Most try both and see which one gets bit more.
Fatman
I gave up on spider rigging some time ago due to many issues, mainly lack of time to get on the water. One of my former co-workers actually holds the patent to the Black Widow rod holders and I saw many of the prototypes as they were developed. I'm getting back into it and had a good day on KY Lake yesterday with my Dad. I decided if I can't make a decent living working 40-60 hours a week in my taxidermy studio, working 60-80 like I have the last several years won't make a difference anyway. I'm going to spend more time on the water this year! My question is when you are using a jig tipped with a minnow, are you using a bare jig head with the minnow or are you using a standard rigged jig/body then adding the minnow? Are there instances that you might use one or the other and why? Does a tube jig body work better than say a hair jig? What has worked best for you in different conditions. When would you prefer a larger minnow over a small one with a jig? Thanks for all the valuable info that is passed around on here. Sorry if this has been discussed to death, I've been AWOL for a while.
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Most try both and see which one gets bit more.
Fatman
I really only use a minnow in the summer and then I will tie on a 1/4 or 1/8 oz. jig and above that about 18" I will tie on a Gamakatsu Drop Shot hook # 2 or even #1 sometime. Small thin wire hook.
Now I catch about 80% of my bigger fish on the jig when using this rig. Not 100%, but yes a big difference. My thinking is maybe the shiners get eaten by the smaller crappie entice the bigger fish below. Now I don't know this, it's just what I think.
Skip
I use a combination of plastic, hair, and feathered jigs. I only tip a jig with a minnow 2 or 3 times a year - usually when crappie are feeding up for winter or preparing for the spawn. I tip my jigs using the plastic tube/hair/feather. Also if I am using just minnows I will use the Kentucky Lake rig (Capps&Coleman rig) instead of a plain lead head. From my experience there are certain times that each combination I use may work better than other times - I will experiment with each to see what the crappie want at that given time.
I've tried both ways. I have used minnow on a bare jig more though.
just experiment find what works best for you and your type of fishing
i use minnows a lot i usually don't go without them because if i just cant get the
crappie to hit i try for sauger/walleye but if im tippin jigs yes i will tip it with the
body on and about 40 percent of the time its some sort of hand tied feather/hair
jig it works really well also ill use crappie magnets tipped with minnows or gulp waxies
is that a bite...YEAH FISH DONT HAVE HANDS
When I'm tite-lining I mostly tip the jig with a minnow.
If the bite is slow and sometime it is I will use a minnow
on a size 2 hook, other times I will use a minnow on a
bare jig head. When the bites slows you try to figure out
what will make it pick up.
Billy Deuce
Fried Crappie.... "The real thing".