2012 turned out to be my best year fishing for crappie by far. 3,705 crappie were pulled into my boat on 68 trips. (Not too bad for a working man who can only fish on weekends and holiday/vacation days.) Of those, 133 were at 1lb or better, (normally 12.5" or so) with 4 of those being citations. (2 by length, 2 by weight) I also had 7 days catching over 100 crappie with my best day for numbers on March 25, when I caught 206 small ones at Burnt Mills. (I always use a clicker and count every crappie)
I fished on 9 different bodies of water, Burnt Mills, Western Branch, Lake Prince, Cahoon, Meade, Buggs, Northwest River, Northlanding River, and Chick Lake.
2012 crushed my previous best when I caught 2,120 crappie in 2011. The big change I made was no longer using minnows. (I last used minnows on Feb. 18) I hang two poles over the side with wasshoppah's tipped with crappie nibbles and focus on casting one rod. I find it a much easier decision to pull in my poles and make a move to hopefully more productive water. When I was spider rigging I found it a hassle to make a move so I would stay in an unproductive area longer than I should have. I also feel that casting a jig produces better results as you are covering a larger area. (only limited by how far you can cast) Also, when the crappie are not hitting minnows, putting a different minnow on your hook will not make a difference whereas you can always try a different jig color as your choices are just about endless.
I also had great luck with Kalin's Money jig. I caught the largest percentage of the crappie with this jig.
