Anybody Catch Crappie with Nightcrawlers?

Just wondering since I got my African Nightcrawlers breeding if they will do well for crappie.I have not really ever tried to use worms.Lucked into a couple by accident,but not on purpose.I am a worming fool now,lol.

If you put them on a jig head and swim them, they should catch 'em?

Bluegill will steal the worm before it gets near a crappie.

I caught 3 last week 2 feet away from shore fishing for bream under a slip float in 2 ft of water, largest was 16 in.

Years ago a guy I knew claimed to have caught several nice messes of crappie out of White River using worms under a bobber, but that's the only time I've heard tell of it.

You probably would catch some if the Bream don't steal them first. We catch Crappie and Bream every year Catfishing with Catalpa Worms.

Absolutely! Pinch off a 1 inch piece and thread it on a # 8 hook, so that the point comes out 2/3 the way down the worm. It will look like a little brown minnow. You need to keep it moving,,,kinda swimming it, even with a cork. So what if the gills eat it too. I use it when we don't have minnows and the boys are with me. Works great around bridge pillars and docks. Throw it up in the shade.

This years spawn there were three of us fishing off a rocky point. We were catching Crappie with jigs. A guy comes out and starts fishing with worms. He would put a nightcrawler wacky style on his hook with no weight and cast it out. He caught 10 crappie in short order and 8 of them were bigger than any of the crappie we had caught. Figure that one out?

Heck yeah, we catch Crappie on nightcrawlers tipped on small spoons using the slow reel method. You will catch some bluegill and perch too if you let it sit too long.

Yes, I catch crappie all the time on worms (mostly nightcrawlers). Most of the time when they are under a float and I'm fishing for bluegill or green sunfish. I've caught more crappie on minnows and/or jigs than anything else, but worms are number 2.

Ralph

I have caught 2 crappie on a worm in my entire life while bream fishing. They were both years apart.

I've caught crappie on a worm, but only by accident and because the worm was moving and they thought it was a minnow or crawdad. I've actually caught more crappie on a small strip of white cloth cut off the tail of a t-shirt, when I didn't have any crappie lures with me. It wouldn't be the nightcrawler that catches them, but the movement.

Gotcha all.I have like 1500 african nightcrawlers now,lol.I want some crappie with them,so,I can call them crappie worms,lol.

Like its been said in some of these posts, crappie can be caught on crawlers. The trick is to keep it moving. Gills/etc. will typically wait for the bait to stop moving then hit it, so if you keep it moving you will minimize the gill bites.

The wife always drags crawlers when we are out fishing, and I am usually pushing poles off the front. She will pull in the odd crappie now and then as long as she is dragging the crawler not casting ahead of the boat and letting it sit.

AzSlabber, you have been given some good advice and I can't really add anything more. Yep, crappie will hit nightcrawlers if they are moving. A jighead is the best way to rig them. You can get at least 3 good crappie baits per worm (maybe more) according to the size of your 'crawlers. It's weird, my favorite crappie artificial is a 2" curly tail grub, and they resemble a worm more than a minnow. Movement is the key.

I only remember once catching a crappie on worms. We were bank fishing, and it was at least 30 years ago. It was a slab, too. I was fishing for catfish on bottom and reeled in quickly for a bait check to avoid getting hung on rocks and had a crappie hit. We didn't have jig one in any of our tackle boxes, so 4 of us chipped in for some bait. A friend drove up the road about 2 miles and bought one card of nylon type jigs and another card of maribou jigs very cheap, along with a bucket full of minnows and some beer. We dropped catfishing and wore the crappie out.

I've also caught crappie (and bass) using bluegill fillet strips while reeling in quickly for a bait check. Crappie were more abundant then in these parts back then. Then the crappie became scarce in the mid-1980's and TWRA put a size and creel limit on them. They're coming back. Some crappie fishermen thought the crappie were eaten by stripers, others blamed drought, others blamed lack of cover. It was probably a combination of all these factors, but I don't think the striped bass put a big dent in the crappie population.

I know this is an old post but wanted to add to it, buddy called me yeaterday said they just got home and ended up with 50 decent Crappies, spider rigging with night crawlers???
Never tried it or heard of it, have you?

I caught a 16" slab on a half inch crawler, and 1 morning caught 10 crappie as fast as I could cast out again and was using a small worm with a bobber. Most fish love worms.

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When I'm fishing for shell cracker and come across a deep drop off I always wacky rig one and let it follow the slope. Caught maybe 10 and they have been real good ones.

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hammered them well with worms before on more than one occasion myself .
blacks seem to eat them well at one spot and at another whites like them .
most of the time its smaller water bodies though , not large lakes

Have caught a few "cat fishing " but would not hold my breath . To many others that will hit the worm first .

Night crawlers will catch everything in the lake,including crappie,a piece of crawler on a jig with a over spin or under spin slow trolled is a great combo.