how to jig?

[CrappiePappy]

Hi, I have been catching crappie for years now but only off of minnows. However I have been trying my hotspot for weeks now and only catch about 3 or 4 with a bobber & minnow. LAst night a guy I always see fishing at the spot has a WHOLE float basketful of slabs. I asked what time to catch them and he said all day, you just have to use jigs and not minnows. We fish off of a concrete pier with a chain link fence that has rod holders welded onto it. It has about a 20 foot drop and the water deepness varies.
The problem is...I don't know how to use jigs. How would you jig to catch crappie off this pier? I didn't want to look stupid by saying I didn't know how to use jigs. Please help and be as specific as possible. What type of jigs should I buy? Do I cast them & reel or drop them to the bottom & reel up?

First off, Welcome to the site !!

Seems like you've got some good advice already, and even some good natured ribbing to go along with it (which is one of the signs of acceptance, around here :p )

Considering your situation, if you're restricted to this pier/fence/20ft drop setup, you might want to read this article and apply it to your current situation : Crappie.com - Crappie Fishing Information and Adventure - Vertical Casting

The angler with the full basket may have been fishing where the fish were concentrated, and your minnows weren't close enough to interest the fish into coming over to where you were placing them. And, even if you had jigs & knew how to use them, you may not have been putting them in the face of the fish, as was the other angler. But, be that as it may, you really do want to learn when/where/how to use jigs !! Believe me ... I come from a minnow only background, and as successful as I was with them, now I rarely consider them my first option. I cast jigs, more often than not, and use jigs in most of the other presentation methods I use. I started out using jigs as an alternative to minnows, thinking that I'd replace the minnows/bucket/aerator/dipnet and the hassle of keeping them alive/healthy, with a less cumbersome amount of equipment (ie - small box of jigs & plastics). Well ... fast forward to today, and I now take along 3 tackleboxes full of jigs/plastics and assorted other goodies which outweighs and takes up more space than all the "minnow" equipment ever thought about doing :p

You don't have to go hog wild and buy a whole paycheck's worth of jigs (you will gradually accumulate much more than that :p ) .... but, you might want to limit your choices to a pack of these and a pack of those, and try them out. 1/16oz is a good overall weight to start with. Depending on your equipment and line size, you should be able to cast these a fair distance.

A good starting point might contain some or all of the following :

1/16oz jigheads ... weedless &/or non-weedless styles
1.5" chartreuse tubes .. or green, blue, white, pink, or red bodies w/chartreuse tails
1/16oz marabou jigs ... solid white, and/or solid chartreuse

Crappie may want different colors, or different presentations, or different presentation speeds, on any given day ... or even during the same day. That's why you hear the minner men say "they got lockjaw" ... when they probably don't :p --- and why the jig slingers/draggers have a multitude of colors to try ... hoping they have the one the Crappie are interested in, at that time & place.

Remember ... you've got to find'em before you can catch'em THEN ... You've just got to give them what they want, in the way they want it, and put it right in their face and dare them to bite it :D

... luck2ya ... cp

[skeetbum]

You have already gotten some good directions in the other posts. I will give you my 2 cents. Jigs are an ongoing education, and you have to start somewhere. In wal-mart there are combo packs of tube jigs that cover the colors pretty well, I think there's 10 colors in there. Along with some jig heads. A stick bobber that stands up straight when at rest, and lays over when a fish takes the weight off of it works pretty well. Not too big. If you will get something along these lines, the education will have begun. As you already know folks on this forum will answer any questions, and local folks aren't against showing you how in person. 3 yrs ago I was in your shoes, and I now catch fish most every time I go. But better than that are the friends I've met thru this forum. Tight lines and welcome to THE forum.

[baptistpreach]

I agree with how they've told you to fish, but really, just go back and ask that guy! What he's doing is working, and if he's willing to talk, be willing to listen. I've learned more about fishing that way than any other.

