Sometimes color and presentation matter

Yesterday I fished in a local, invitation only crappie tournament on a 12 acre quarry. Most teams showed up with corks and minnows. Fishing started out real slow for me. Using an electric chicken spear tail I managed 3 short fish in 3 hours. At the last stop of the day with 40 minutes left before the end, I switched to a Crappie Slider in Dear John color. In that 40 min. I caught 15 10" crappie off 1 bait. We placed 2nd with a 1 fish difference. 1st place was the only other team not using minnows. When I asked what they used he showed me. Caterpillar color Crappie Slider. Our colors are very similar. This day the bait made the difference. The best minnow team had 5 fish.

No I do not work for Charlie Brewer rotfl

Last time I was on the lake, after a couple hours of experimenting, I wound up with half my poles with minnows and half with sliders, black/chartreuse and pink/white. I caught more off of minnows but I caught all my 14"+ on the sliders including two over 16" and one right at 17". Minnows, even the 3" plus sized shiners produced only small 11" or less crappie. If it was a tourney I bet those sliders would have put me high in the money.


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Congratulations on placing 2nd! Agree 100% with your thoughts. With a little experimenting, the fish will let you know what they want. Thanks for sharing.

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Originally Posted by Spaceman

Congratulations on placing 2nd! Agree 100% with your thoughts. With a little experimenting, the fish will let you know what they want. Thanks for sharing.

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Thanks Spaceman!
The problem with letting the fish tell you is that there are so many colors to experiment with, it will change to the one you tried 2 hours ago and you have 50 more colors you haven't tried yet :yikes

Good job sticking with it. I've played the color game with them several times. Hit one color like there is no other and then quit. Tie on another similar and it's back on for a while, and so on for 5 or 6 colors til they finally quit for good. Glad you pulled in at second place. Nice being in the money

Both color and the shape of the bait make a huge difference. I fished after a cold front yesterday. Getting bites was difficult at best. I first found a color they would hit then I tried different shapes and found one shape they liked best. I ended up with 18 keepers which is nothing to brag about but considering no one else was catching I was pleased with the results. Both color and jig shape make a huge difference in my experience.

what is Dear John and Catepillar colors? not familiar with those. thanks and nice work keeping after it.

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Originally Posted by hdhntr

what is Dear John and Catepillar colors? not familiar with those. thanks and nice work keeping after it.

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See for yourself :

http://www.kegara.com/wp-content/upl...ubsFullRes.jpg

Where are these available ?

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Originally Posted by crappie wrangler

Where are these available ?

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Search for "Charlie Brewer Slider Grubs" ... and do some price comparison shopping. I've seen prices from $2.79 - $3.99 and some sites don't have all colors available.

I haven't used either of the two colors mentioned ... but, have used & done well in the past on their 1.5" Junebug/Chartreuse Slider Grub.

If you want a larger bait of the same style (paddletail) .... you might consider what our member "snake river" makes : http://www.crappie.com/crappie/diy-s...-plastic-bait/

Or for a thicker bodied version, what our member "slabeye" makes (called Booty Shakers): http://www.crappie.com/crappie/-memb...-crappie-jigs/

Or our great sponsor Strike King's Mr Crappie Slabalicious bodies : through them or our other great sponsor FishUSA ... https://www.fishusa.com/product/Stri...e-Slabalicious

Many commercial bait stores will carry Charlie Brewer Grubs ... but, may not have a full selection of colors or styles.

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Originally Posted by silverside

Thanks Spaceman!
The problem with letting the fish tell you is that there are so many colors to experiment with, it will change to the one you tried 2 hours ago and you have 50 more colors you haven't tried yet :yikes

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Now that is the truth! I have colors and shapes that I forget I have.

Thanks for the info

When it comes minnows vs jigs I've about decided that sometimes they like a flickering minnow swimming in tight circles and sometimes they like a jig that comes swimming by, but most of the time for me, they don't like either

Vandam wharehouse has the for $2.79. That's the best price I found for the 1 1/2" size. They look good and come 20 to a package. Trying to decide if I need to supplement my collection of somewhere around 8000 jigs :).

Dang! It's the morning after and I'm having buyers remorse! Reading this thread late last night and I was weak! Just looked at my email receipts and I spent almost $60 buying online jigs last night.