Mini Crankbaits for panfish

I lived in central Missouri for several years and hunted Crappie hard. Shallow, spring feed rocky rivers made Crappie fishing hard with fish few and far between. I still did ok but many of the ponds and small lakes I fished froze over in the winter. Late November through Early February were spent chasing trout since other options were limited. Missouri had three different classes of streams for trout with one being the typical stock and catch were anything goes. The next two restricted anglers to no scented baits, rubber or soft plastics. I didn't want to learn to fly fish and didn't come from a background trout fishing but knew fish. Any fish will reaction strike something the right size and color when feeding. I started using mini crankbaits for trout, both Rainbow and Browns. Read the current breaks and setup in the right place and you could catch one after another somedays.

I found my two boxes of mini crankbaits over Christmas and decided this year I'm going to spend some time trying to catch Crappie and large gills using mini crankbaits. I figure the same applies, cover the water and find the bait fish and work the reaction strike. I'll let you know how I do!

As long as your crankbaits work for the depth and amount of line that you use, or if you use weights to get deeper, crankbaits are a fun way to catch crappie. I started pulling crankbaits with Bandit 300s this summer and actually enjoyed it more than sitting still and fishing structure during the summers.

I've been playing with the same idea DB. I found some spoons and spinners that work good on the crappie as well.

Pulling cranks won't work paddling a kayak but since I usually fish water 6 foot deep or less I figure a shallowing diving crank bait should work much like a jig and bobber. I also have several that sink, so I can count them down then then use a twitch and pause return. We'll see how it goes!