Up-sizing Plastics for Bigger Crappies

[Matt Johnson]

Crappies like small plastics. Tubes, twister tails, grubs, scented, unscented...you name it, a hungry crappie will eat it. But can the size of your presentation make a difference in the size of your catch? Everyone has heard the saying, "bigger baits catch bigger fish," but does that phrase go hand in hand with crappies...during certain times of the year you bet it does, and we are experiencing one of those times.

Throwing 1 - 1.5 inch plastics will catch you crappies right now, no doubt about it, but by up-sizing your plastics you can increase your odds of landing some bigger fish. As the water continues to warm, the crappies will get more aggressive and you will find them chasing baits and devouring, often times, whatever is in their path. Once these crappies put on the feedbags they will look for something to fulfill their appetite, and that can mean plastics bigger then 1.5 inches. Throwing plastics in the 2 or 2.5 inch range may be what those slabs are looking for. Minnow imitations are a good way to start. By minnow imitations, I don't mean an actual minnow shaped body, but those are an option, I also mean plastics like tubes and stingers that can give off a minnow appeal when worked through the water. These plastics rigged with a either a ball-jig head or a tube-jig head can be fished below a float to fool those slabs into striking.

Corey Bechtold, an avid crappie fisherman and FM Member who has a knack for finding slab crappies, spent a day on the water this past weekend chasing some slabs with plastics. After finding the fish in the shallow lily pads, Corey rigged up a float and plastic combo. Setting the 1/32 oz jig below the float about 24 inches was the ticket. Working the 2 inch Power Minnow with a twitch/pause approach sealed the deal.

"Upgrading to larger profile baits increased the size of the fish." Says Corey. "All in all, we managed at least 150 crappies...with 30 fish measuring over 13 inches..."

Corey with a couple slabs...including a nice 15 incher!

Try up-sizing your plastics next time you are chasing crappies, who knows, you might need the net! Good luck!

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[Guest]

I read all the reports all winter from Crappie Tom and I ordered some of the culprit paddletails (like I really needed some more plastic in my tacklebox). I belong to a private reservoir here in Colorado and we have some really big crappie in our lake but due to the lack of structure, they are really scattered. So I took a couple of different paddletails and slowtrolled them behind an electric motor and boy did I ever start getting into the fish. I could control depth by the amount of line let out and speed. In fact I even found a beauty that measured just a little over 17 inches. She was heavy with eggs so we slipped her back in the water.
Love That Plastic

[CrappieJohn]

Pescador....They are great aren't they, those paddletails?
Many different approaches to plastic are present right now, but as Matt has inferred, up-sizing is something that has to be considered if the fish seem to quit or if all you can find are smaller fish.
As water warms up it seems to simply come alive in every avenue available...food is liberally spread out. Keeping in mind that those craps are notorious for stratifying in the water column according to size/age classes, moving up in plastic size will focus on larger fish that have perhaps been displaced by a layer of smaller fish feeding on a specific sized food.
Attempting to figure these fish out can be frustrating. But the fish are merely a portion of this equation...you need consider little more than color/size/profile. Throw in the external influences like wind, current, water temp, water clarity, risng/falling water level, barometer readings, sky conditions, calendar period of the year,etc.,etc., and you can see why things get muddled. Up-sizing/down-sizing is one of the fastest search tools that can be employed while using basically any bait, but works very well with plastic...if you have it with you. As Piscador hinted, who needs more plastics in their box? We all do if we are to fish it effectively. We all develope those "go to" color preferences. Using those favorites, look for some twisters and maybe some larger shad-type plastics in the two and three inch range and carry a few 1/8 to 1/4 ounce heads to haul these larger profiled baits down. Twisters can appear greater in size when the tail portions are fringed or split or grossly enlarged and/or fatter. Simply carry these in their own flat box and many of what you might be looking for are already in the walleye box down in the cellar.
The "plastic skies' limit" is vast. And very affordable. How big is too big? Just read the posts from waldo anglers that catch craps on 3" twisters in March and craps on trolled #11 rapalas and #7 shadraps in May and June. Yes these fish are noted for being demure, but if you do not allow yourself the luxury to up-size, you and the fish will be missing the proverbial boat.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
[email protected]

[Lost]

Matt, how old are you anyway?

[mnrstrider]

We'll someone here has gotta feed me some, names and colors for up-sized plastics. I was out the other day, I know the actual fish count was in the 200 range, but not a single crappie was 8 inches, we moved around, and it's all we could find, I tried to up-size to a jiggin' rap, and caught the usual for a jiggin' rap, nothing... I have good sized selection of tubes, and some smaller twister tails, but nothing there weeded out the small crappies, in fact I'm still wondering if that all this lake holds, hard to believe for the actual number of fish we caught.

