Topic: The Best Crappie Lures of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 28 times)
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Topic: The Best Crappie Lures of 2023, Tested and Reviewed (Read 28 times)
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Among the top general bait profiles in fishing, the Z-Man GrubZ is perhaps the best option in this classic category. After fishing some of Z-Man’s other super soft yet implausibly durable ElaZtech baits with astonishing success, I discovered the GrubZ and found it to be extremely appealing to crappie and all panfish. Its soft, razor-thin tail pulses and ripples at any retrieve speed—fast or slow swimming or simply dragged and twitched along the bottom. Moreover, the bait’s buoyancy assures its tail will hover and slightly ripple when you stop the retrieve, or let it rest on the bottom. This means you’ll often receive bites by simply letting the bait sit on the bottom.
The only con of this bait is that the ElaZtech material cannot be stored next to other types of soft plastics and you must avoid storing it in high heat. But, if you keep the grubs in their original packaging and don’t leave them in your car on a hot day, all will be well.
You can buy them in 2, 2.5, and 3-inch sizes and nine colors. I like the 2-inch size for most crappie fishing. For colors, try Electric Pink or Glow in darker water; Motor Oil or Shimmer Pearl in clear conditions.
Trolling is an underutilized approach for crappies, and the Ultra Light Shad has proven to be a bonafide fish catching machine everywhere I’ve fished it. The little diving bait perfectly matches yearling shad as well as baby bluegills and crappies, which often fill the tummies of big crappies.
It’s a Rapala, which means the lure runs perfectly out of the box almost every time. Unlike other crappie-sized crankbaits that feature fat, bulbous bodies, the Ultra Light Shad is flat, slab-like, and thin, offering a realistic facsimile of the prey fish crappies prefer to eat, making it one of the best crappie lures.
The Ultra Light Shad runs to the optimal depth of about 5 feet for trolling over vegetation—just deep enough to occasionally nick the plant tops. For deeper duty, run it behind a crappie trolling weight or a pinch-on style sinker. In dirty water, Hot Steel and Pink Clown are excellent colors. While Yellow Perch produces excellent action in clear water fisheries. I run a 7-foot medium-light power spinning rod and 6- or 8-pound test braided line for trolling. Tie in a 3- to 6-foot section of 4- to 8-pound test fluorocarbon to the lure, which adds stealth in clearer water. Give the lure occasional twitches of the rod tip to make it dart and pause—an excellent triggering maneuver.
I can’t think of a better lure for casting or sight fishing crappies in shallow, clear to stained waters than a Panfish Leech. Pitch the jig a few feet in front of a big crappie with 2- or 3-pound test mono and get ready. Give the jig short, quick twitches of the rod tip to make the jig’s tail undulate like a live leech. Or work it beneath a float, imparting occasional darting action to trigger bites.
While most natural fiber crappie jigs utilize marabou feathers, tier Jeff Wenger uses fine strips of squirrel hide—a radically underrated jig material in terms of natural underwater action and flow. Although you might convince Wenger to tie Panfish Leeches in various bright colors—or different sizes to spec—it’s hard to imagine anything better than a simple 1/16-ounce black or natural (brown) pattern for crappies or other panfish.
The Road Runner remains one of the most recognizable and productive crappie jigs ever made. Designed by Bert Hall of Forsyth, Missouri in 1958, the Road Runner is perhaps the best-selling crappie lure of all time. (The 1/8-ounce white marabou Road Runner remains Blakemore Lure co*pany’s top seller today.)
Hall’s prescription for fishing the lure was simple: “You can’t fish a Road Runner wrong, as long as you fish it slow.” One excellent method for fishing the jig is to simply throw it behind the boat, set the trolling motor to 4, and start “strolling” along a dropoff, creek channel, or weed edge. Jig the lure once every five to ten seconds for triggering power. A 2-inch twister-tail like the aforementioned Z-Man GrubZ has for me been a proven Road Runner accoutrement that can last a full day’s fishing.
