot.  Knowing the lake and seasonal movement is more important though.  There are guys that don't need a boat, fill up a cooler to the top, while I'm casting away my tackle box into 10 unproductive brush piles...

 

slabdaddy

Bogey, are we still going to fish Pymie for slabs this spring?

I've started fishing a couple of days ago,slow bite but getting  10 -15 each day on 100 th leadhead jig w/  small 1 inch berkley gulp minnow (emeral shiner)

You don't need a boat to catch slabs. They can be found very easily along the shore line or a short wade out. It's very common for a boat fisherman to share the same space as us shore fishermen. 

Fished yesterday in a nasty ,windy, snowy white outs,very cold day. My rod tip iced on almost every cast,fished 6 SLOWWWW hours. Caught 17 mixed crappie and big bulls. Same program 100 th oz leadhead jig w/ 1 inch gulp minnow or a small piece of that Berkely red worm on the jig.The big bulls loved red worm stuff.  I had wax worms and mags but didn't even try them. Had a nice flock of turkeys come by 20 plus hens and 3 giant toms. I had 3 gills that went 9.5 the rest were over 8.5 lost a 2lb plus bass next to shore

Gulp minnow(emeral shinner) 1/64 Chart. leadhead,37 mixed keepers,crappie 10-12 inch,Gills 8.5 - 9.5. First warmish day but had ice in my eyelets till 10 am. Fished 7:30 till 2:00. Fish are in the shallows,water still very cold.

mr.crappie

Been doing well on Crappie( when you could get away from the Trout) also getting some very nice perch, but threw them back because the females are ready to drop thier eggs. Most everything shallow & close to shore. Jigs with meat under a bobber. Going to try Yellow Creek Lake for Pike tomorrow.  sam

 
Sam, where were you? I could use a good crappie day. lol

Did ya make it out to Yellow Creek? Havent been there since ice season. Was wondering if ya got any pike. Sometimes I get into the crappie there too

X I did very poorly yesterday,only had 2 pike hooked & lost both. I prob. set the hook too soon,I do that so that they don't swallow the shiners & get hooked too deep. I get some nice blck Crappie there also,but didn't try yesterday. There was a bass tourny going on, nice crowd,but I don't thinki that they did too well, according to all of the chatter. It was a little breezy & I think water was cold. Got shiners at Riddles. Going to try later this week or first day of Trout.  sam

Fished today 8:30 till 1:00. I tried wax worms on ice jigs caught a few 6-7 smaller 8 inch gills(released),went back to the program,1/64 chart.leadhead and 1 inch gulp emeral shiner,I used 2 all day, and caught 10 giant bulls over 9 inches and 7 crappie 10.75- 11.75 inches. Would have done better but a couple of 40 inch pike caused some lulls in the action. A mother goose set her nest 15 feet from and spot 4 big eggs,she never got off of them in 4 1/2 hours,the gander did not like me there but after a while we all got along. I went turk'em early and saw some giants,still with a lot of hens.

bcain

What do you mean about the pike causing a lull in the action?

probably because of the fight and splashing in the water causing a commotion.

Only reason I asked is last summer, I was fishing the Yough River near McKeesport. I was into some big green sunfish. Biggest ones I have ever caught. I was fishing in a little cove with some brush. As I was standing there, a pretty big musky came swimming back in there. I guess it was attracted by the splashing from the fish I was catching. The sunfish stopped biting for about 10 minutes until he was long gone. That's what made me ask.