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I thought that seeing as it is the season it might be of interest to see what everybody considers the best Crappie Bait. Being in that over 50 age group I still like a piece of worm on a small jig. But I see allot of people are now using plastics exclusively...hmmmm what is better plastics or live bait ...or is there a time and place for both

Suddsy

Berkley honey worms - yucky yellow color (not sure of exact color name)

You get 55 for about $4, plus they are cleaner than regular worms. Want a longer worm, break of two instead of one.

Small tubes are also good

I'm a big fan of staying small after the ice goes out.So I'll toss a 64th oz hair jig or smaller,say down to 100th oz.,no meat required .

white berkley micro tube on a 1/32 tube jig head

Any small plastic micro baits! Can't remember last time I used live bait for crappie!

pee wee plastics n' butterworms.

I just keep my box of ice jigs handy from the winter. I prefer horizontal jigs tipped with microplastics or a tiny piece of nightcrawler or waxie. I'll usually fish with a slip bobber and one jig tied inline and one on a dropper about 12" apart.

D.

Keep in mind most anything small is what you should be fishing with early.
The water is cold & they are finicky.

bucketmouth wrote:I just keep my box of ice jigs handy from the winter. I prefer horizontal jigs tipped with microplastics or a tiny piece of nightcrawler or waxie. I'll usually fish with a slip bobber and one jig tied inline and one on a dropper about 12" apart.

D.

Have been using the dropper rig on one rod and been doing exeptionaly well on it. I tie on T.H.E.Jig directly to the main line with a small teardrop and ratsotail about 15'' above it..Has been working wonder.

Suds:

Plastics mostly work best. tubes. twisters, scented, non-scented. on jigs.

Doesn't hurt to have a doz tiny live minnows along it you suspect there might be Crappies around but can't entice'em. Once they get feeding........Of course, Perch, Sunnies, also love minnows.

You may have noticed already that Crappie mostly run in schools of the same size, so if you are losing biguns, try switching to a larger jig. A 2 or 3 " twister etc. is not too big if the big ones are on the bite. They will inhale it. This also more or less prevents sunnies from getting caught regularly, so don't switch down until the big guys slow down. Seems to work.

Fishing slowly is better than fastly..........

Of course, small crappie take big baits, and big crappie take small........bla bla bla......but, just.........."as a general rule".........

Jigs.