Charlie Brewer Jr caught this nice slab crappie on a cold day at Grenada Lake, MS.
The Slider is designed to get deep into the brush with few hang-ups. Learn basics and tricks for fishing it.
What’s a Slider? Fishermen have different answers. Some fishermen envision a bait being crawled along the bottom. Others may think of a fast action jig being trolled across open water. Some think ‘weedless’ casting bait. So what is it?
Basic Slider
Body- Simple is often better and the Slider Grub is a prime example. The body is a solid, soft plastic with the main part having a segmented look, narrowing down to a thin area and then to an angled, flat tail. At rest it is a ‘do-nothing’ bait but when pulled through the water it gives off vibrations from its fast-fluttering tail.
You can get maximum color blasts. For example, you can have clear shades with bright glitter, bold solid colors, glow colors, two-color, tri-color, clear shades with a contrasting internal color; almost anything you want and there are never too many colors when you’re fishing.
Head- The Weedless Crappie Slider Head has special bends and a head with the eye positioned to allow it to come through cover. This makes it ideal for casting with a design made for weedless fishing.
Casting Tactics
Charlie Brewer, Sr. became famous for his Sliding system for catching bass. It included smaller worms, a weedless setup and a simple technique. He matched it with a very light action pole. The word of the technique’s success, simplicity and fewer hang-ups soon made it a popular choice.
The same principle was soon applied to crappie fishing. It’s a bait with fewer hang-ups that can be pulled through cover. Although it works great it has always dealt with doubters who say setting the hook too easy don’t allow hook penetration but too hard tears it from the papermouth’s lips. It does require a proper hookset but it isn’t that critical.
Brewer has a good tip. “I don’t use a hard hookset and have no trouble hooking crappie. One thing you can do is push the hook through the bait several times to make it easier for the hook to get out of the bait and into the fish.”
Brewer also says there are many different ways fishermen use this bait. One is to cast into cover and the other is to cast past the cover. If you cast past the cover let the bait fall to the bottom or the depth you want to fish. Use a slow, steady retrieve.
You don’t have to fear hang-ups. When the jig comes in contact with wood or other cover you can maintain the same speed, slow down or stop and let the jig make full contact. Work the bait on through the cover paying close attention for bites.
Your pole choice is often personal preference. If you position close to the spot you’re fishing a short five or six-foot light action pole will work great. Today the trend is to use a longer seven or eight-foot pole to gain casting distance with light baits. Whatever your choice it’s critical to have a very sensitive pole so you will feel the bottom, cover and light bites.
Better fishing lines are another improvement that helps with weedless fishing. You can use fluorocarbon or small braid to give you more strength per line diameter, good casting distance and more sensitivity due to less stretch. These will help you when ‘feel’ is critical. Vicious Fluorocarbon, Vicious Braid, Capps & Coleman Fluorocarbon and Berkley Nanofil are a few good picks.
Shallow- At one to six feet use a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce jighead. This will give you a slower fall and the light jig will tend not to hang up as much. Target rocky banks, shoreline brush, rip-rap areas and wood. The best structure will depend upon the seasonal location of the fish with the warm months being most likely to have shallow crappie.
Middle Depths- Water five to fifteen feet is ideal for Sliding. Jig control, less-spooky fish and a multi-season depth zone makes the mid-depths perfect for working with a weedless jig. You can swim/slide the bait along contour breaks like a drop-off and work an area loaded with brushpiles or other wood cover. When you bump cover you stop the jig or keep it coming at a very slow pace.
You can use either a 1/16- or 1/8-ounce jig in the mid-depths. A lighter jig is good during calm wind and current situations. It allows a slower crawl of the bait. If you have wind, current or are fishing the 15-foot range you’ll want the 1/8 because it has a faster fall and the heavier weight lets you maintain better contact with the bait. You’ll feel more bites.
Deep- You can fish a heavy head in deep water and catch crappie. The trick is to keep your outfit and line sensitive and realize you’ll need to be very patient when working deep cover.
Winter Sliding Tip
“I fish a lot like we do the rest of the year,” says Charlie Brewer, Jr., owner of Brewer Slider Company. “The fish may be deeper but if you go fishing when the weather is sunny and nice they may be moved up into shallower water even during the winter. The key is to find brush at the right depth of water.”
Brewer uses 4-pound test high-visibility line and his weedless Slider or double-light wire head. He sticks to the lightest head possible preferring a 1/32-ounce. “A body by itself will float so by sticking with a very light head the jig sinks slowly. I let it drop down into the middle of the brush. On my retrieve I climb over one limb at a time letting it fall each time. That’s when a crappie will hit it.”
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