The addition of a tiny “flicker” blade to a well-balanced jighead adds just enough flash and vibration to attract baitfish-seeking crappies. Rig it with your favorite soft plastic tail or even a live minnow. This classic crappie jig excels both for casting and slow trolling/strolling.
No one believes crappies will consistently attack a spinnerbait until they’ve seen it happen. But in warmer water periods, while casting or slow trolling along a grass line or brush pile, I’ve boated well over a dozen nice fish per hour. The 1/8-ounce size of the Spin Baby is ideal for working through shallow cover, or even counted down into deeper brush or vegetation. While there are better lures for fishing tight clusters of crappies or small areas, the mini spinnerbait really proves its mettle for covering water and discovering crappies spread across larger areas.
In many waters, the chartreuse/black pattern remains the big scorer. Replace the original Shadpole body with a more durable Z-Man Slim SwimZ or GrubZ for non-stop action and dozens of fish per bait.
Crappies love hiding beneath boat docks like a dog under the porch on a hot summer day. Slabs the size of pie-plates live there, for sure. But how to get a bait back in there? The answer is dock-shooting, a slingshot-like cast that propels and skips your bait way back into the darkest corners where crappies live.
Sometimes the best way to catch apathetic crappies is to simply drop something generally the right size and shape in front of their snouts. I’ve found the Slab Slay’R has the right streamlined design to easily skip way back in there, provided you’ve practiced your skipping or shooting technique.
The little grub body is easy to rig on a 1/16-ounce jighead, while the flat spear-tail quivers and kicks subtly with each twitch of the rod tip. The bait is built for slow, vertical retrieves, and shows a special ability to hover and glide—key when reluctant crappies need a few seconds to investigate before eating. Rig it onto a favorite jighead, adding a Bobby Garland Dock Shoot’R Pull Tab for safe and easy dock shooting. The red/chartreuse Devil’s Grin pattern gets chowed in dirty water. In low light, try bright-glowing Ghost. Pink Phantom shines in almost all conditions.
Often, minimalist, worm-like soft plastics with active tail motion can be some of the best crappie lures because of their appealing presentation. The pre-rigged Probe body marries up to a tapered jighead, constructed for high-density tungsten. To fish deeper water crappies while maintaining a diminutive bait size, the stealthy Tungsten Probe Jig offers a lot of advantages over standard lead and larger plastics.
Like many anglers, I discovered the merits of tungsten jigs while ice fishing for schools of deep crappies. Turns out tungsten is equally valuable for jigging for crappies during summer and fall, when fish may suspend in deeper water, or among deep brush piles. The co*pact, yet fast-sink nature of a tungsten jig lets you target individual fish on sonar, and quickly drop the lure just a foot above their nose—right where crappies like it. In these deeper scenarios, glow patterns, such as Glow Chartreuse and Pink Chartreuse Glow, attract plenty of attention. Note: The Tungsten Probe Jig often works exceptionally well beneath a float/bobber, as well.
Few co*panies offer a more effective selection of crappie-catching baits than Bobby Garland; this kit features four bait shapes and colors that cover most crappie fishing situations. Garland’s Crappie Deluxe kit fits easily into a small backpack or tackle bag for travel or quick trips to new water. The kit contains baits easily adaptable to other species like trout, perch, smaller bass, and even exotics like tilapia.
While many “fishing kits” offer basic, rudimentary baits, hooks and terminal tackle, and very little versatility, Bobby Garland’s 158-piece Deluxe Crappie Kit puts four proven crappie baits in your hands—each covering different fishing situations. For vertical jigging or fishing below a bobber, choose the Pile Driver or Minnow Mind’R. For casting and jigging, the Baby Shad remains a classic crappie profile. The unique Crappie Shooter even covers you for shooting boat docks, among today’s most effective crappie techniques.