What to buy for startup???

I have a few questions.. I consider myself a newbie when it comes to crappie fishing so if my questions sound silly I am sorry! First off, I have fished crappie for the past few years, ALWAYS using live bait. I intend on buying crappie gear and don't even know where to start? I have been researching and I found out that a lot of people use a jig, or jig heads with rubber baits (tubes, grub, twisters, ect). What size jigs should I buy? Do people prefer hand tied jigs or jig heads with rubber lures? When fishing jigs should I use a float? Like I said I fish in NW pa and typically fish a bay in Lake Erie and pymatuming resivior.. I am looking to purchase, let's say some kind of kit that contains a variety of hot lures to help save.. I don't want to throw money away at tackle that isn't going to produce for my current stradegy of fishing..


So you guys can picture my fishing areas a little bit.. I have a 14 ft aluminum with a 9.9 4 stroke and a mini Kota trolling motor.. (I'm not fishing in wake) I tend to fish around islands with drop offs with trees suspended in the water or big stump grounds.. I typically drop an anchor and cast out from the boat..


My list I plan to purchase: marabou jigs, buck tail jigs, small plastic tubes (don't know size to buy), small grub/with tails (don't know what size or colors), jig heads (no clue what size/color) what do I need to add?? I have floats, split shots, hooks. Thanks for the advice.

1/32oz 1/16oz and 1/8oz jigheads. Tubes from 1.5" - 2". Curl tail grubs 2" and some 1.5" sliders. Grizzly jig, and Monks are great places to buy and lately I been buying a bunch directly from Southern pro. Staple colors are black/chartreuse, blue/chartreuse, bubblugum/chartreuse, blue/white, cajun cricket and red/chartreuse. Check reports on your state forum for reports on the area your wanting to fish and might find a pattern of a particular color that keeps popping up. Southern Pro has great deals that pop up from time to time just gotta watch em. Carry some 3/4" and 1" comal pear floats for days they want em real slow.

I think the best advice I could give would be for you to hire a guide. He will have good equipment, as well as good lures. Then he will teach you spots and how to fish them. Write down what gear you liked of his, what baits you liked. You could spend hundreds of $$$ for baits and gear that only works for some people. Hiring a local guide will show you what baits work in your area, what areas to fish, what type of retrieve works best, etc.

Thanks for the advice. I always wondered if crappie from different demographics preferred different baits.. I have fished steelhead from the east coast to the west coast and the baits used were similar, but techniques differed. I may attempt to locate a local who crappie fishes to pick their brain.. I have two vacations planned to one of our local reservoirs and hoping to try a few new techniques.. I did very well last year but I hit it at the right time and little skill was needed..

Yes, during the spawn any bait seems to work. If they see it, they bite it. I know it's expensive to hire a guide....I can't do it very often. But I think you can get a lot of good info on bait, technique, location, different spots for different times of the year, etc. And I think you end up with a rod or two, a good selection of baits, and a bucket full of knowledge to develop your skills for about the same price as just blindly buying stuff until you stumble onto the right combination.

You might also post your questions in the Pa forum ... or send a PM to "Chaunc" (also a Pa. member). :twocents

I did send a pm, thank you for the tip.. I ended up buying some jig heads, grub tails and tube jigs at field and stream.. I picked up a southern pro assortment of of 200 tubes and grubtails 1.5-2 inch for like 14.99 and the jig heads came in a 40 pc variety pack, all different colors and sizes in 1/16 and 1/32 for 5.99. I also bought a large fish basket for $12, I used my cousins last year and loved it.. I had a stringer get cut off by the boat motor one time, so I am done with those! I was lucky it didn't get wrapped.. My last purchase was an assortment of hand tied 1/16 ounce to 1/32 jigs on eBay.. I purchased them for $24 total and they are called grandpas favorite jigs or something like that.. I got 48 so I am thinking that's a decent deal.. Hopefully this gets me started, and I can fill in with local advice down the road.. I was debating on getting some Marobou road runners, but those are a little more $ so I will wait for the local advice.

Don't forget to enter into all the contests we have running in the Contest Forum. And especially watch for the next Roadrunner contest, which I will be starting later this month. It will be for the prize pack in this picture :

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...psa74mrzqc.jpg



It will be a post a "picture or comment" entry type contest, so it's easy to enter, and you can post an entry once per day if you wish to do so. Contest winner will be determined by a random number generator, and not a competition between entries, so everyone entering has an equal chance at winning.

