Thread: Wanting to learn how to "jig" for Crappie, never done it. ( lake James)

Nothing to it, thats all I do, and now is a good time to be doing it, Find you a brush pile in 16 to 22 feet of water, sat right over the top of it, drop a 1/32 jig head with a Bobby Garland swim shad down in it, wind it up r e a l s l o w and watch your line, sometimes you'll never feel the bite. It takes time to figure it out,But when you do, you'll killem!

Originally Posted by NC Slab Seeker

would like some info on how to jig for crappie, ive never done it, all i know is night fishing with minnows. any help would be appreciated, thx

NCSS ... you might want to try this method : Crappie Pappy Article
It's basically what Countryboy is doing.

As for actually "jigging" for Crappie .... that's basically dropping a jig down to the level of the fish and "moving" the jig around, either by lightly jerking it up and down ... lifting/dropping it slowly ... or moving the rod tip from side to side, making the jig "swim" in a small area. It can even be a combination of these moves. How much action you impart to the jig depends on the mood of the fish ... neutral mood = little to no movement .... active or feeding mood = slow to erratic movement.

... cp

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

NCSS ... you might want to try this method : Crappie Pappy Article
It's basically what Countryboy is doing.

As for actually "jigging" for Crappie .... that's basically dropping a jig down to the level of the fish and "moving" the jig around, either by lightly jerking it up and down ... lifting/dropping it slowly ... or moving the rod tip from side to side, making the jig "swim" in a small area. It can even be a combination of these moves. How much action you impart to the jig depends on the mood of the fish ... neutral mood = little to no movement .... active or feeding mood = slow to erratic movement.

... cp

You are right different days, different action, I do it so many ways, can't list them all, but i was trying to keep it simple to start with. You have to try different action each day to see what works that day. It takes a while to put it all together, run trolling motor, watch depth finder, i use gps to find the piles,so you got to watch it, too, and try to fish at the same time, then add some wind to it, that's more than some can do, there's not many around here that stick with it long enough to figure it out. You also need to know where the fish are at, different times of the year they are in different places. Some piles are loaded, while others want have a fish on them.

It would help if you new what color was working for your lake, sometimes color makes all the difference between catching and not catching.

don't forget to tell him about the litewire hooks

thx guys for the info, will def. try that out this weekend. i have bought a lot of bobby garland baits, but never used them. How long do you normally fish one spot? and whats the best time of day to go?

The best time to go fishing is.........ANY TIME YOU CAN

The best way to learn to fish with jigs is to leave the minnow bucket at home. As long as you have minnows in the boat, you are going to use them. Commit to jigs and you'll soon be catching crappie on jigs. It's really about putting the bait where the fish are. Don't matter if its a jig or a minnow, if there are fish there, you'll catch them. If there are no fish there, don't matter what you are using.
If you are dunking minnows at night, you can catch them on jigs too. But you'll need to bump them up and down. Usually with some silver glitter on the jig. But you can't use 8 poles and sit back and drink. You have to work that jig. That limits you to two poles.