How To Fish Crappie Jigs?

[Patrick M]

I am new to fishing for Crappie with jigs. How do I do it? where around springfield or branson can i get Crappie jigs and what are some popular colors and sizes?

[Al Agnew]

The cheapies you buy at places like Wal-mart work okay and are inexpensive to lose, which you will do quite often. Chenille-wrapped bodies and marabou tails. All white usually works just fine.

Finding the crappie is the first trick. I don't do any reservoir crappie fishing, but occasionally fish for them in rivers, where they will almost always be found in slow or slack water around brush and logs. Stay far enough away from the log that you don't scare them, like a fairly short cast length away. Cast as close to the brush or log as you can, let the jig sink for a couple seconds, then slowly and smoothly lift your rod tip a couple of feet. Picture the jig swimming slowly and steadily at about the same level...you don't want it to be rising much. Smoothly lower your rod tip while reeling in slack, and repeat until you're several feet away from the cover. Approach the cover from different directions if possible...the best way to fish it is to cast to it at such an angle that you can swim the jig parallel to it.

In my experience, the crappie will almost never be on the bottom, they will be suspended in the brush. So you don't want the jig on the bottom. Experiment with length of time you let it sink and speed of your swimming retrieve, so that you are covering the cover from a couple of feet under the surface to fairly near the bottom.

If it's a pretty large piece of cover, where you can swim the jig for ten or fifteen feet before it gets too far from the cover, you can swim it by reeling steadily rather than the rod lift and drop. If it's deep enough and far enough underwater that you can get a boat over it without spooking the fish, you can just lower the jig to the level of the cover and jig it up and down slowly (I don't like to hop it, just lift and drop) or even move your rod sideways back and forth.

Key for me has always been to make the jig move smoothly and as horizontally as possible. You're trying to imitate a swimming minnow, and minnows don't hop up and down. Unless the water is deep or the wind is blowing your boat around, you should use the lightest jig that you can still cast, so that it sinks more slowly.

Others who are expert reservoir crappie anglers might have different ideas, but this technique has always worked best for me.

[podum]

Since this is free, it is probably worth what you paid: get 1.5 and 2 inch tubes (walmart variety is fine). If you are starting from scratch, pick 3 different color types: dark (purple or blue), light (white - maybe with a chartreuse or pink tail) and transluscent (see-through with some glitter). This time of year, find some shallow rocky banks and do what Al said. One tip - get real small floats and set them 2 feet above the jig. When you reel (slowly) the jig will stay horizontal and will do so regardless of how fast or slow you retrieve. THis really helps during the spawn after a cold front but I do it almost always.

[Patrick M]

Thank you both for your help