Crappie my way

[Crestliner08]

This is a great thread. Sometimes I have so many questions I don't know what to ask, so I enjoy reading threads like these where you more seasoned crappie fishermen just tell what works for you! You mentioned using Bobby garland baby shad and Charlie Brewer crappie sliders. Can you tell a difference in catch numbers when using slider or paddle type jigs vs something like a baby shad? I would think something with more tail action would work better for this method so I'm curious as to what y'all prefer?

We use both. Each of us has a different one on to see what the fish want.....not what we want them to eat!

[crappie wrangler]

Sometimes crappie fishing defies all logic. Lately under perfect conditions the fish only wanted one color on one lure body. A cold front blew in last night and I wanted to see what reaction the crappie would have to it. I had very low expectations but I found a cove calm enough to fish. I only brought 1 rod that had 2lb line on it and one box of lures. I found fish in 20 fow suspended 10' deep. I only fished 2 hours and caught 51 fish. It made no difference what color or lure style as long as it was on a 1/16 oz hook. We all have our favorite lures but sometimes the fish just plane don't care.

[try'n hard]

After fishing Friday and Saturday I can report that the slider jig heads rigged weedless worked great reducing my hang ups by at least 75%.
The "bow" technique worked almost 100% of the time and I've spent a couple of days trying to figure out why.....still don't know but it definitely works

[CrappiePappy]

The "bow" technique worked almost 100% of the time and I've spent a couple of days trying to figure out why.....still don't know but it definitely works

As I said in my reply : "What this does (or seems to do) is allow the bait to fall away from the obstacle - then when you lift it back (twice as far as you let it fall away) the head of the jig "bumps" the obstacle, and "hops" up over top of it."

That's the only thing I could come up with that made any sense. I figured out how that "bowing" worked from so many attempts to get my jig off a tree limb (above water). I figured out real quick that a quick jerk would only wrap the line around the branch (or the one above it or in front of it), or impale the hook into the branch the line was draped over.
But, when I reeled the line up until the jig was barely hanging past the branch, then softly lifted up the rod tip ... the jig seemed to almost always "hop/bounce" over the limb and was free from it. So I figured if it worked in the air, it should work underwater ... and so I tried it and it did work, quite often ending in getting a thump once the jig cleared the limb and started falling back towards me.