Posts Tagged ‘crappie baits’
Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
When people think of fishing for crappie their first impression is that the majority of crappies are caught with crappie fishing jigs. But actually the majority of crappie are caught either with a complete live bait presentation or artificial bait tipped with some type of living bait. The most important type of crappie live bait that most fisherman use is some type of crappie minnow such as golden shiners, and flathead minnows. Both of these crappie minnow types are raised by the millions in fish farms through out the United States and sold at nearly all bait shops and bait dealers.
But there are still many fisherman that catch their own wild crappie minnows at the locations they intend to fish. The most common wild crappie minnows that fisherman catch on a regular basis for live bait are the bluntnose minnow,blacknose dace,creek chubs,hornyhead chubs,red shinners, and mud minnows. These fisherman use minnow seines, nets and minnow traps to catch their live bait.
The most hardy live bait fish and small gold fish like fathead minnows, mud minnows, and small gold fish will stay alive for long periods of time if the bait container they are stored in is aerated and they are kept cool. Then there are moderately hardy living bait fish like baby bluegills, creek chubs, horney head chubs, southern redbelly dace, blacknose dace, and bluntnose minnows. Then there are the fragile crappie baits that fisherman use that need to be caught and fished with almost immediately and they are the emerald shiner, small gizzard shad, threadfin shad and spotted shiners.
If you are primarily a crappie jig fisherman here’s a good fishing tip when the crappies have absolutely turned off. Sometimes you can get crappies turn back on with a simple trick. go to your the most likely spot that should be producing crappie. Put about 1/2 dozen crappie minnows in a glass jar filled with water with the lid on tie a retrieve line on and lower the jar right next to the likely structure. wait about 15 minutes and tip your favorite crappie jig with a live minnow and start jigging right next to were your lowered the live bait minnow.
Well that concludes my article about blacknose dace,bluntnose minnows. Have a great day and the the best of luck to you on your next fishing trip
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If you want to get serious about crappie fishing and you want to catch a lot of crappie on a consistent basis then you need to have excellent crappie fishing rigs. The most common crappie fishing rig you will need to have and you will use it quite often are fishing rigs set of to catch crappie with different crappie jig presentations. You can use crappie jigs with our without live bait but sooner or later there will be a need to use a combination of artificial crappie baits combined with some type of live bait. The most common of these combinations being a crappie jig striped of any plastics combined with a live crappie minnow.
Your next step is to decide on what crappie jig you will want to use. To choose the correct crappie jig with depend on a some key factors that pertain directly to the local waters you intend to fish in. Your crappie fishing rig will change depending on what the local food source is for the crappie population you are targeting and also the season you are fishing in. To put it all together you need to do some research as to what exactly the crappies are eating on a regular basis, then you can make your crappie fishing rig selection based on this information. For example I had of this great farm pond that not many people fish in and that there was talk that this pond was full of crappie. Well the first thing I would do when arriving at the pond Is look very close at the type of bait fish I see swimming the shallows. Ok Its spring time and I notice there are just hundreds of small bluegill fry swimming around , bingo! I am going to try to match my crappie baits to look like the small bluegill fry. Actually if you had a minnow net with you The ideal bait would be to use a small crappie jig with a safety pin spinner tipped with small crappie fry. Well anyway the key here is you need to as they say “match the hatch” to be successful. I Think you will be pleasantly surprised with the results if you can design your crappie fishing rig to “match the hatch” so to speak.
There will be a trial and error period and some practice to identify on what to match the hatch with. One very effective way to see if your crappie bait selection is going to be effective is keep trying different presentations until you catch tow or three crappies and then go ahead and clean them , but be careful to open up their gut to see what exactly they are eating. In my example above I did exactly that. I got lucky and hit on the right combination right away and when I caught my first three crappie within minutes I checked to see what they were eating sure enough they were feeding heavy on the small bluegill fry. This technique will work on any crappie waters you intend to fish. Don’t make the mistake and not use this important tip because it can be very powerful information on you next crappie fishing trip to this area.
One more important note when you are matching the hatch. Size and color are very important. If you are going to say fish only artificial jigs you need to match the size and coloration of the hatch. In my example above I chose a jig head that had a color similar to the color of the bluegill fry and the size was a 1/ 32 ounce jig size because the bluegill fry were very small. The safety pin spinner was used because the pound was weedy and the water was a bit discolored so I wanted my crappie fishing rig to have some flash so the crappie could see it, and hear the vibrations.
I want to thank you for reading my article about Safety Pin Spinner. Have a great day!
