What to buy for startup???

[Nwpacrappie]

I have a few questions.. I consider myself a newbie when it comes to crappie fishing so if my questions sound silly I am sorry! First off, I have fished crappie for the past few years, ALWAYS using live bait. I intend on buying crappie gear and don't even know where to start? I have been researching and I found out that a lot of people use a jig, or jig heads with rubber baits (tubes, grub, twisters, ect). What size jigs should I buy? Do people prefer hand tied jigs or jig heads with rubber lures? When fishing jigs should I use a float? Like I said I fish in NW pa and typically fish a bay in Lake Erie and pymatuming resivior.. I am looking to purchase, let's say some kind of kit that contains a variety of hot lures to help save.. I don't want to throw money away at tackle that isn't going to produce for my current stradegy of fishing..


So you guys can picture my fishing areas a little bit.. I have a 14 ft aluminum with a 9.9 4 stroke and a mini Kota trolling motor.. (I'm not fishing in wake) I tend to fish around islands with drop offs with trees suspended in the water or big stump grounds.. I typically drop an anchor and cast out from the boat..


My list I plan to purchase: marabou jigs, buck tail jigs, small plastic tubes (don't know size to buy), small grub/with tails (don't know what size or colors), jig heads (no clue what size/color) what do I need to add?? I have floats, split shots, hooks. Thanks for the advice.

[huntinslabs]

1/32oz 1/16oz and 1/8oz jigheads. Tubes from 1.5" - 2". Curl tail grubs 2" and some 1.5" sliders. Grizzly jig, and Monks are great places to buy and lately I been buying a bunch directly from Southern pro. Staple colors are black/chartreuse, blue/chartreuse, bubblugum/chartreuse, blue/white, cajun cricket and red/chartreuse. Check reports on your state forum for reports on the area your wanting to fish and might find a pattern of a particular color that keeps popping up. Southern Pro has great deals that pop up from time to time just gotta watch em. Carry some 3/4" and 1" comal pear floats for days they want em real slow.

[vic n]

I think the best advice I could give would be for you to hire a guide. He will have good equipment, as well as good lures. Then he will teach you spots and how to fish them. Write down what gear you liked of his, what baits you liked. You could spend hundreds of $$$ for baits and gear that only works for some people. Hiring a local guide will show you what baits work in your area, what areas to fish, what type of retrieve works best, etc.

[Nwpacrappie]

Thanks for the advice. I always wondered if crappie from different demographics preferred different baits.. I have fished steelhead from the east coast to the west coast and the baits used were similar, but techniques differed. I may attempt to locate a local who crappie fishes to pick their brain.. I have two vacations planned to one of our local reservoirs and hoping to try a few new techniques.. I did very well last year but I hit it at the right time and little skill was needed..

[vic n]

Yes, during the spawn any bait seems to work. If they see it, they bite it. I know it's expensive to hire a guide....I can't do it very often. But I think you can get a lot of good info on bait, technique, location, different spots for different times of the year, etc. And I think you end up with a rod or two, a good selection of baits, and a bucket full of knowledge to develop your skills for about the same price as just blindly buying stuff until you stumble onto the right combination.

[CrappiePappy]

You might also post your questions in the Pa forum ... or send a PM to "Chaunc" (also a Pa. member).

[Nwpacrappie]

I did send a pm, thank you for the tip.. I ended up buying some jig heads, grub tails and tube jigs at field and stream.. I picked up a southern pro assortment of of 200 tubes and grubtails 1.5-2 inch for like 14.99 and the jig heads came in a 40 pc variety pack, all different colors and sizes in 1/16 and 1/32 for 5.99. I also bought a large fish basket for $12, I used my cousins last year and loved it.. I had a stringer get cut off by the boat motor one time, so I am done with those! I was lucky it didn't get wrapped.. My last purchase was an assortment of hand tied 1/16 ounce to 1/32 jigs on eBay.. I purchased them for $24 total and they are called grandpas favorite jigs or something like that.. I got 48 so I am thinking that's a decent deal.. Hopefully this gets me started, and I can fill in with local advice down the road.. I was debating on getting some Marobou road runners, but those are a little more $ so I will wait for the local advice.

[CrappiePappy]

Don't forget to enter into all the contests we have running in the Contest Forum. And especially watch for the next Roadrunner contest, which I will be starting later this month. It will be for the prize pack in this picture :





It will be a post a "picture or comment" entry type contest, so it's easy to enter, and you can post an entry once per day if you wish to do so. Contest winner will be determined by a random number generator, and not a competition between entries, so everyone entering has an equal chance at winning.

[Nwpacrappie]

Awesome I will keep my eyes open!

[yobuck]

Like you I am a novice to crappie/pan fishing. I am also a Pa. guy who now splits his time between my Florida residence,
and a camp in n c Pa, near Driftwood in Cameron co.
I have been a salt water angler for most of my now long life. For more than 10 years I lived in the keys and until recently held
a captians license and guided in the keys out of Hawks Cay resort on Duck Key.
I find at my age and condition, fresh water fishing is easier on me than salt water a lthough I still do some of here on the Indian river.
And I don't have to clean the boat and tackle when I get finished if I don't feel up to it.
I have been watching videos for several years trying to educate myself on crappie fishing techniques.
It seems there are many (best) products on the market for fishing for them. Ive been buying various jigs and such to the point I am
having to stop myself. Ive also bought a half dozen 8 and 10' rods from several different makers like BnM.
I haven't been having the type of success I felt I should be having, so a few weeks back I arrainged to have a local guide take me out.
He agreed to go on my boat as I wanted him to tell me what I needed to change on it if anything. His only criticisum was my manually operated trolling motor as for the boat. But what he brought on board for rods and tackle frankly surprised me. Mind you he
was born and raised at Lake Okeechobee and has fished Florida his entire life of 64 years. He said the Specks are preparing to spawn
and were going to slow troll the edges of the weeds in shallow water. He had 3 10' telescopic poles that cost less than 10 bucks each with a few feet of line hanging off the end with a marabou chartruse green 1/16 oz jig hanging on it. The jigs cost about 3 bucks for a card with a dozen on it at Bass Pro. We killed the crappies, I mean specs. After a bit he said here try one of these rods after about the 3rd time mine was screwed up for some reason. I spent the entire next day trying to find those rods to no avail in this area. So the next day I drove the 65 miles each way to Okeechobee and spent about $100 for a dozen of them in several sizes. All BnM or MR Crappie brand and now I'm well stocked. If it breaks just throw it away and laugh about it. Not saying ill never use the other rods ive bought, but rest assured ill use these when ever I can.
Ive been back to where he took me several times since alone and did well each time which proves it was money well spent.
The guys even called me to find out how I'm doing, and is going to take me again to a different remote spot on his airboat.
The BnM black widow 10' is my favorite of the folding crappie rods, but ive bought some lighter 9 footers I'm looking forward to using on the smaller panfish. Another plus is no long rods sticking up in the air as you travel about getting hung up in branches and such. And
rerigging is a breeze compared to feeding line thru all those guides.