About 10 years ago a friend and I fished an evening when the day's high temp was just under the century mark and the thermocline went from top to bottom in 35 feet of water. Basically there was no place for the crappies to find relief. Nothing was working as far as conventional tackle went but we were sitting atop a school of fish in 32 feet of water I thought were likely to be crappies. Near to giving up I decided to go in the tiny direction ....just to scratch that itch and the results were right now.

I had some #1 flicktails in hot orange that were mounted on white jigs of 1/64. The crappies were all over this bait and after switching to a chartreuse head things really got hot.

The evening was really a sucker to sit and fish [darned near sweat to death] but with no wind we were able to keep our position right over the fish. No float, we watched the jigs drop on the flasher and when they were just over the school we'd stop them and let the fish rise to hit. They'd only come up about 18" and those hits were just slight "taps".

We had ice along that evening in a cooler to lay the fish in and that was our salvation as far as a dinner went. There was little struggle from the fish as they were brought up and upon release of those we let go they didn't set any records returning to the depths. A couple came back up and floated and were retrieeved and cleaned. Since that evening I have alsways got a small selection of tackle along to satisfy slight biters when the water and weather get thick.

These 1" Ice Minnows have a tail like no other bait I have seen in the same size class and have thus far proven to be great at turning lookers into hitters with this hot weather. They'll be going to the big river sometime this next week and I am looking forward to some hot action using them there.