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
Bait fish are a very important part of crappie fishing. In fact crappie minnows make up more then 50% of all crappie baits. Technically, minnows are members of the cyprindae family, the largest fish family in north America. Some of the 200 species in the U.S such as the grass carp and gold fish which grow very large. The majority of the of crappie bait fish such as shiner minnows, daces and chubs seldom grow to over 4 inches in length. The species that most anglers use as crappie bait fish are golden shiner minnows and fathead minnows.
All crappie baits are not created equal. The crappie baitfish that are considered very hardy fathead minnows, mudminnows, and goldfish. Crappie baits that are considered moderately hardy are young bluegills, creek chubs, hornyhead chubs, southern red belly dace, blacknose dace, and blunt nose minnows. Somewhat hardy crappie bait fish include golden shiners,common shiners,red shiners, and banded kill fish. Fragile crappie bait fish include emerald shiners, small gizzard shad,threadfin shad, and spottail shiners. The best type of bucket to use for your crappie bait is a styrofoam is a much better insulator so therefore tends to keep your baitfish water cooler. The ideal temperature to keep your crappie baitfish is between 55 to 65 degrees.
Two typical crappie fish rigs that are commonly used with a cigar float crappie rig, and pencil slip bobber crappie rig. The cigar float is set at a fixed depth while the pencil slip bobber crappie rig is set to certain depth using a bobber stop, both are commonly used to catch crappie.
Two make a cigar float crappie rig or a pencil shaped slip bobber rig is very simple, and both are commonly used with crappie bait fish as live bait. To make the slip bobber crappie rig tie a number 12 to number 4 long shanked crappie hook on your fishing line. next slide your cigar on the line the depth you want to fish and put the stop in place. next put a small spit shot on the line about 3 to 4 inches above the hook. To Make a pencil shaped slip bobber crappie rig to be use with crappie bait fist slide your bobber stop up the line at the depth you want to fish for crappie. next slide the pencil shaped slip bobber up the line. next tie a number 12 to number 4 long shanked crappie hook on your line,and last put a small spit shot sinker on your line just above the hook about 3 to 4 inches.
I have had a great time writing this article we hope you enjoyed our information about Golden Shiner Minnows. Have a great day!
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets
We will be focusing on live baits that are seldom used as crappie baits in our article today. Any combination of these crappie live baits can fill your crappie basket so read on for details. Most crappie fisherman never use these crappie baits because they probably never need too 80% of the time if they are fishing with crappie minnows such as fathead minnows. So why bother with these other types of live bait selections for crappies? Well there are times that crappies turn off of the standard crappie live bait selections and you need to try something different or go home empty handed. We will talk about two of the most common alternate crappie baits that work quite well.
One of the best crappie baits to use in farm ponds are bluegill fry when there is a bluegill and sunfish hatch underway. I would recommend you check with your local department of natural resources because in some states using these fry as bait may be illegal. The best size fry to use to catch crappie are 1″ to 2″ in length. You can use a minnow Seine, cast net or minnow trap to catch these fry. You won’t find them at any bait shop. Actual bluegill and sunfish fry make up a big percentage of the crappies natural food source. Make sure when you fish bluegill fry you stay just a little bit farther away from the cover then if you were fishing standard crappie minnows. Bluegill or sunfish fry will tangle very easily in any standing cover. It will take a bit of practice because the bluegill fry may feel exactly like a actual crappie bite to you. So you will need to be able to figure out the difference quickly. But to be honest most of the crappie bits you will get using this live bait will be hard strikes.
Shad are another excellent choice if you want to catch a mess of crappies. The shad actually makes up from 50 to 90 percent of the crappies food source in some locations where there are large populations of shad. Amazingly shad is not often picked as a crappie fishing live bait selection. Probably the main reason is they are hard to keep alive in your bait bucket. But if you can catch them fresh and use them right away you will be surprise how many crappie will hit this bait and hit it hard! The two types of shad that are populated throughout the united states are the threadfin shad and the gizzard shad. You can use either of these shad in the 2 to 3 inch size range to catch crappie. The smaller size fish make excellent a excellent live bait selection. The best way to catch fresh shad is to use cast net. Go to areas such as bridges, power plants piers and rip rap where shad tend to school. The best way to keep shad alive is to use a bait container that floats in the water and has freshwater moving in and out of it. If you use a bait container on your boat it needs to be aerated. these fish like I said will die easily. You can hook shad through the lips or just below the dorsal fin. Shad work great where the water is very stained and traditional crappie minnows are not cutting it.
I want to thank you for reading my article about live bait selections. We wish you the best of luck on your next fishing trip!
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Old School Crappie Fishing Family Secrets