Crappie love bladed jigheads by Brad Wiegmann

Crappie love bladed jigheads by Brad Wiegmann


The history of bladed jigheads goes way back. Bert Hall of Forsyth, Missouri is credited with designing and building the original Road Runner back in 1958. Hall was famous for his saying, “You can’t fish a Road Runner wrong as long as you fish it slow.”


Fast forward to today to TTI-Blakemore Fishing Group produces numerous different styles of Road Runners for all game fish including several designed for crappie fishing. Stallings at TTI-Blakemore Fishing group noted the original Road Runners were made with hair trailers then sometime in the mid 70s they started producing some with plastic curly tail trailers. Now they have several new Road Runners with different trailers for anglers to select from.




Why are Road Runners so popular and productive when it comes to crappie fishing? “Predator fish look up when feeding. They are looking for prey with white bellies that mimic minnows or baitfish,” Stallings went on, “The blade a Road Runner has produces sound, flash and vibration that attracts and incites a crappie to bite it.”


Stallings went on to talk about all the other Road Runner models they have for crappie fishing, but that’s just one of the many species that Road Runner has in their product line. “For crappie fishing the most popular is a 1/16- or 1/8-ounce jighead in either white or black/chartreuse,” Stallings continues, “But no matter which size, color or trailer; the most important thing is the speed of the retrieve. An angler needs to have a slow retrieve where the blade just starts turning.”




If one Road Runner lure is good then two Road Runners must be great? Road Runner is always creating new, innovative products and this time they have made a rig out of two Road Runners. The Bang Shad buffet Rig features a 1/16-ounce on top and 1/8-ounce Road Runner both rigged with an unique soft plastic swimbait shape lure with a triangle shaped tail at the top.




In a new twist of bladed jighead designs Bobby Garland Head Turn’R jig head has taken the traditional underspin design and made a radical change. “It’s an idea that I have been playing with for 5 or 6 years now,” Ross Barnett crappie guide and Bobby Garland Pro Staffer Brad Chappell continued, “In the beginning I designed this jighead for long-line trolling. Everyone knows I love to long-line for crappie with bladed jigheads. I wanted to create something that would have more flash and that’s where the idea came from for this jighead.”


Things changed since Chappell came up with the Head Turn’R Jighead. Garmin LiveScope was released and has dominated crappie fishing. While several lures have fallen along the wayside with the dominance of forward facing sonar Chappell notes that the Head Turn’R jighead will be popular with long-line and forward facing sonar anglers it features twin willow blades that will spin whatever direction the jighead is moving giving it a 360 degree action.


To show how well the Head Turn’R Jighead catches crappie Chappell headed out on Ross Barnett in Mississippi during June where he guides and went to catching crappie using the Head Turn’R Jighead. “I’m fishing around brush piles and stumps and targeting crappie that are loaded up on them with Livescope,” Chappell continued, “I’m rigging the 1/16-ounce Head Turn’R Jighead up with a number 7 split shot and matching up the Bobby Garland Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R for the soft plastic lure to catch crappie.”


Chappell likes to stay 30- to 40-feet away from the brush piles or stumps when fishing in the summertime. He likes to cast past the cover and reel it back just over top of it allowing the crappie to come up and strike the lure. He noted having the dual blades allows him to see the lure when casting to the crappie.