PICS FIXED: Hunting Crappie in Florida with Baitzilla Micro Crank Baits.

[Slab]

We had a major water temperature change recently down here in Florida and the fish have moved. Two weeks ago they were in the reeds thinking it was Spring. Well, the water temperature dropped to 60 degrees, and now the fish are confused. I can no longer find them in my usual spots. So here's what I do when I need to go on the hunt for Crappie.

When I know where the crappie are, I like to long line Slab Rigs for them (here's a recent story I wrote up which talks about Slab Rigs: Road Runners with Slab Rigs) . When pulling Slab Rigs I generally do .7 MPH to about 1.3 MPH at the most.

When I don't know where they are at I like to move fast. I don't want to slow troll , I want to cover lots of water so I can find them more quickly. I like to pull Crank Baits where I go anywhere from 1.5 on up to 2.4 MPH. And I like to use Arkie's or Bandits when I do.

But the thing is, down here in Florida we have shallow water, and we only have Black Crappie. Because we have shallow water, you obviously don't want a deep diving crank bait. And because we only have Black Crappie, you want a smaller bait. White Crappie will hit a large crank bait without blinking an eye. But I have found that the Black Crappie down here in Florida like smaller bait. That's partly the reason why you can't find those big shiner crappie minnows on sale down here in bait shops like you can in Mississippi.

Baitzilla sells Micro Cranks, They are a Crappie.com sponsor and they sent me some to try out. I've actually been using them for a while now and finally decided to share one of my secret baits. Here's what I love about them.

1) They are small. Look at the first picture in this article to get a feeling for their size. The bodies are just under an inch and a half long. Black crappie like smaller sized baits, and these Florida crappie eat them up.

2) They have good action at slow speeds and fast speeds. Check out the video below. I was going exactly 1 mph an the baits wobble real nice. Generally speaking, I try to go 1.5 mph but it's nice to know you have the flexibility to go this slow. This allows you to use these while long lining other baits like jigs or Road Runners. Give you options to figure out what they are hitting. Even more flexibility.



https://youtu.be/H07Vy9Ejkf0

3) These crank baits have tails. They have a little extra flash (or fly) on the rear treble hook. When the Crappie are aggressive I see that they swallow the whole bait, but often on my lake here in Florida, I find that they short bite and are only hitting the back treble hook. This acts almost like two small baits in one and seems to give me more success.

4) They also have some excellent detail in their paint jobs, and in the plastic itself. They machined some nice patterns into their molds when they manufactured these. Take a close look at the pictures to see what I am talking about.

Slab Tip: What I do is, I remove the split ring from the crank bait. I do this to other crank baits too. I use a small snap on my line (so I can change up my baits quickly) and I don't want the extra hardware of the snap. I remove the split ring so the snap connects directly to the crank bait. In my opinion this also provides for a better profile view of the bait. Less clutter and he snap is less visible.


I like connecting my crank baits like this (split ring removed) when using snaps.


Not like this. This is just too much visible hardware.

I think this is a great addition to my arsenal down here in Florida where pulling crank baits has generally not been a widely used option. Pulling cranks allows you to cover water fast, plus there's another benefit, you can watch the action in your line. If you don't see the rod tip shaking, you know you're pulling weeds. And if you're pulling weeds, you're not gonna catch squat.

Plus, to add to their versatility, you can simply add different sized split shots a foot in front of the crank bait to change the depth they run. You don't need a another pile of bait boxes in the boat filled with different sized crank baits. One size fits all, just carry one of those split shot wheels with you and you're all set to cover varying depths with the same crank bait. How awesome is that.


They are high quality and versatile baits at a great price. Check them out:

[Clint]

I'm not seeing the bottom three pictures.

[Slab]

I'm not seeing the bottom three pictures.

Oops, I fixed it I hope. I think the pics woulda showed up tomorrow when the article is scheduled to publish. But I fixed it. tanks

[chaunc]

looks like those would work pretty good up here in our shallow stumpfields. Gonna have to give them a try.

[scrat]

Wow! Nice looking small crank baits. Thanks for sharing the report and pictures.

[Billbob]

looks good

[Bricks]

Out of the box how good are they tuned what are they like to tune? Do they blow out at the faster speeds when trolling?

[Slab]

Out of the box how good are they tuned what are they like to tune? Do they blow out at the faster speeds when trolling?

Seem fine. I know about tuning, but I've never tuned a crank bait in my life. I always use a snap like I show, I'm not sure if that's what helps me so I don't have to. Or I'm just not sensitive enough to see them run sideways a little. dono

And they run great fast too. I think that tail helps them so they don't blow out and fly off sideways. I don't know how fast I've gone though, an't answer that. I guess I never went fast enough to get into a situation where they might have blown out. I'll have to test that.