Sophisticated Crappies ?

[hays47]

Ok guys what gives. All of a sudden the only way I can catch crappie is on minnows.

Tried natural color jigs and circus colored jigs. Clouser jigs you name it jigs crappies have steadfasly ignored all my fake presentations.

put on a live minnow and smack they hit it. Have caught other species but no crappie on any jig this year so far.

Gasp is it possible after 62 years of life I have lost the "magic touch "

[smoothlures]

Are you throwing different sizes?

[skiptomylu]

Have you tried both marabou and hackle tails? If so did you try kip?

If all the above has been tried then maybe it's a color thing as sometimes here I will be doing great on say chart/blue/chart which works well here, but after some time passes and the water here gets just a bit more clear I almost can't get hit on that color. If I change to silver/blue/white they start hitting again and this can be the same day or even the last pass I made with the chart/blue/chart and got nada. This year I even added another couple colors in and one was even better than the silver/blue/white and it was silver/silver/Lt. blue. All of these were marabou tails long lining.

Most even year the last few anyway have done that changing back and forth on the first two and sometime it can be as simple and cloudy or not. Sometime the right color will make them really take the bait deep too.

Skip

[azslabber]

They knew that you had some "Meat" aboard,lol.Would you grab a rubber pork chop or wait a couple minutes for the real one?Ha

[skeetbum]

Hays, I'd like to tell ya that jigs work best, or all the time. I'd be lying. I find that most of my jigs work best with a fall, not a retrieve. A bobber/jig combo gets a little action imparted to it but does well sitting still and the wind chop giving a small movement. Don't know your style of fishing, but that's what came to mind as I read your post. I fished with a club brother that slow retrieved while I watched the fall, and he didn't catch up til he adjusted his presentation. Good luck and keep us posted.

[sparkie51]

This past week has just been the opposite for me. They wouldn't touch a minnow but put a jig and tail over the side and you could catch fish. They didn't want the jig hardly moving at all. No up and down- no retreiving. Just let it hang over the side and let the drifting boat give it what action the wind would provide.

[snake River]

probably number one trick on jig fishing presentation. Also keep in mind what type of material that you have on your jig. But I think presentation is the number one trick on fishing jigs.

[Fatman]

Theres been days when they wouldn't touch the tied jigs but put a minnow on and they'll hit it all day long. It can irritate the heck out of you.

Fatman

[AtticaFish]

Sophisticated Crappies? Heck, i have thought they were too upity for a long time. But, last time i was out after dark, i brought a bucket of minnows as well. Threw out a lighted bobber with 2 minnies on 1 rod and was casting a tied jig on my other rod. All my fish for the night came on the jig and never even a bite on the minnows??? Had to retrieve the jig as slow as possiple.... was using a 1/8th oz jig and ended up pegging a cheater float about a foot up since i was only fishing around 8' deep.


Your post popped a vision into my head......
----- A crappie walks into a bar...
----- Bar tender asks' What'll ya have?
----- Crappie says' I want your finest '09 vintage YOY, hold the feathers.
:p

[soswine]

Had an interesting observation from this weekend along the lines of this thread. We caught an insane amount of fish so there was no questioning the bite. My Dad , Aunt and Uncle all fished almost exclusively with a black and chart curly tail on 1/48th plain lead jig head. I started with black w/ chart hackle tail and stayed with it for a while but was getting waxed, I mean BAD. I swithced to a white/chart hackle tail and caught up in a hurry with 98% of the fish entirely swallowing the jig. The pattern was clearly that the black/chart needed the extra action of the curly tail whereas the white/chart didnt. The other bait I used that was equally effective was kansas slab/ gray marabou. That is entirely different that the other two bait but the fish pounded it again entirely swallowing the bait. On my jigs I used 1/24th and 1/16th heads. All fishing was cast and reel, no floats.

Dont ask me why the difference between a feather black/chart and a plastic curly tail in the same color. But the one consistent trend for me this year is every place I have fished where the bite was supposedly on chart tubes or curly tails, I have had to fish baitfish or shiner feather patterns to catch fish and have done so pretty effectively. I just try to let the fish tell me what they want and keep changing until I figure it out.