Trying to target larger crappies

[Shoemoo]

My local crappie lake is on the downswing of a boom/bust cycle. There was a big year class in 2006. As you probably know, crappies are cannibalistic and will eat their own young so large year classes depress the survival of young from successive year classes. Right now there are a few huge survivors from 2006, tons of 4"-6" dinks spawned either last year or the year before and very few fish in between.

The big survivors are worth chasing, but they are mixed in with the dinks and you have to get through the eager young fish. There have been trips this year where I caught 50+ crappies with only a half a dozen over 8".

Just looking for suggestions on how to tie my jigs to select for the big kahunas and discourage the starving ankle biters.

 

[Kdog]

In my experience, Bigger crappie = Bigger Baits. Have caught a lot of very nice crappie walleye fishing with 4" Grub tails. Smaller crappie do not seem to be interested but the bigger ones will often take the baits before they can finish the drop to the bottom.

Also. I have a friend that usually averages 2" - 3" larger crappie than anyone on the lake. He fishes exclusively with creek chubs, 4" - 6" long.

 

[eyecrosser]

Bigger baits and fish deeper than the smaller fish.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Use a dink for bait ?

 

[plateboater]

Bigger baits.....go 1/8 oz #2 or #1 hooks. Also I tried 1/4 oz more than ever this year. Less fish but bigger. Make the overall shape and size bigger.

 

[Ron Don]

Tipping your jig with the biggest minners you can find will catch the bigger fish. I have totally changed the way I fish this year and have averaged much bigger fish. I use to never use live bait now I don't go without it.

 

[plateboater]

2nd RonDon....this year have went to a larger minnow in IL we call "walleye minnow" instead of everyone using "crappie minnows".

 

[ARjigger]

Tie a 3" bait using half of silicone skirt tail using heavy chenille on the body on an 1/8 oz jig. The presentation is larger than some trust but it's all I use and catch hogs. Color is dependent on water color. Orange/chartreuse and white/chartreuse work on the lakes in western AR and eastern OK where I fish.

I rarely use live bait but if I do I use only bass minnows. Too, up to 3-4" shad is another alternative for me when fishing the natural stuff. I carry a cast net and catch my own. I rig the shad or bass minnow on a drop shot style set-up - tie a 1/4 oz. bell sinker at the end of your line and come up 10" and use a #2 Aberdeen hook and hook the bait through the nose/both lips. Our spawn is done and I fish in 4-10' of water around lay downs and if fishing this rig I pitch the bait in and around cover and hop the bottom. Hang on...them hogs knock their eyes out. The hotter it gets the better...yes, in less than 10' of water until fall.

Hope this helps,

ARjigger

 

[Shoemoo]

Unfortunately live fish are off limits as bait here, even if caught in the same body of water. If you want to use minners, you have to trap them yourself and they have to be dead when you put them on the hook. There are preserved minners in some of the tackle stores, but they aren't the local forage (no shad or shiners here) and they always seem to be mashed to mush. I have used crappie as cut bait for catfish, but we have other fish that work better as cut bait.

I've got some 1/8th and 1/4 ounce heads. I'll see if I can't tie up some larger jigs.

 

[plateboater]

Use gulp on regulated lakes!

 

[StumpHunter]

I also like to tip with live bait but with you not being able to use live bait try this, cut small pieces of a fillet (like 3/4x3/4) and put them in a baggie with some table salt. Let them set in the frig for a few days then use them to tip your jigs. I have used this in the hot summer months when keeping minnows alive is almost impossible.

I like using a bigger bait when fishing deep crappie. In the heat of the summer these big crappie will be in shallow waters like already said. As the oxygen level gets low the crappie will move to the shallow water where they can get more oxygen. These crappie will be very aggressive when they hit your bait. A slow moving bait under a float works well if fishing from the bank. I like pulling (longlining) jigs with a float fixed to the line to allow the jigs to run close to the bottom in what ever depth of water I'm fishing in. When using this style of setup I go at a slow speed of .05 mph down to .03 mph.

