Still A Beginner After All These Years - Need Gear Info

Hi all. My name is Jared (or Smitty, I'll take either) and I am a lifelong fisherman from Southeast Missouri. My Dad got me started when I was about 3 years old and here I am, nearly 35 years later, still after it. However, I realized that I am still VERY much a beginner. I've got the same crappie setup I've had since I was about 9 or 10, which is an Uncle Buck Deluxe two piece rod with an unnamed fly reel, set up for a slip float vertical style approach with minnows. That is literally all I've ever used and all I have ever known about crappie fishing. It still works but I'm wanting to invest in a new setup for myself and am wondering what options you all would suggest? I know of names like B'n'M (which have been recommended to me already) Lews, Mr. Crappie but am looking to get more information. I'm not interested in spider rigging yet, but would like to keep my setup at a reasonable price of around the $100 mark if possible. To me that's a big investment. So feel free to suggest anything from rods and reels to line, hooks, jigs, etc.

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Originally Posted by jaredsmith83

It still works but I'm wanting to invest in a new setup for myself and am wondering what options you all would suggest?

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Try small jigs. Read this and focus on the "how" and "why". The type of jig doesn't matter.

Charlie Brewer's Slider Company - Weedless Crappie Slider "Why&How"

Get a light spinning outfit 5.5'-7' long and matching reel and 4# line. BP and Cabela's will be having their spring sales soon (including the annual Crappie Madness.) They will have good outfits on sale.

For a reel, I like Daiwa or Shimano. Any major brand of line will work. Same goes for rods.

What rod/reel/line/baits you get would depend on what style/method of fishing you intend to do, and from where you intend to do it (as in from the bank, a boat, off a dock, etc.) :twocents

This will be a setup for boat fishing. I'd still like to do the vertical/one pole/jigging approach, just wanting to get a new setup for myself. I'm getting my Dad's old boat as a gift and a couple of the guys that I work with have never crappie fished before. So I guess part of the reason is I want to get a new setup and have my old one as a "spare" for one of them to use.

Check these out. Anywhere from a 5'6" rod up to 16'ers. Good made, well balanced. I've just began buying a few along for my style of fishing, which is long lining. But they can be used for whichever way you wanna fish. Check 'em out.

https://southerncrappierods.com/southern-crappie-rods/