best beetlespin pattern

[bluefish1928]

What is the best beetlespin pattern?
also size

for bream? for crappie?

[HatchieLuvr]

By "pattern" do you mean actual color of the bait or the presentation/way you present the bait?

Colorwise I think that varies greatly by location, time of year & water clarity. In my muddy swamp-lake I typically use chartruese based colors.

Presentation wise, when the fish are on vertical structure (which is standing timber and being a southern swamp, my lake is mainly bald cypress) I catch more & bigger fish by casting the lure (which I actually "shoot" like the dock shooters) beside the trunks & letting the spins helicopter down to the bottom vs a straight "cast & retrieve". Usually they hit it on the initial fall, if not then I might pull it up 3-4ft @ let it fall again & do that as many as 3-4 times on each tree. That way I'm covering the knees/roots of the tree vs strictly the trunk.

Sizewise, for bream & crappie they both will whack the 1/16oz. I don't fish the 1/32oz version as they run to shallow & encourage bites by every dink in the lake. My favorite size is the 1/8oz as it discourages all but keeping size bream from biting (or at least prevents the smallest bream fom getting the hook into their mouth) & is easier for me to keep in the strike zone (3-6ft) at the proper speed. We've caught bass up to 4#s on the 1/8oz spins as well.

[Fatman]

I like a 1/16th for Crappie and when I fished for gills back home in NY we used a 1/32nd. As Hatch said a helicopter drop in timber is excellent - used to take the little rubber bands that kids had with braces and stretch one over the hook eye and behind the barb of the hook made em a little more weedless.

Colors: Chartreuse Pepper and Cotton Candy - Bubblegum pink with green and purple flake. I also like the brown/orange as it also caught smallies that were in the area. A trick we used to use with them was to run and needle through the side and pull rubber strands through for legs - between the spinning blade and the rubber strands made for a really good bait. For beetle style bodies check with Snake as he has the molds for them.

[Spawn]

For crappie:
Clear water: White
Muddy water: Green

For gills:
Clear water:yellow
Muddy water: black or purple

(I dumbed down the colors cause you can usally find these at walmart and they normally have the colors, not because i think your stupid or anything!)

[kycreek]

1/16th, white early in the year is good in my area.

[skeetbum]

Lately I have a new favorite. The blade is about nickel size, 1/8oz sickle head, and a Kalin's triple color tail with a silver and green body and a clear tail with glitter. Absolute killer for most anything that swims. A slow roll retrieve through any cover close to the bank during spawn gave me crappie over a pound and a half. And the thump these generate are outstanding.

[river scum]

1/16 and 1/8th oz. your pretty safe with white, orange, purple, green, pink or black for colors.