If fishing from a boat sometimes you will see these fish on your depth finder.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Actually, since I would guess your crappie habitat also holds walleye and maybe smallies, you could entice all 3 species with the same size jig. I agree with Stump that sloow is advantageous which = lightest jig possible for efficient penetration to target depth. Myself, in your dink overrun situation would start with 1/16 #1 jigs down to around 10' in calmer conditions, upping to 1/8 #1 or 1/0 for deeper water or necessary casting efficiency. #2 prop Boolies with full ties should be attractive enuf for larger specimens while maybe discouraging dink hookups due to larger "bait" profile & hook size. Of course 2/0 & 3/0 hooks suggested by others might be even more difficult for dinks to mouth.

I've probably had less than a dozen opportunities to target crappies of size but noticed I can usually keep up with or even surpass live minnow baiters. There were situations tho that I had to downsize to 1/32 when 1/16 just wasn't getting bit.

 

[AtticaFish]

Maybe it is just my lakes food source, but have tried up-sizing jigs and don't have any better luck catching bigger fish. I do catch more bass and cats though. My largest crappie ever caught was on a 1/16 shad shaped jig. Pretty much all the other sizable crappie in my memory have all come on jigs smaller than that. Have caught some really nice ones using my flyrod with a tiny #10 hook clouser minnow.

I have a local lake that went through the same swing as yours, but it is currently on the upswing and getting better. When it was at its worst, I would catch easily 100-150 crappie in the 4"-6" range to each crappie worth keeping. The big ones that were left were MONSTERS, but could never find them in a group, only one at a time. It was frustrating. I honestly gave up and quit targeting crappie in that lake for about 2 years and focused on a different lake about another 15 minutes farther down the road.

 

[Hawnjigs]

So, in 2 years the dinks grew to respectable size? How big is that?

 

[jiggerjohn]

Perhaps it's me ('cause I'm a bit weird!), but I stay with the same small,but chunky 1/28 oz woolie jig with a sharp #8 vmc hook that I use for trout& bluegill, for large crappie & perch(+bass & walleyes). Tho we don't see it or feel it, the take & rejection by large panfish happens a lot; my theory (Whether right or wrong it's working for me!) is that a big hook is detected as foreign & quickly spit out, whereas a tiny sharp hook acquires a bit more mouth time & its superior sharpness finds& nails soft crappie cheeks. The LIGHTNESS of my jigs & some buoyancy FORCES one to fish SLOWLY along bottom -almost a necessity for lunkers, especially those hiding in deeper cover. But check the fishing section below for my use of thin plastic,weightless grocery bag strips to give the illusion of length& size to a small jig. We encountered this over the past weekend with perch -light jigs with the cellophane strips virtually dragged along bottom eliminated the small ones and produced a few big chunks -maybe I can get ole Hawnjigs to post a picture below.

 

[plateboater]

Good info JJ!

 

[Hawnjigs]

From JiggerJohn:

View attachment 5

 

[AtticaFish]

The majority of the biggest crappie are right around 8" now. The 'Monsters' still elude me in that particular lake, but there sure has to be some giants left over. 8" is big enough to fillet, but not a commodity in my opinion. Although many, many other fishers have been fishing (and keeping) the heck out of them that i have seen. The "newer" reservoir in my hometown has been BY FAR more productive in size.......... but i have not been spreading the word to locals. Very content to be up there fishing all by my self.

So, in 2 years the dinks grew to respectable size? How big is that?

 

[ARjigger]

As much as a man wants BIG crappie to be in a hole of water, WANT never made a big crappie. What we want and what is real is two very different things.

 

[Shoemoo]

I caught a 2 pound, 11 ounce crappie out of the same lake a few weeks ago. There aren't a lot of them, but they are there.