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there's a saying up here, "If it ain't chartreuse, it ain't no use". I tie my own jigs using estaz for the body and marabou for the tail. the tail is about 1" past the hook bend. all tied on a gold 1/64 oz jig head. I fish this under a Thill stick float usually about 2-3 feet from the jig. The key is to know 1. how deep the fish are holding and 2. that crappie always feet UP. (I fish black crappie. I assume whites do the same) You want the jig to be always above the crappie. I have found that the slower fall rate during open water works best for me. For ice fishing, I use a Tungsten jig with a plastic waxtail or tip it with waxies or spikes.
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Make's me think. I cast and retrieve jigs for crappie and sometime do pretty well. But always felt I was getting to far below them. Wondering if I got a reg bobber and put it on even or eight feet below the bobber if it wouldn't work better? I go out looking on the fish finder for them in deeper water and normally don't have a lot of luck with fish down much over 12'. Use a 1/8 oz jig to be able to cast better and just maybe it sink's to far to fast?
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I would not hold too much stock in that old adage that crappie always feed up. One thing you can be certain of in fishing and that's that nothing is cast in concrete. Can't tell you how many times I've cast and let my jig hit bottom before starting a slow retrieve. And I've had a lot of success with this technique over the last few decades.
Best rule of thumb is start shallow (in whatever depth you are fishing in) and work your way down the water column until you start to connect with them. And, if you don't get bit, crawl it along the bottom. You might be surprised. :)
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I'm beginning to think a lot like Crestliner. In the spring and most of the summer I didn't get out fishing much this year, and then started hitting a not far from the house. An older gent who is a regular at this spot for the past 50 year or so said,you start reeling in too soon...Let it go all the way down, and hit bottom, then reel in as slow as you can stand it...and I started catching fish on almost every cast.
//now thesearen't big fish by no means, but you can catch them right regular like. Just wish they had some size to 'em...
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for crappie, I like going two-toned in jig color: dark and bright. this way it gives crappie a better chance of seeing at least one of the colors in the water clarity/light conditions. I will go with something like a black head and green back, or a pink head with a blue back. something like that.
I find that green, white, pink, red, and chartreuse are my best colors for crappie