Crappie

[Mi11er]

Figured I would start a thread on catching, tips, pictures of crappie.  What is working for you? 

 

[Hog Basser]

Okay, I'll bite.  These are from a few months ago and a bi-catch while bass fishing, still love catching and eating them!  Largest two were around 1.65 lbs.  My dad caught them on an old Bill Norman Quarterback crankbait in gold color.  I caught a few more on a rebel crawfish crank.  

[Bluebasser86]

I caught 2 last weekend fishing for bass. One was on a Strike King 5XD, the other was on a bladed jig. Neither was very large. 

A crappie fisherman I am not but I still manage to catch a few big ones every year fishing for bass. 

[Outdoor Zack]

They will usually eat most lures they can fit in their mouths, sometimes lures even bigger.  I've gotten them on 1/32 oz. jigs as well as 6'' lizards, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. 

That said, I usually go to a Rebel Frog-R or Heddon Teeny Torpedo in the morning, then a Rebel Wee-R, roostertail, or beetlespin, all worked pretty quickly on long casts along the bank or around riprap, brushpiles, or other structure/cover.  Then I play clean up with a small feather jig or Trout Magnet, grub, or tube hopped along the bottom or suspended under a bobber.  I've caught 15-30 crappies/panfish in under 4 hours using this game plan before     

[Fish4bigfish]

[desmobob]

If I catch a big one while Ned Rig fishing with a Finesse ShadZ, I keep casting it back to the school; they'll eat that just fine.  If I happen to catch one while using a larger bass bait, I pick up my ultralight rig and throw a yellow marabou Roadrunner, a Beetle Spin, or a small (1/32) marabou jig, one of which I usually keep rigged and ready.

I caught my biggest white crappie on a shallow crank bait while bass fishing.  I can't remember what bait fooled the largest black crappie I've caught.  I picked up a couple of small "crappie crank baits" but haven't tried them yet.

Tight lines,

Bob

[Bluebasser86]

I don't bother fishing for crappie very often, but one of the power plant lakes I fish has some of the biggest crappie I've ever seen. Back when I caught these two, the limit was 2 crappie a day and they had to be over 14" to keep. I had 8 that would have been keepers that day but these were the first 2 I caught so they were the 2 I kept. Now they bumped the limit all the way to 5 fish and they "only" have to be 12" to keep.

[Jtrout]

Zara puppy spook eaters lol

[Fish4bigfish]

[desmobob]

On July 14, 2016 at 9:09 AM, desmobob said:

 I picked up a couple of small "crappie crank baits" but haven't tried them yet.

Tight lines,

Bob

I tried them.  I think they are the tiny Strike King crank baits sold at Wal-Mart, but they've been in my tackle box for a long time and I'm not sure.

Anyway, they work great.  But... have your hemostats handy because they are tiny and have two tiny trebles.  When a small fish swallows them, you can't just reach in and get them out, like with a largemouth.  Hemostats.

Second, pickerel and small pike love them.  I used to have two of these tiny crank baits but, after about an hour of fishing them, I now have none.  =:-0

Tight lines,

Bob

[gim]

I generally don't target crappies other than in the spring time before bass season opens.  In Minnesota, you can fish for them year round so I'll usually make a couple trips after ice out in April and before bass season legally opens in May.  I usually use a small jig and white twister tail grub and just pitch it into shallow water to locate a school of them and then when I know where they are, I use a slip bobber and crappie minnow for more precise fishing.  Problem is that in Minnesota there's very few big ones left anymore.  The bigger ones have all been fished out by the meat hunters.  They're all 7-8 inches long and that aint nearly big enough for me to keep

[Crestliner2008]

I'm a big crappie fan. Have several B n' M rigs which I use drifting a large reservoir here abouts for schools of them. In the summer they tend to follow around schools of bait, suspending just underneath them. Drifting 1/16 oz. & 1/8 oz. ball head jigs, dressed with either a straight tailed 2" plastic (BGBS) and/or CB Slider grubs, will get you into the action in no time. One of over a hundred we caught on 7/19/16:

 

 

[Team9nine]

Huge crappie fan, to the point that I chase them almost as equally as I chase bass now days. Favorite times are fall and winter though. Don't do any of the spider-rigging stuff. Instead, I fish them like bass, casting jigs to fish I've located relating to structure and cover. I've always believed that if you want to be a better off-shore bass angler, then crappie fishing is the best way to teach and learn, the only difference being a change of tackle and baits.

-T9

[ClackerBuzz]

do some black crappie have gold eyes, and some red? is it a gender or species trait?

[RafaelM]

I hardly go fishing for crappie, but I've caught some decent sized ones on small paddle tail swimbaits while fishing for bass.

[Bankbeater]

I don't fish for crappie either, but when I take the kids fishing for bluegill I always seem to catch a couple.

[GetBent]

I love bass fishing but have been leaning on crappie a bit lately. I have actually caught a lot on a ned rig. 1/8oz jig head and zman Trd. 

[jr231]

This is a nice one for coming from a pond . Small minnows. Can't keep em off