Tom, I'd be interested to know a bit mroe about these paddle tails, heck a thread all itself about these paddle tails you speak so highly about would be interesting, and the methods you use with them.

BTW my hot color the other day seemed to be pink head white body, tubes works, as did, white twister tails, with a pink jig head.

[Matt Johnson]

I like to up-size to the 2.5 inch Hot Tube by Southern Pro, in either Red/Pearl/Clear or Orange/Yellow/Chartreuse. You can fish these with either a plain hook, jighead or dart, all will work but have different action. Another option is to up-size to a curly tail stlye grub. These plastics give off a larger profile in the water, and can have all the finesse of a smalller plastic with the triggering power of a larger one. I use a ball-style jighead for these. Ring-n-Grubs are an option for this type of plastic as are other 2-2.5 inch twister tails and grubs. Power minnows, like Corey was using, are another good choice for up-sizing.

Those Paddytails by Culprit are a good choice for panfish in a variety of conditions too.

There are a lot of choices out there for up-sizing, and sometimes it may take a few different presentations before you find the one that works.

Other then your presentation, you might also want to take into consideration the body of water you are fishing. Does it hold bigger crappies and is there a population of them? Is the area you are in a likely location for bigger crappies? Sometimes it might not be the size of your presentation determining the size of the fish, but the location of where you are fishing. A small move (but sometime a large move) can make all the difference in the world. I spent the weekend up on Cass Lake for a multi-species tournament, we found that it wasn't really what you threw at the fish as much as where you were throwing it. The larger crappies were hugging the bottom of docks, while the smaller ones where out in the open roaming the weeds. We could have sat there all day catching 8-10 inchers out from the docks, but a small move to pitching under the docks and up in the harbors landed us a limit of 12-14 inchers. Same presentation, same technique, just different location. Same thing happended out on the deep weedline. We fonud the smaller panfish up on the shelf in about 6 feet, but when we moved just off the edge into the thicker cabbage we caught the 12 inches and up sized fish, and it was only a 15 yard move.

Our best presentation this past weekend was a Panfish Stinger from Southern Pro, in either chartreuse, red/white, or chartreuse/white. I rigged these with a 1/32oz red jighead. Sometimes when working the docks I would use a float and put the jig about 2 feet down and fan cast across the dock line, or else I would just pitch the jig without a bobber and work the deeper pockets and openings. No live bait.

The bluegills were tight in the weeds, but we found a few up in the shallows, but they spooked easy. 7-10 feet seemed key up there right now for the panfish, but then again the weed growth is just starting to bloom. Different areas of the state will experience difference fishing conditions and you will find the panfish up shallower amongst the weeds.

What depths are you fishing now and whats the weed growth like?

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

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Matt Johnson Outdoors
Metro Area Ice Fishing, Team Catch-N, and more...

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy
JR's Tackle

[CrappieJohn]

I spoke with a friend today who had been fishing in the Mississippi backwaters near Wabasha this morning. He was using a Hula Popper trying to pull some bass his way and caught a crappie on that. Now that is upsizing! Unintentionally of course, but it goes to show how these fish will take much larger baits than most give them credit for.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
[email protected]

[Lost]

I was out with a friend today in his boat. He took me to the shallows (2 feet deep) and we were able to see the sunnies and bluegills on the beds still. What a site if you've never seen it before!

They were biting on just about everything thrown at them. Nothing over 9 inches was caught though.

All the fish turned off as soon as some carp swam into the area. Then they were very much on guard.

[mnrstrider]

Wow thanks matt!

I was out in 12-15 fow, with weeds from 11 feet to about 2 feet, we started the day shallow, and worked it for a hour or so, then moved deeper, where we caught all this fish, this spot was just a perfect spot, with some algea,a nd I imagine tons of small plankton hovering. Really there is no structure in the lake, it's weird, we tried to find a deeper hole, but the lake insn't much deeper than that anyway, with no decernable break lines.
and the structure the lake does have was too shallow for the fish that day. It was a tad on the windier side later in the day, so trolling was a little less appealing with my boat and trolling motor, but it might have been worth our while to try and run some very small cranks, and or some spinners or beetle spins, that might have been enough to entice the bigger ones. Then again I am assuming there are indeed bigger fish in there, and I still think there is. It's probably possible too that the changing weather put the bigger ones off too. Alas it was only my first time on this body of water. (well in the last 12 years anyways).

Hey Tom do you have a suggested place to buy my culprit paddle tails?

[This message has been edited by mnrstrider (edited 06-06-2004).]

[CrappieJohn]

Mnrstrider...E-mail me at the TSJigs address below and I'll get you linked up.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom
muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
[email protected]