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Thread: Minners vs plastics revisted.

  1. #1
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    Default Minners vs plastics revisted.


    Around here and elsewhere as I read the posts the crappie bite has fallen off from that in the original real warm spell many of us experienced as spring began. For us it has, too, but the crappies are still there and in many of the same places. Around here they have slacked off the minnow bite; however, we continue to take them, if in lesser numbers on plastics, including some real little plastic tails, suggesting to me that the crappies are concentrating more on invertebrates and insect hatches around here and more resting than on an active move.

    Where I was last evening for a while after work is an example. I was able to jig up a full half dozen in the same spots we found them in warmer weather using a 48th oz head on a size 8 hook and an inch and a quarter plastic right beside several (up to 4 at one time) minnow fishermen who didn't even get a bite the whole time I was there.

    They weren't big, running only to a max of about 10", but they were crappies. I was also getting some pretty regular sunnie bite on the little offerings. Everytime I took another crappie, those bystanders would get all excited that "the bite" was going to start. For them it never did, and for me it was pretty regular over the whole period, although I couldn't call it fast. For about the an hour and a half, my plastics were the only thing getting any bite and I was the only one who caught any fish at all, while I was there.

    I wasn't there very long nor very deep into the evening, since I had just come off a 12 hour, rather exhausting shift, but I couldn't resist wetting a line. I wasn't even there into the true witching hour, but there were crappies present the whole time, and willing occasionally to be fooled into biting, but not on minnows. I also got quite a lot of short takes including the classic crappie one timers, even on the tiny offerings; so they weren't in any kind of active mood at all. I had to work for every fish I took and missed a lot of bite, but that is what it takes with the plastics.

    I don't think a lot of crappies moved all that much from earlier but they have their heads down and with the decreased water temps are more grazing on much smaller forage than hunting minnows and have been for a while.

  2. #2
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    I occasionally do a "lunch break" fishing trip and almost always get a few crappie (in addition to some gills) on plastics. The 1/64 oz trout magnet is usually my bait of choice. For something like that, live bait is just not an option. For me, any jig (hair, feather or plastic) works well enough that I never feel the need for minnows.

  3. #3
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    Never tried Minnows plastic it is.

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    Those quick little side jaunts are just made for the little plastics. Also really good for spot explorations should one come across an opportunity. I keep more than one rod in the car and a whole working kit of plastics and jig heads there, too. Sometimes all one needs is 15 minutes to show opportunites for longer sessions. Those can very often be inserted into many errands very conveniently. They also provide a quiet-down release from days at work that were exceptionally trying. A whole more relaxing that stopping over at the local tavern for a snout-full IMO.

  5. #5
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    Always have meat in the boat whether I use it or not. Some ways that I fish (night stalking) I always dangle meat....fishing docks Ill try my dangedest with a jig, then switch to meat if I gotta.

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    Quote Originally Posted by no1son View Post
    Those quick little side jaunts are just made for the little plastics. Also really good for spot explorations should one come across an opportunity. I keep more than one rod in the car and a whole working kit of plastics and jig heads there, too. Sometimes all one needs is 15 minutes to show opportunites for longer sessions. Those can very often be inserted into many errands very conveniently. They also provide a quiet-down release from days at work that were exceptionally trying. A whole more relaxing that stopping over at the local tavern for a snout-full IMO.
    Could not agree more.

    It's like the Boy Scouts say, "Always be prepared ... to fish!"

  7. #7
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    I am going to add a couple of items to the artificial side, not plastics though. We have also had some real good response to jigging the smallest Swedish Pimples and Phoebes this spring, pretty much just like one would through the ice. For all that we are primarily shoreline fishermen, where we can find the right places open water jigging and ice fishing are very similar. You can also adapt that to casting by using sliding bobbers and sea-sawing the line through them to get the same vertical action.

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    Its funny you say that because the fish I cleaned Sunday were full of lil small insects I guess ? I examined them as best I could but couldn't make out what they were . But just like you say I caught quite a few but I know that I missed that many more too . But I never would have made the connection to down sizing my jigs . That's a very good point you made . I was catching and missing on a regular 1 1/2 inch long jig in 1/16 ounce , on chartreuse body with pink head .
    On the smaller jig what color would y'all suggest because I'm dang sure try that this week .
    Thanks

  9. #9
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    Right now the color that seems hottest is white for the tail. The tails I use were IIRC the inch and a quarter LuvNubs made by MicroSpins primarily for through the ice. I got mine from both Crappie Tom and directly from MicroSpins. With MicroSpins now having gone primarily wholesale I will restock from the Pin Minnows offered by Crappie Tom which are virtually identical in size and shape. I believe you can buy the molds for those if you wish to pour your own. CT offers nothing but quality products however; for myself that is more than good enough.

    The heads I use are usually size 8 hooks on ball head jigs 1/32 or smaller and I prefer black for the color. I will also use size 10 ice jigs that hang horizontally like the Fat Boys and Diamond type. All of them are fished on either 2# or 4# GAMMA clear. I jig this presentation vertically or drag it along a dock on a very slow walking troll. Jigging action is very slight, more slow lifts and slack line settles than anything or just a soft upward twitch with signification pauses in the action. Pay special attention to the point where the white body just stops being visible and to the bottom two feet of the water column. Also watch for unexpected slack line. The bite will almost always be very soft no matter what size the crappie.

    If this is matching insect hatches where the emerging nymphs are ascending from the bottom, the crappies will not be in any kind of chasing mood, they don't have to be, but will instead be targeting the ascending nymphs or descending injured ones floating down out of what is commonly a sunfish layer over their heads, more or less grazing. Since they will not be necessarily chasing you will have to be right on the spot, but you will find that particular spots will produce over and over again. This will take some sunnies, too, since they will almost always be present when this presentation works. You may also get some larger surprises, since when an insect hatch comes off bigger fish will eat tiny, too. I do not use a ripping jig sort of presentation. Be alert when lifting, very often crappies and sunnies sometimes, too, will have taken the little baits without giving you any indication; they will just be there. Sometimes all that is needed is a slow retrieve up from the bottom. If they suspend higher, that will usually pinpoint the depth.

    Alternate colors are translucent red/pink, blue with chartreuse tails, and pearl. Last spring black tails were a killer on sunfish. This is just a smaller version of jigging BG Baby Shads, and it can also work with inch and a half tubes later on into the summer and sometimes even now or through the ice. I have used it as shallow as a couple of feet and as deep as 20' depending on where I find the crappies. I have taken all sizes of crappies on this presentation, although most tend to be "average" for whatever water one is fishing.

  10. #10
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    I too prefer jigs to minners, mainly cause Im lazy and dont like fooling with the bait. (stop and get em, keep em alive, bait the hook each time...its just a hassle)

    But, i wonder if another point to ADD to what you have already observed is the way you are fishing the jigs opposed to the methods the minnow fihsermen were using?

    I know that sometimes you just gotta put it on their nose to make em bite. Sometimes they are tight tight to cover and a minnow under a cork aint gonna get down inside that tree top (or whatever you ar fishing) like you can vertical jigging. Now, I dont know, maybe they were tite lining minnows. In that case, it wouldnt have mattered much.

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