Tips for targeting larger crappie?

[ncnat]

Here's some that I use.

[harleyrider04]

talking to a guide on lake weiss who fishes everyday for about 3 months says brown/blue/chart and brown/brown catches the bigger females , and others say it really don't matter.I figure I just have to be at the right place at the right time. My favorite color is pink/chart or chart/blue

[SpeckWick]

I always find the bigger fish in more open water. By this I mean large flats with small pieces of isolated cover. Most of my bigger fish on my home lake have come from a flat that is around 12'-15' deep, with a drop to 20'-30' of water on the outside edge. I troll different types of jigs on the flat over the submerged stumps and brush and usually catch above average fish there. My best guess for a reason is the bigger ones are out following the schools of shad across the flats. Of course I've also caught some really large crappie off of isolated cover in as little as 18" of water, too. The main thing I've noticed overall is you don't catch many really big slabs in the same places you load the livewell with "keepers". I am not completely sold on the bigger bait, bigger fish theory. Sometimes it seems that way, but I've caught big ones on the same baits I've caught dinks on in the same day. If you put the bait in front of a big one, I think he'll hit it just as quick no matter what the size. It's just the smaller ones are less likely to hit the big bait. Again, just my opinion.

[NIMROD]

I use nothing but larger umbrella tube baits with 1/8 oz leadheads. Spend lots of time moving to lots of smaller brushpiles or stakebeds. Not unusual for me to fish 40 spots in a morning. Most of the time the biggest and most aggressive slabs hit first. I never fish over a few minutes at a spot and move when the small fish start biting.:D If fishing is slow , later on in the day return to the ones that produced the biggest fish and you may pick up some slabs that turned active.
When I build condos or stakebeds ,I go small and put several in a row. Space them about 100' apart and with a good trolling motor you won't need to use the big engine as much.

[GRIZZ]

There are minor method adjustments or lure size options, but the only way to really give yourself a shot at a monster is to fish water where big ones swim. There was a good article a while back in InFisherman about where and how to target oversized slabs and their conclusion was the same. Find water that produces big fish regularly.

[caseydrew]

Lots of good advice.....

Isolated cover...
bigger baits...
fish water that generally produces larger fish....
fish a little deeper....
they aren't found w/ the bigger schools....


Thanks guys...

[TallTxnMo]

I don't know if it applies to crappie, but a biologist once told me that the majority of big bass are caught in depths from 10 to 15 foot.

[pstone]

If you find slaller fish in shallow water, back off to the nearest drop off, a lot of times this is where the big girls like to lay and wait.

[slabbandit]

I agree that the bigger slabs come off the smaller more isolated cover that usually gets overlooked by most fishermen. I rarely use any tubes smaller than a Midsouth Superjig. I also like the 2" YUM Beavertails.

[FishingDog]

NCNAT, I've caught my personal best with the fist two tubes in columns 1 & 2. This was in twenty plus feet of water on Dale Hollow. And yes it was off a single tree stump. The fish were in the 2.5 lb range.