Awesome I will keep my eyes open!

Like you I am a novice to crappie/pan fishing. I am also a Pa. guy who now splits his time between my Florida residence,
and a camp in n c Pa, near Driftwood in Cameron co.
I have been a salt water angler for most of my now long life. For more than 10 years I lived in the keys and until recently held
a captians license and guided in the keys out of Hawks Cay resort on Duck Key.
I find at my age and condition, fresh water fishing is easier on me than salt water a lthough I still do some of here on the Indian river.
And I don't have to clean the boat and tackle when I get finished if I don't feel up to it.
I have been watching videos for several years trying to educate myself on crappie fishing techniques.
It seems there are many (best) products on the market for fishing for them. Ive been buying various jigs and such to the point I am
having to stop myself. Ive also bought a half dozen 8 and 10' rods from several different makers like BnM.
I haven't been having the type of success I felt I should be having, so a few weeks back I arrainged to have a local guide take me out.
He agreed to go on my boat as I wanted him to tell me what I needed to change on it if anything. His only criticisum was my manually operated trolling motor as for the boat. But what he brought on board for rods and tackle frankly surprised me. Mind you he
was born and raised at Lake Okeechobee and has fished Florida his entire life of 64 years. He said the Specks are preparing to spawn
and were going to slow troll the edges of the weeds in shallow water. He had 3 10' telescopic poles that cost less than 10 bucks each with a few feet of line hanging off the end with a marabou chartruse green 1/16 oz jig hanging on it. The jigs cost about 3 bucks for a card with a dozen on it at Bass Pro. We killed the crappies, I mean specs. After a bit he said here try one of these rods after about the 3rd time mine was screwed up for some reason. I spent the entire next day trying to find those rods to no avail in this area. So the next day I drove the 65 miles each way to Okeechobee and spent about $100 for a dozen of them in several sizes. All BnM or MR Crappie brand and now I'm well stocked. If it breaks just throw it away and laugh about it. Not saying ill never use the other rods ive bought, but rest assured ill use these when ever I can.
Ive been back to where he took me several times since alone and did well each time which proves it was money well spent.
The guys even called me to find out how I'm doing, and is going to take me again to a different remote spot on his airboat.
The BnM black widow 10' is my favorite of the folding crappie rods, but ive bought some lighter 9 footers I'm looking forward to using on the smaller panfish. Another plus is no long rods sticking up in the air as you travel about getting hung up in branches and such. And
rerigging is a breeze compared to feeding line thru all those guides.

Thanks for making my point, yobuck, and welcome to the site

That is awesome!! I haven't even attempted to rig my boat yet. Just last year they passed a law allowing 3 rods. I have pole holders for drifting, but nothing like the crappie setups most of you guys have. I want to test my knowledge this year and see if I can't locate a few more local crappie hotspots.. Confidently, I have 6 spots where I know they spawn every spring in two different fishing locations.. Reading articles and this blog, it leads me to believe that off the spawn both pre and post they shouldn't be super far. I printed off maps of the resivior and lakes I fish, and just as it says I want to start shallow and fish deeper trying to locate the crappie. I know I will have multiple trips with little to no fish, but I feel like I can do this! If all fails this year I will try the guide. The boat is all ready, now the 4-6 inches of snow needs to pass and melt! I'm itching to get out and post some pictures! Hopefully I spend more time catching then reading advice on my cellphone while I am out!

One more thing this guy did was he had a long pole he had made up with 2 aluminum prongs about 6 or more inches long like a
long handled rake. He would put the boat right up into the thick grass matt then pull some holes into it with the long rake.
Then we dropped the jigs down into the holes. We caught far more by trolling but he said don't get hung up on just one method,
because some days it works and on others it wont. Another bit of information I might never have even heard about.

Here's my favorite stuff.....1/16 oz bullet heads, 1/16 oz round painted heads (bought on eBay), #4 sickle hooks, Bobby Garland baby shad, Kalin's Triple Threat shad, Crappie Magnets. I use 6 lb. line on my casting rods and 10 lb. line on my BnM jig pole for vertical jigging. I like Mr. Crappie camouflage line, but my dad likes the yellow line. Good luck. GTT
http://i1363.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6dir7jxs.jpg

I appreciate the help everyone, hopefully this will assist me in become a crappie assassin!

