Thread: Must have lures

When the fishing gets tough and I see them on the electronics and they just won't bite..... I break out the secret weapon


Drop it down to where you think they are and violently rip the hook upward.........

Just kidding.........


Since I don't use live bait .....I use jigs or different weights and colors. Beetle spins, road runners, I really really like bobby G baby shads, slab bandits, and jokers with nibbles.....strolling, trolling, jigging.....then some begging After all that and i still don't get anything it because I need better electronics, a bigger outboard, new rod and reel, more fishing lures.......something because it can't be me.....

Originally Posted by zummy

Today I was marking some fish on a dropoff. Most were in 7-10' for water a couple feet off the bottom. Previous experience for this time of year leads me to believe these were crappie. We tried curly tail grub bodies and tube jigs with no takers. What are some must have crappie lures you folks turn to? I am sort of a one trick pony. Unless I am fishing with someone that can show me what to do, we catch them incidentally while walleye fishing. Once we catch a couple we can usually narrow it down and start catching something. Its rare for me to go out with the sole intention of targeting solely crappie, but I am trying to learn some things. Taking my Dad out on Sunday, and I'd like to catch a few crappie.

Been crappie fishing along time and I finally learned there is no such thing as a "must have lure or bait", whatever you have confidence in will catch fish. If you find active fish they will bite. I am down from a boat full of baits to just a few small trays with various colors and catch as many fish as I did when I had a truck full of baits in the boat. Good fishing to ya!

zum thats 2 great answers if you can catch those eyes you can catch the crappies

[QUOTE=fishlessDan;2310321]Been crappie fishing along time and I finally learned there is no such thing as a "must have lure or bait", whatever you have confidence in will catch fish. If you find active fish they will bite. I am down from a boat full of baits to just a few small trays with various colors and catch as many fish as I did when I had a truck full of baits in the boat. Good fishing to ya![/QUOTE
Zum, what fD said, was wondering how the locator worked for u, kind of sounds like it was doing it's job. Since u do more eye targeting than crappie, I would be willing to trade u out some c-trips for w-trips. Let me know. DK

I agree w/Fishless that sometimes it's best to stay with less selection possibilities allowing a better focus. I keep twister tails, tubes, swim baits and grubs in 1.5" to 4" lengths and mostly combo colors IE chartreuse/dark(blue, black, red, brown, etc) chartreuse/light (pink, silver, white, yellow, orange etc,). 99.999% of the time my baits and/or leadheads have a chartreause flavor. We go darker baits on darker days and vice versa. I think bait size, leadhead weight and line weight plays a much greater role than types of plastic.

But that being said, I admit I have have added a fairly new bait to the arsenal---Elaztech's Z-man Zinker-Z. I buy mine from Tackle Warehouse. (Hopefully I have correctly attached a rigging pic). I cut it in half ( to 2.5"), split the tail, super-glue it to a 1/16 to 3/8 oz (depending on depth). This is the most durable soft bait I've seen in my 50 plus years of crappie fishing. It is an amazing multi-species bait, the fish seem to clamp on and not let go. If I recall correctly, over the last + 3 years I've used it, the only species that swim in Kansas I have not landed on the Zinker are, gar, sunfish, carp, buffalo, bullhead and shad. A week ago I found out 60# flathead eat them too! Talk about a battle.......

My last two trips for crappie have been very poor, but the only bait I could catch crappie on is the Zinker. It is a killer when casting it on a slow retreive for spawning crappie.

something that i hear all the time is size, shape and color which are all very important that bein said imo PRESENTATION is right up there pitchin a1/8 oz jig and grub pretty fast fall do the same thing with a 1/32 oz much slower what do they want today??

Originally Posted by eatmorfish

I agree w/Fishless that sometimes it's best to stay with less selection possibilities allowing a better focus. I keep twister tails, tubes, swim baits and grubs in 1.5" to 4" lengths and mostly combo colors IE chartreuse/dark(blue, black, red, brown, etc) chartreuse/light (pink, silver, white, yellow, orange etc,). 99.999% of the time my baits and/or leadheads have a chartreause flavor. We go darker baits on darker days and vice versa. I think bait size, leadhead weight and line weight plays a much greater role than types of plastic.

But that being said, I admit I have have added a fairly new bait to the arsenal---Elaztech's Z-man Zinker-Z. I buy mine from Tackle Warehouse. (Hopefully I have correctly attached a rigging pic). I cut it in half ( to 2.5"), split the tail, super-glue it to a 1/16 to 3/8 oz (depending on depth). This is the most durable soft bait I've seen in my 50 plus years of crappie fishing. It is an amazing multi-species bait, the fish seem to clamp on and not let go. If I recall correctly, over the last + 3 years I've used it, the only species that swim in Kansas I have not landed on the Zinker are, gar, sunfish, carp, buffalo, bullhead and shad. A week ago I found out 60# flathead eat them too! Talk about a battle.......

My last two trips for crappie have been very poor, but the only bait I could catch crappie on is the Zinker. It is a killer when casting it on a slow retreive for spawning crappie.

We use something like that with the zinker for bass. Great little lure for when the fishing is tough.

A minnow.