Crappie Jigs

[PanFryed]

I see everyone talking about there jigs and setups they use but to me most of it's new. Can everybody post a picture and the name of your lure's and rigs?
I mostly use minnows, pastic tube's and leadheads.:o

[cocdawg]

Being that I've never been crappie fishing but I'm really wanting to get started, I would love to see this thread take off myself!

[crappieseeker]

you might want to visit the DIY soft plastics forum and some of the other forums on this great site. They have pictures of baits they make and use for catching crappie

[jimeisaac]

First you have to understand that Crappie fishing in SoCal/AZ reservoirs is different than in the Midwest. We have no sunken timber, flooded roadways, bridgepilings and darn few docks. Our water is very clear and most reservoirs exceed 100ft deep.

The good crappie reservoirs have shad. The crappie make a living chasing the shad. That means that except while they are on the beds in the spring they are scattered chasing a shad for dinner. The best way to locate them is trolling over the flats in 20something feet of water. Fishfinders to find the shad are darn near mandatory.

Here are jigs typical of what I use. Left to right chartreuse, white, yellow, black and a white curly tail. Since we are trolling in 20ft of water at 1.0 to 1.5 MPH and want the lure 3-6ft down, I mainly use 1/8oz jigs.



Sometimes we add Beatlespins or use Roadrunners for flash. Left to right is a Roadrunner, a Beatlespin and a Jig on a Beatlespin. I am using the brand names but these are generic copies.



I get 90% of my fish on a chartreuse or white lure. I believe that is because of our water clarity.

Some folks troll to find the fish then stop and jig for them or use slip-float rigs. I find that to be a waste of time because the school is always on the move. I just troll until I get a fish, keep going until I no longer catch fish, make a 180 and troll through them again.

On most days the wind is up enough that you can drift on the wind instead of trolling.

Hope this helps.

[slabbandit]

Here's our go to bait for jigging 8 feet or deeper. It's a 1/4 oz. Bighead jig. Works great in deeper water or highwinds.
Crappie Jigs

[skiptomylu]

Just click on the link to my site (in my Sig) and there are tons of pictures of fish caught and lots of jigs.

Enjoy,

Skip

[PBUG2009]

these are the jigs i was talking about...the big head jigs.....pretty cool looking heads.

[NIMROD]

Here is what I use 99.9 % of the time for Crappie. I use 2'' Umbrella tubes made by Southern pro. I get my leadheads unpainted (1/8 oz unpainted roundheaded, which I smooth off any mold flash befor inserting in tubes) from T-n-T Tackle. I use unpainted because I insert them inside my tubes. Slide leadhead in and pop hook eye out of the tube side. Been using Slab's new scent as the little bottle end fits the tubes well. A squirt of scent really makes the job of pushing that big leadhead inside without tearing.
Using this big jig and 8 lb flouracarbon line on small spincast reel mounted on Buck's 12' jig poles. Line twist was a problem which was solved by putting a tiny barrel swivel in the line up 12 to 18'' from the jig.
This set up is great for slow trolling , pitching, or tightline verticle jigging. It is all I fish and the heavier jig works great in the wind. Shure easier to shake a heavy jig loose from a snag than a light one too.
I have converted lots of folks as I changed their thinking. Many think as a Crappie bait needing to be petit or tiny. Well here we see Crappie eating Shad over 4'' at times! Man even the dinks will swallow this big bait with no problem. By using a leadhead inside it stays put verses sticking it on with head exposed.

[GCD]

I use a 2" Southern Pro Hot Grub in various colors with 1/8, 1/16, and 1/32 round and minnow head jigs. I pour and powder paint my own jig heads.






I long line troll these jigs and have quite a few different color combinations for different water clarities and weather conditions.

[feelay]

I use these most of the time, very realistic, don't ya think?:D:D