Artificials for Crappie

[Whompus Cat]

What color jigs have you guys had good luck with at falls lake? Seems like the water is always stained with the red clay that lines the banks. I'm assuming to use dark colors right? Anyone have any insight? New to using jigs and I'm loving it, I plan to stop buying minnows all together if I can continue to have success with them, and other artificials. Also, I've read about using spoons. Do you vertically jig them or troll them? Also, what is the normal situation for this technique? Shallow, or deep, summer, or winter etc. I have jigged sting silvers and such for trout. I am assuming it's similar for crappie but on a much smaller scale. I am about to stock up on some grubs and jigs, possibly some spoons if there are good opportunities in NC waters. Might have to go visit Mr. & Mrs. Monk in the near future!

[SIMPLEMAN]

Wc I've Only Fished Falls One Time, But My Color Stradegy Worked There As Well As Anywhere. Stained Water Will Aways Make Me Break Out The Chartreuse. I'll Start With A Solid Chartruese If I'm Not Familar With The Lake. When And If I Get Bit I Will Experiment From There. Tubes Or Curly Tails. Size, Weight And Jig Head Style. Presentation Is Different From Lake To Lake As Well. I Found Fish On My Trip To Falls By Slow Trolling After Little Action On Casting To Brush Piles. Slight Variations In Color Can Also Make A Big Difference. Chart/sparkle--chart/white----chart/green...etc. As Far As The Spoons I Only Use Them On Bridge Pillings. Vertical Jigging Them When Fish Are Deep. White Bass Love These Things And Sometimes Will Spoil Your Efforts. The Style I Use Get Hung Up Easily And I'm Old And The Patience Ain't What It Used To Be. I Would Think The Micro Spoons Would Be The Ticket. You've Got A Fun Challenge Ahead Of You. Most Of The Time A Jig Will Do It. Some Days You Will Sit In Front Of A Box Of Baits In 50 Different Colors And Can't Get A Hit. Good Luck.

[Whompus Cat]

I'm sure this has been used before for crappie but I just thought of the idea to rig up a jig/spoon combo like a shad rig. Here's a picture of the one I just tied up. The spoon will flutter about 10-12 inches behind the jig. I am pretty confident this is going to work well. I'm going to get more spoons and experiment with these this weekend, and will let yall know how it works. By the way, thanks for the reply simpleman. I will be fishing the eno off and on during the winter months and as mentioned before, I'm new to the jigs so I dont know what colors would work there in that stained water. I will make sure to start with chart. and other variations.

[E&E_Crappie]

Those there are the colors I use on a regular basis. They seem to love that green and yellow. Have tried a spoon, but I run double jigs usually.

[Whompus Cat]

I tried the spoon/jig tandem for a while this afternoon but they were biting on the "acid rain" so i switched it out in hopes of picking up more fish. The spoon pictured above was a leftover from shad fishing so maybe its not the right kind? I will probably purchase a few of those micro-spoons simpleman had mentioned and try those. I will be tying up some tandem jigs as well. I have been wanting to try it but have yet to get around to tying some up. So far i've been using the single jigs.

What are some other artificial baits you guys like to troll? I thought about the road runners but they seem kind of costly. any ideas?