What is everyone's 1st choice? Dec thru April.
Thanks,
What is everyone's 1st choice? Dec thru April.
Thanks,
The timeframe, you list, indicates winter. For colder water I fish feathered jigs. Since you're pond fishing, I would go with a slip bobber setup. White, black, white is a good color combo for me. straight chartreuse is also good. This year, I caught a lot of crappie on tube jigs. Orange body with a chartreuse tail. I recently tied a couple of feather jigs mimicking this color combination. After the holidays, I'll try them
I like the 1.5" slider on a 1/16oz head (or 1/32oz) and my fav color is Junebug/Chartreuse. But if I was specifically targeting Black Crappie, I'd probably add something "brownish" (to imitate crawdads). Something like Muscadine, Pumpkin Black Flake, or Motor Oil Red Glitter ... depending on the normal color of your craws during those times. Or, if this pond has minnows or the fry of other fish in it, you might want to match the colors of those ... since they're likely feeding on them (& their own fry) at times.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shoalwater Cat
I fish my Sliders on a non-painted head, but if your fish are "particular" then I'd match the head color to the body color,or just use black heads.
On one local lake I've fished, that only had Black Crappie, I used a 1.5" Southern Pro Crappie Craw in Pumpkin/Orange with great success. (didn't matter that the fish were schooled 8-10' down in a submerged cedar tree in 15fow)
I was reading an article on here that said active crappie's react more to bright colors with more movement, and non active crappies respond better to natural colors with less movement, what's y'alls take on that?
While trolling on the lake I like yellow and green chart heads and 1.5" black sliders with chart tails.1/16th and 1/32nd jigheads with black nickel sickle hooks. 'Course that's just one color combo. I use several and just let my imagination pick the head colors.
1.5 inch tube blk/char or 2 inch slider blk/char.
Try a few colors and stick with those that do well. No point trying more when what you've proven good will work all year long on all panfish. My proven Slider colors are chartreuse, pumpkin/chart. tail, baby bass, Deer John (laminate) and pearl. IOW - light colors.
Jig head color is not a big deal except to add to the visual length of the lure. My heads are unpainted. If a cast a 2.5" lure (good overall length for pannies in general), I don't want it to appear longer. If all I have left of a certain color are 3" Sliders, I'll cut one down to 2" or less.
Slow & small is my motto; rarely do I use a steady retrieve. To accomplish that, I also prefer 1/16 oz ball head jigs and jigs as light as 1/32 oz. Hook size should not be larger than #6.