Lures of choice

[Captain B.R.K]

CrappieTom and Matt or other FMer's

Hoping some of you can help me out with crappie lures: colors, sizes, types, etc. for me to purchase.
I'm a little short on the crappie tackle and need to purchase some stuff for the weekend and for future outings.

Thanks everyone!

Brandon

[taxmancommeth]

What has really been working now is just a Chartreuse hook and minnow or Berkly mini wiggle worm.

Non stop last week in Wright county.

Other possibilities

Flu Flu
small jig head & Panfish Stingers or Crappie Tubes

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GET-ER-DONE

[CrappieJohn]

Hey there Cap'n...Northlander boy ,eh. If you were to email our good buddy Steve aka Northlander, from your Duluth forum he could show you first hand what I use. If he is real tight lipped, toss me an e-mail (below in signature) with your address included and I'll get back to you with a reply and I'll send a sample or two of some Culprit products that are proving hot this year.
The flu-flu's and powerbait products are excellent choices for crappies and panfish too, as mentioned.JR's tackle, sold on site here is another excellent source. Catch-n tackle offers some smaller ring-n craws that will feed panfish nicely.And they also offer the bio-bait. Both of these are available on site. As far as plastics outside of my favored Culprit products, Southern pro products are a good in-store source and your local GM at Miller Mall should carry some of these, including the mentioned stingers. When it comes to crappie and panfish plastics it gets hard to find one that doesn't work at one time or another.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
Catch-n Tackle
[email protected]

[Corey Bechtold]

My favorite has been the Powerbait micro's. They come in all sorts of colors but white has always been my stand by. These work well on small jigheads and can easily be fished under a float. You will have to do some experimenting to see what works on your bodies of water. Either way, like Tom said, you can't go wrong with plastics. Good Luck.

Corey Bechtold

[2dalake]

3" plastics are hard to beat, color depends on the water you're on, but white is my go-to color.

[Matt Johnson]

I've been fishing plastics mainly for panfish. I've been doing really well with Panfish Stingers frm Southern Pro. All white, white/red, chartreuse, or white/blue have been working the best for me. 1/32oz jig head in either chartreuse or red, pink is good too. Culprit Paddytails are another option that work good on panfish. The pepper chartruese is a hot color. JR's Tackle has a similar plastic called the Paddytail that is a jig and plastic combo all in one, its great for both crappies and gills. Very good action. And like Tom said, the baby Kick-n-Craw by Catch-N Tackle is another hot choice for panfish.

There are tons of choices out there for panfish, and so many will work in many different situations. A lot comes down to personal preference in determining what brand or style to choose. I like plastics that dart in the water, so thats why I choose the Panfish Stinger by Southern Pro. Not only does is dart, but it also has a finesse tail that when twitched it can cause a lot of reaction strikes and will trigger negative fish into biting, very productive. And the tail end is slightly smaller than the body, making it easier for weary panfish to suck it in on even the slightest inhale. Its my go-to panfish plastic right now and has been working very well lately.

If that doesn't seem to do the trick than I switch to either the JR's Tackle Paddytail, the Clulprit Paddytail, or the Tiny Worm by Southern Pro. All of these have the same concept and can be fished the same way. The skinny stem of tail with a heavier "ball/fin" type tip of the tail can give off an excellent kicking action and wobble, and can trigger a lot of fish into striking. These plastics are also darters but are more "tail shaking" orientated plastics.

And if I go one step further I'll put on a tube. I like Umbrella style tubes that free-fall in the water, this really slows things up and makes things easier for the fish. Regular tubes tend to fish faster than an unbrella style tube, more of a quicker fall and through-the-water action.

Sometimes you increase your catch by adding a small piece of livebait or scented/flavor inhanced bait like a Bio-Bait or Powerbait type. These can help at times. Bio-Bait will help lighten the load as well being that it has floating characteristics and WILL float a jig if enough is put on. Very effective on light biting fish or if you seem to be missing a lot of bites because the fish inhales and exhales too fast because it feels resistance.

There are a lot of different combinations that can be used, this is just one way of doing it. Using plastics and what you use can change throughout the open water period, but this is what is working for me right now.

