Annual Stock Up Trip

[CrappiesNCats]

I copied this thread from southern MN forum. just to get more response.

Tomorrow is my annual trip to hit Cabelas and restock. i had to wait to get my "buy so much get some free" coupon. Its all on gift cards from birthday/christmas.

anyways, anything new out there i should be looking for panfish-wise? i'm no expert but i do very well pitching 2 inch mister twisters and 1/16th ounce jigheads, but i'm looking to try other methods to try and increase my overall knowledge. i have a large selection of twister tails but ignore most others. the lake i fish up north is full of panfish but also of northerns so i have been skeptical of small cranks. (between bluegills ripping off the twister tails and northerns busting me off i went through over 50 bucks worth of jigs in a week).

so i guess i'm asking what methods do you prefer that i may have fun with...tubes? slip bobbers with flu-flus? small spinnerbaits?

also if anyone knows where they sell different color twister tails or other crappie baits that the huge box stores don't sell let me know(i am around mankato, mn). definitely willing and ready to check out some local bait shops. last year on an ugly green metallic head and a bright pink with flake twister i landed a 6.5# walleye on my st croix ultra-light and 4lb test in the weeds and landed an 8#northern on the same set-up the next day. all while trying to catch crappies, darnit

[mskyfshntchr]

tubes are fun. work very well for me sight fishing in the shallows in the spring. Either when the bull gills are on the beds or in a clear lake. Green, green and black, white and red seem to work the best for me.

check out barlows tackle online for some unique panfish style baits. Locally, for you I don't know of anything.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Twister tails, tubes and hair jigs... Some beatle spins.. I'll even bust out winter ice fish jigs at times...But those are what I seem to stock up on each year..

Let us know what you end up getting..

[CrappiesNCats]

too much but it was all on points and gift cards

i havent used tubes in a while so i picked up pearl, chartreuse and black, black and white, and orange and chart with black flakes. will prob add more since there are hundreds of colors.

in twister tails i got alot of the standard (white,chart,yellow) with a couple difft types -brown with black flakes, shad, orange and yellow. also Sliders....i swear by these after last year. the problem is the tail ends bust off faster than twister tails. i got white and then also red with chart tails. also sliders beetle spins (two difft types) for the first time i decided to try some plastics called crappie beavers.

also picked up about 6 difft shad bodies and a mimic minnow kit in the 1/16th ounce.

some basic colored hair jigs and a few flu-flus. also bought some spinners to throw on the jigs instead of buying the beetlespin kit with the grubs

on top of my crappie purchases i bought line for all the family rods and also i'm going to try to get into casting cranks so i picked up a few rapalas.

the one thing i really needed after this trip i didnt get, and that was a bigger tacklebox

at least my wife was happy since it didn't cost us a dime (this time)