Crappie Bait

[kj]

I have never fished for Crappie and want to give it a whirl. What do you recommend for bait? What about plastics? Color of Choice? A little advise for this newby would be greatly appreciated. Trout and perch I do well with, but crappie is a new ball game.
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[SkunkedAgain]

I'm far from a wizard, but I find a small piece of night crawler, or small fathead minnows work well. I always tip my jig with worm or fish a minnow on a tandem hook. I like curly tail jigs in 3" and smaller, but I'm fishing for bigger crappie too so bigger fish will suck down a bigger jig. However winter calls for smaller sizes. And I typically do most of my crappie fishing on open water so the ice guys may have better info for you. Good luck. J
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[RockyRaab]

It's hard to go wrong with a Gulp 1" minnow on a jig for smaller crappie, or a larger one for slabs.

I favor a black jig head and a chartreuse minnow for stained or dark water, or white and natural minnow for clear water. A jig head with a painted eye is a definite plus.
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[cmansportsboy]

When I lived in Indiana last year the only baits I would use for crappie were Swedish pimples and rapala jigging raps in the smallest size! Just about any color worked for me but the silver Swedish pimple and the perch jigging rap were the hottest ones!
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[Giants05win]

Crappie are strange fish....give em options. I always rig up with 2 bait set ups....something big in the bottom amd something small up top. A Kastmaster (or similar) on the bottom and a teardrop or ratfinkee up top gives them the option depending on how they are feeding. When aggressive they will constantly go at the Kasrmaster....when less aggressive the smaller baits work well. Tip all of them with a meal worm. IMO night crawlers are not a great choice under the ice. Wax worms work but are less durable than the mealies...

A short but crisp jigging action with a dead period usually elicits a bite in most conditions.

Fish early (within 1-2 hours of sunrise ) or late (within 1-2 hours of sunset) for crappie....they get lock jaw midday...

Hope that helps
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[makinawfisher19]

Meal and wax worms work.
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[kj]

Thanks guys. It appears there are several "favorites", much like perch. I will give it a try Friday evening and see how it goes. I will do my best to thin down the numbers at the lake.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Surprised nobody has suggested pieces of fish flesh. Crappies are piscivorous (fish eating). Minnows are their favorite forage, when available. But they eat all kinds of invertebrate life as well...even doing very well on zooplankton when plentiful.

In years past, you could find clouds of zooplankton rising just above the bottom at Pineview after dark. If you were in the right place...and had a good sonar...you would note the dark blobs of zooplankton and then see the crappies coming in to feed on them. Small jigs tipped with almost anything would get bit. I haven't fished it much the last couple of years and have not heard reports from others who have witnessed/experienced this phenomenon recently. But I'm sure it happens.

I almost always take some PPP (processed perch pieces) when ice fishing Pineview. I generally fish perch meat for perch but I often catch some of my biggest crappies on larger jigs sweetened with the perch pieces. And small pieces of minnows can work well too. Heck, even small bits of carp meat have worked well in the past.

There are a lot of different Gulp products that have been proven effective for crappies. Almost any of the small goodies...like the aforementioned 1" Gulp Alive minnows...will catch crappies. But the little "Nibbles" work too. Ditto for pieces of "Trout Worms" in natural, chartreuse or pink. You can cut them into half inch pieces that are just right for tipping small jigs. And there is a new line of "Eurolarvae" that are specifically designed for ice fishing. They come in short strings of about 5. Use individual pieces or strips of 2, 3 or even the whole 5. Eastern and midwestern ice anglers are loving them.

A final note: "YOU CAIN'T KETCH 'EM WHERE THEY AIN'T." You sometimes have to search to find the schools...and you sometimes have to move when the fish move away. But if you are not seeing fish on your sonar it is pointless to sit it out in one spot waiting for random fish to swim beneath your hole. Much better to keep moving and looking. If you have a sonar that allows you to shoot through the ice it will save a lot of hole drilling.

If you get lucky you will find a solitary angler pulling fish through the hole...and he invites you to set up close to him. If you simply join a crowd...in a shack city...you will confirm the old adage that misery loves company. While the group may be fishing a spot that has produced earlier...or at some time in the past...you will usually do better to search out your own school. A lot of noisy group activity on the ice above generally does not serve to attract and hold fish.
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[utahgolf]

yep! I used a rat finkie tipped with shrimp on saturday and it outfished the meal worm by far! I think I might give up on meal worms entirely and stick with shrimp. Seems like they always like it more.
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[TubeDude]

[#0000FF]Careful about using either "ALWAYS" or "NEVER" when discussing anything to do with fishing. Fish can be moody and conditions can change. So what works on one species...on one water...on any given day...may not work as well the next time. ALWAYS good to have more than one type of lure and bait just in case your "go-to" and "never-fail" doesn't work.

That being said, it generally pays to fish with something in which you have faith. Anything fished with confidence is likely to outproduce something you simply soak with indifference. That is partly true because if you are expectantly paying attention, and ready for a bite, you are more likely to react (strike) faster and catch the tricky fish.
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[Stratos99]

So my experience over the years has taught me that fishing is dynamic. The fish have moods, they are aggressive, they are finicky, and practically anything can work at times. The action of the lures, the colors, tipped with a meal worm or a wax worm, a nightcrawler or a piece of meat, start out with your "goto" bait and lure but if the catching isn't catching, change up until it does.
Here is an example, At Pineview one morning, my son was using only a spoon with nothing on it, I was using a tandem lure set up with wax worms and meal worms. He was jigging quite aggressively, I was dead sticking, he caught his limit, I didn't catch a thing (I was to cold to care actually and there was no way I was going to take my hands out of my pockets to do anything). We was back up there another night, he used the same thing, same jigging technique and caught fish. I went to a smaller tandem set up and jigged aggressively and caught fish ok, I slowed down the action, tipped my jigs and started catching more than before. I also had 2 poles out with different lures and bait on, as long as I put some action on the set ups, I caught fish.

In a nutshell, you need to keep changing until you start catching whether it be action, no action, different colors, different sizes until you do start catching. One other thing I didn't mention is a spring bobber, without that, you still will not even see the crappie bite.
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[RockyRaab]

Amen. I've learned that I can catch crappie in the Springtime - when ANYBODY can catch 'em. Other times, nothing is for sure.

I believe that aggressive jigging works sometimes simply because the fish happened to "feel" what that thing was just as you raised your rod tip. If you were deadsticking, you'd see that very subtle little dip as the fish gently feels the lure and instantly puffs it back out - far too quickly for you to strike.
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[Baitfish55]

My favs are 1" gulp minnow in shad color (these have worked year round), euro larva in blood red, powerbait crappie nuggets in croma-glow chartreuse, wax and meal worms.
Jigs with marabou feathers work well. I make my own white is my fav on 1/8 oz and smaller jig. And not sure I should say butt the jigs shaped like Advil 200 mg pills painted kinda like ladybugs with purple fleck have pulled many from Pineview.
Spring (wire style) and small slip bobbers a must on ice.
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