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

[united jigsticker]

When the feed is on, anything will do. But who doesn't know that?

In certain conditions, the color of the lure will affect your success greater then the action or shape.

And in other times of angling, the shape or action and size of the morsule will be the ticket over color.

And in other times of trying bites, it is a combo of the two that is going to result in success.

I have a set of base of colors I abide by:

• White
• Pink/Yellow combo
• Pink/White combo
• Orange
• Black
• Purple
  

My primary size is 1/32 oz, but I occasionly venture to 1/64th, or as heavy as 1/16 or even 1/8 oz depending on the fish and conditions.

My favorite jigs for spring-fall are Flu-Flu's (or Little Nippers...cheaper and can be found almost anywhere) I also like small twister tail style plastics for more later season Crappies, and Marabou Jigs lastly, but certainly not leastly.

The marabous and plastics I use primarily for free casting, and the feather style lead heads for still fishing conditions such as right now, suspended under a float. All will work either way if fished correctly at the right times.

With every lead head jig I fish, I always keep the jig perfectly horizontal. This makes a huge difference in the productivity of the lure.

Good luck

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[CrappieJohn]

An important thing to remember here is that when you are using a plastic on a lighter jighead, always look at how well the point of the hook "clears" the plastic. You may need to bent the point outward some to help open that gap to assist your hooksets. This is especially true of heads in the 1/32 and 1/64 size when they get inserted into a plastic.

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Plastics...making better fishermen without bait! Good Fishing Guys! CrappieTom

muckbootsonline.com Pro Staff
Culprit Tackle Crappie Pro Staff
Catch-n Tackle
[email protected]

[This message has been edited by CrappieTom (edited 06-10-2004).]

[Captain B.R.K]

I see I can buy the kick and craws on line, what size am I looking to buy for panfish and crappies? THere are 2 sizes 1.5 and 3"?

Any particular color to start with too??

[Captain B.R.K]

CrappieTom- You've got mail!

Hope to hear from you.

[united jigsticker]

Personally, I recommend the 1.5" size for Crappies and Bluegills.

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Good fishing,
UJ
[email protected]

[Matt Johnson]

1.5 inchers in either the Huckleberry, Texas Red, or Crawdad. Those three colors have worked the best for me on panfish.

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

[Captain B.R.K]

Thanks everyone!

Especially CrappieTom!!!!

How do I pay by paypal? I want to purchase some of these products over the internet, but never paid by paypal.

Help?!?!?

[Borch]

Most places that have you pay using paypal have a link for opening an account. Otherwise go to paypal.com. Then it's just a matter of folling the directions and supplying the bank account or credit card info.

It works slick and they do have a lot of security in place.

Borch

[Matt Johnson]

I like to use Beetle Spin sytle spinners for panfish. I like the smaller sizes with a soft plastic body. There are also small inline/tandom spinners like the ones we throw for bass in a smaller version designed for crappies, I haven't had a whole lot of luck with these but I haven't really used them a whole lot either.

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

[stoneeyes317]

I also have had some success with small spinners for crappies. MANY years ago my dad took me up to the Ottertail area to do some fishing; my uncle owned a cabin not far from Rush lake. We hit Rush for a couple of days, but no walleyes (my dads favorite fish). His 2 buddies convinced us to try a little lake known for panfish. We caught some of the biggest crappies I've seen outside of URL on beetle spins trolled over deep water.

Small Mepps spinners will catch some good sized crappies as well; my wife showed me that last summer on Star Lake. She caught one pushing 13" when she ignored my advice and tossed a #2 silver spinner towards deep (18+ feet) water. And she caught the only walleye we got doing the same thing a couple of casts later...

eyes317

[deeky]

Does anybody use small spinnerbaits for crappies? Another site listed small spinners as being as good for crappie as bigger ones are for bass. But I've never heard about them here. Just curious.

[riverrat56]

ya i like to cast a small jig 1/32 or smaller with a small plastic squid or a flu-flu, when crappies are really agressive though i have caught them on those micro rapalas or w/e they are called they are only about 1 inch long, one day casting for bass i caught 2 slabs on a fire tiger rattle trap, this just shows that crappies can be caught on larger baits