Well there is no doubt in my mind as to the effectivness of jigs on any fish that swims if presented properly.
There would be better lures for trolling in order to locate fish, but once located a jig is king for catching them in my opinion.
My only argument might be all the (have to have) various color combinations available. Mind you I'm guilty,
as ive bought them also. But ive been using just a few colors and it dosent seem to matter.
So if a guy bought a selection of different weight unpainted jigs, and about 6 different color tails to put on them, would he be
at a big disadvantage over somebody who owns them all?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by yobuck

Well there is no doubt in my mind as to the effectivness of jigs on any fish that swims if presented properly.
There would be better lures for trolling in order to locate fish, but once located a jig is king for catching them in my opinion.
My only argument might be all the (have to have) various color combinations available. Mind you I'm guilty,
as ive bought them also. But ive been using just a few colors and it dosent seem to matter.
So if a guy bought a selection of different weight unpainted jigs, and about 6 different color tails to put on them, would he be
at a big disadvantage over somebody who owns them all?

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Not necessarily, yobuck. I've got about 4 tackleboxes full of jigs & plastics of all makes and models, collected over 4 decades, and still find myself using 1/16oz jigheads & half a dozen different colors or color combinations to catch my fish.

Most of the time it's "presentation" that determines whether or not you get bit, and the style and color of the bait being used is usually second to that. And you can help matters by using a bait that's got contrasting colors, so that the fish can see the bait in most all water clarity conditions.

I mostly use darker colored bodies with lighter colored tails ... like most any color with a chartreuse tail (or belly) color. And that goes for casting or trolling methods, shooting docks, or vertical jigging techniques.

Thank you for your response. You've reinforced an opinion ive had for a long time regarding the importance of a specific color.
Ive done a considerable amount of canadien walleye fishing, and found that presentation was more important than color. In fact I wouldn't
hesitate to go there with just one color and size jigs for a week long trip. Also just one color and size spoons for pike, as well as the same
for the swimming type plugs like Rapala.

A good way to add to your arsenal of gear is to watch the local sports shops during the off season for clearance items. This past winter I found panfish sized jigs and plastic clearanced at Gander Mountain for .99 a pack. I've been in since and the same items are now 3x the price because its the season. I was able to stock a couple of boxes for very little cash.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spartannation

A good way to add to your arsenal of gear is to watch the local sports shops during the off season for clearance items. This past winter I found panfish sized jigs and plastic clearanced at Gander Mountain for .99 a pack. I've been in since and the same items are now 3x the price because its the season. I was able to stock a couple of boxes for very little cash.

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Exactly !! Always be on the lookout for bargains, closeouts, stock reduction sales, etc.

And another way to save on your fishing budget money is to find out which styles of plastic baits work for you ... then check with the Member Sponsors that make the same/similar shaped baits and buy from them. Many of our members produce plastics in far greater numbers of colors & color combo's than the brand name companies, can & will custom make those baits in colors not present in the brand name company's lineup, and sell them cheaper.

Man I am itching to get the boat out now.. I want to try out my new gear.. We have a snow storm coming in tomorrow and hopefully mid next week we will finally warm up.. Sneak out of trout camp next weekend, hook up the boat and try to get into those slabs. Appreciate all the help in this topic.

Well just reporting back, the gear I purchased seems to work!! I've been out fishing as much as I possibly can and I have been crushing the crappie! I wanted to say thanks for the advice, catching fish almost everytime I hit the water and it's great!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nwpacrappie

Well just reporting back, the gear I purchased seems to work!! I've been out fishing as much as I possibly can and I have been crushing the crappie! I wanted to say thanks for the advice, catching fish almost everytime I hit the water and it's great!

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EXCELLENT !! Now you can start posting pics and reports !! (but just remember : don't give your spots away !! general info only (lake, depth, baits used, how you fished) ... and if you take a picture while on the water ... use the bottom of the boat or the sky as your background !! Too many people can tell where you were if you show the bank you're fishing as your background ... and next time you go, you'll have to take a number and get in line to fish there :banghead

Remember ... this is a public site on the WWWeb, and there are MANY people that just troll sites like this just looking for someone to show a pic or give too much info on where they fished, and then they'll be all over that spot.