Crappie Fishing Tips: Crappie Fishing with a Crankbait
The majority of crappie anglers grow up learning classic crappie fishing, while enjoying cool spring mornings with low fog cover that lingers along the surface before burning away after rigging bobbers and casting minnows into a brush pile and then waiting for a bite.
Recently, I have been messing around with a new way to fish for crappie by using crankbaits. The shad start running the shorelines in large schools offering slab crappie a good meal in the fall, where I fish. During this time, using small crankbaits that look like shad can lure in slabs below structures as well as crappies that tend to follow shad schools.
My favorite crankbait resembles a shad. Although smaller crankbaits work well, I switched to using large crankbait when running large shad, with good results. Color is a subject of debate while fishing for crappie. Some folks use shad colors with various crawfish patterns and different colors as well to get good results. Crappies seem drawn to chartreuse as well, even while using crankbaits.
Shad tend to run shallow while running the shorelines, meaning big slab crappies lurking at brush piles or suspended off the shoreline awaiting their next meal will use the shoreline to save their energy and not have to chase schools out in open waters. This is why it is a good idea to use shallow running crankbait. There are exceptions of course, some individuals use deep runners with good results.
The best way to catch these solitary big slabs is by covering a lot of water. You can catch them with a bobber and a minnow during the fall, while the shad are in the shallows. However, to catch the larger fish with crankbait rigged on a medium light 7-foot spinning reel using a 6-pound test line is ideal. Of course, you can catch smaller fish as well as large crappies with crankbait.
Target the visible structures along the shorelines by pitching your crankbait as close to the shore as you can. Many strikes take on the first twitch of the crankbait about a foot off the shoreline. You crankbait should be close to the shore, since these crappies target shallow running shad and then expect to catch them right up to the bank. Fishing off a large log, during the last season, I caught thirty large crappies; however, my crankbait was about a foot from the shoreline. The crappie were waiting just below the waters surface, out of sight and hit the crankbait as soon as I moved it along, however if the bait landed a foot or two further out in the water, I got no action at all. Catching thirty large crappies from one pile of brush is common during the spring; however getting this kind of catch in the fall was incredible. I think the crappie were just simply following the shad school along the shoreline and waiting to make their move on the others and that the log offered a great angle for my ambushing them unaware.
Covering a lot of water is essential since, generally crappies are solitary creatures. They tend to stake out their very own ambush points and they scatter all over the area. Simply cruise the shoreline, casting along at every rock, log, stump or stake bed you find. Allow the crankbait to float along for a few moments before applying the first twitch. Simply use a twitch and then allow the bait to sit for a few more seconds before pulling the crankbait back in several inches below the surface of the water.
Sometime, a fish may strike and you do not know it. At first reeling in a big slab may feel similar to reeling in a large wet sock, so ready you for setting the hook. Slinging crankbait for crappie is fun and effective, therefore when you want to try a new means of catching your favorite type of panfish, give crankin for crappies a try on your next fishing trip.
Crappie Fishing Techniques: Keep Those Crappie
You can stop losing crappie, when you overcome crappies falling off your hooks.
Paper-mouth crappies are known well for their papery-thin soft mouths. Setting your hook to hard merely tears the membrane away and releases your hook.
Illustrating by watching and doing is the best way to teach the technique of setting hooks on a crappie. The biggest tip is not to yank the line. You will be using a quick jerk of the wrist, keep practicing until you get it right. Keep in mind, the amount of pressure will vary according to the depths of the water. For instance, hooking a crappie in shallow waters, the pressure you apply transfers directly to the hook. Your force disperses before reaching the fish when you are fishing in deeper waters.
The type of pole you use is another factor to consider, you want a soft tip pole with a strong backbone. I prefer B’n'M Pro Staff Trolling Rods for slow trolling and B’n'M Buck’s Jig Poles for jigging. These types of poles seldom lose fish, since you can set the hook as hard as you like, while the soft tips keep from tearing hooks out of crappies mouth. All it takes is a quick upwards jerk of the wrist without raising your arm or elbow.
After setting the hook, remember to keep a slight bow in the rod with tension on the line. While you are moving it towards the boat, allowing the line some slack will give the crappie an opportunity to shake the jig loose from its mouth.
The B’n'M Pole allows you to pull in crappie easily with its strong backbone once you get the fish close enough to the shore or boat. Learn to use your fishing net efficiently for hauling in the big ones. To avoid loss near the waters surface make sure you have caught the crappie in your net, since odds are you may.
Categories: Crappie Fishing Techniques, Crappie Fishing Tips Tags: Crappie Fishing Lures, Crappie Fishing Tips, crappie jigs
What Color Lures Are Best For Crappie Fishing?
The right color for lures is something people disagree about. Some think it’s completely irrelevant while others will tell you that it can make the difference between a successful day’s fishing and one which sees you bringing in little to no fish.
Choose the color of your lure depending on the weather and how clear the water is. The light the fish have available to them determines how the color of a lure will perform on a given day. On an overcast day, there is little light below the surface while a sunny day and clear water is quite the opposite.
When fishing clear waters, you’ll want to match your lure to the colors of the natural prey of the fish you’re trying to catch. Lures which mimic the light, translucent colors of baitfish in silvery white hues generally work well for crappie fishing; if you’re going after bottom feeders, then shades of green and brown are the way to go.
In murkier waters, then the important thing is that your lure be visible to fish. You can use lures which vibrate so that fish can find it that way, but what you really want is brightly colored lures which will be easy to see in low light conditions. The darker the water, the brighter the color is a good rule; try orange, white and yellow. In extremely low visibility (2-4’), you’ll want to go with bright fluorescent colors like hot pink, hi-vis blue, lime green or chartreuse. With brown or dark green water, try combinations like black with chartreuse, pink with yellow or even something glittery.
Muddy water calls for live bait. Under these conditions, crappie use odor, sound and vibration to find food more so than visual cues. With live bait, they can follow the scent of the bait. If you’re using jigs in muddy water try attractants like Kodiak paste or Berkley Crappie Nibbles. Colors to try include dark blue, dark red, brown, black or yellow/white combos.
Check the weather before you head out and decide which colors of lure to bring with you. You’ll generally do the best on sunny days with chartreuse, silver or sparkly lures. These lures will catch the sunlight and draw crappie. Cloudy days are more of a challenge, but lures which combine light colors with darker ones are a safe bet. This contrast seems to work well to get the attention of crappie and get them on the hook.
Categories: Crappie Fishing Lures Tags: Crappie Fishing Lures, Crappie Fishing Techniques, Crappie Fishing Tips