[rocket rich]

I see the GOOD OLE BOYS ARE AT AGAIN .....

[redear]

what crappiepappy said.

[cpd21]

Todd Huckabay asks people how they fish a minnow........then said "that's how you fish a jig".....ask the guy what colors and depth and you are off to a great start

[Ken Jones]

The gentleman that said he never uses bobbers. Thats strange I wonder what his catch ratio is? Been out twice first outing fishing in 40ft. of water. We caught 75 fish vertical fishing. Located with depth finder and anchored over them slabs. Dropping jigs to bottom with a slow retrieve. Next time out a week later same area. Fish were suppended at 14fy level. Set bobber at fifteen ft. and we caught 30 slabs. I use a slip bobber setup. You can fish any depth that the fish are at. If next to bottom I vertical fish if suspended I bobber fish. Surfice Temperature 47degrees. Barometer 30.15.

[rocket rich]

More of a challenge not to use Electronics and set depth,and catch that many is I guess it's outstanding but the limit were I am is not near that and I only need 5 to feed me and the wife. DO IT THE HARD WAY AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS? But to me it'sthe easy way?

[Bob # 1]

Welcome to the site
Crapzilla

If you want to get up to speed fast here
are over 200 videos all about crappie fishing

Better get a lot of popcorn you are going to be awhile

Enjoy

YouTube - CrappieBasics's Channel

[LBM]

The gentleman that said he never uses bobbers. Thats strange I wonder what his catch ratio is? Been out twice first outing fishing in 40ft. of water. We caught 75 fish vertical fishing. Located with depth finder and anchored over them slabs. Dropping jigs to bottom with a slow retrieve. Next time out a week later same area. Fish were suppended at 14fy level. Set bobber at fifteen ft. and we caught 30 slabs. I use a slip bobber setup. You can fish any depth that the fish are at. If next to bottom I vertical fish if suspended I bobber fish. Surfice Temperature 47degrees. Barometer 30.15.

I used to use bobbers all the time when I first started crappie fishing only using minnows. During that time I was usually done fishing once the minnows ran out and went home. I did try jigs a little bit during my minnow fishing days but it was really a waste of time for me since I didn't know how to fish with jigs.

After retiring and fishing more I've some what learned how to use jigs and have really become addicted to the thump. I'm not ignoring the fact that some days crappie will definitely prefer minnows over jigs but with my lazy nature I usually prefer not messing with minnows. Though the last couple of years I have been trying to play around with using minnows with no bobbers for a shallow summer slab pattern around standing timber even though some hard core jigs fisherman say that jigs will work just as well as minnows for that pattern.

For me on catch and release days I really think the thump is my goal for the day and the thump from a smaller fish can be better than the thump from a slab. By the way that is something I noticed very frequently when I used to bass fish where your bait would just get slammed and hammered by the smaller bass and where the larger fish just inhaled it. My reasoning on this is the are increasing their success rate by stunning their prey where as the larger were able to just vacuum the prey in.

With my laziness I'm not suitable material for any tournament or competitive type fishing. Iffen I were interested in tournament fishing I definitely think it would be necessary to learn and use many other styles of crappie fishing like spider rigging, trolling cranks and fishing with minnows under a bobber or not. Its all about the thump which is what is missing from all those other methods. Hum I might have found a signature here.

I'm not sure just how one would determine 'a catch ratio' other than by seeing who would win a tournament.

Too my wife's dismay my feeling the thump method allows us to eat fish twice a week 52 weeks a year one evening crappie and one channel cat which by the way is caught with out bobbers using a 12 ft B&M.

That's just me and thinking how great it is to be able to enjoy such a great pastime where an almost infinite number of ways came be used to catch these critters and what a great site we have here that is centered on crappie fishing. :D

I'm sure you've noticed I wasn't the one that originally posted saying he didn't use bobbers and hope no offense is taken on my rambling response. If there was any offense taken just ignore me I'm very used to it since most already do that anyway. :D