Jigs are one of the best ways to target crappie. Whether you are jigging with soft plastics, hair jigs or live bait, jigs are the way to go to consistently put crappie in the boat.
Ice Fishing Jigs are smaller-sized jigheads that are great for finesse fishing for crappie. These jigs aren’t just for ice fishing. When you need a lighter presentation for your minnows or wax worms, an ice fishing jig is a good option.
Jigheads are key to rigging the many different soft plastics that anglers use for crappie. Anglers also use jigheads with live minnows, pieces of leeches and worms. Jigheads are so basic, but essential to catching crappie.
The double jig rig is a popular rig for targeting crappie. Attach two of your favorite jigs and you will give yourself a better chance to catch more crappie. At times, you will catch two fish at a time. On some days, you’ll get an idea where the better bite is going to occur….on the bottom or just off the bottom. Tip with live minnows to increase your chances of catching two fish at a time.
Hair Jigs work great for targeting crappie. Some anglers tip these hair jigs with a minnow, but you don’t have to. When the bite is going good, you can catch a lot of crappie by vertically jigging or fishing a hair jig under a bobber.
Jigging minnows are another way you can target crappie. These baits work well when crappie are down deep. Fish these baits by themselves or use them to tip with wax worms or live minnows.
Scrounger jigheads make soft plastics come to life. Try using a smaller scrounger jighead tipped with a variety of soft plastics baits used for crappie. These baits have excellent action with a slow and steady retrieve. You can cover some water with these baits and fish them throughout the water column to find active crappie.
Jigs rigged with soft plastics is one of the most popular ways to target crappie. There are so many different types of soft plastic baits that anglers use for crappie. Whether you are using curly tail grubs, spear tails, shad-style baits or others, soft plastics will put a lot of crappie in the boat.
Popular Soft Baits
Small curly tail grubs in the 1″ to 3″ range work well for crappie. A simple jighead is the most common way to rig a curly tail grub for crappie, however, a drop shot rig can also be effective. You can swim the curly tail grubs, hop them along the bottom or vertical jig with them. Most crappie anglers will swim a jig and curly tail grub with a slow and steady retrieve. Using the countdown method, they can cover a variety of depths to find where the active crappie are feeding. Swimming a curly tail grub is also a very effective way to cover more water quickly in search for crappie in the shallows during the spring spawn.
Paddle tails or spear tails are very popular baits for crappie fishing. They look good on a jighead and a drop shot rig. Fish them with a jigging motion or swim them slowly and you can do well with crappie.
The shad or stinger tails are a popular minnow style bait that many crappie anglers use to load their livewell with. It imitates a small minnow. Jig it on a jighead or a drop shot rig and you will catch some crappie.
Split tails are great baits for crappie. There are many different types of these on the market. The split tails gives the bait some action. Work these with a jigging motion on a jighead or drop shot rig and you’ll put some crappie in the boat.
There are a lot of manufacturers that make some awesome looking swimbaits for panfish. These smaller swimbaits work great for crappie. You may have to go a little heavier with the jighead to take advantage of the kicking action from their tails. You want the bait to swim down because you will get a lot of bites as you are waiting for your bait to get down to the desired depth before retrieving. A slow and steady swimming motion will get you a lot of bites.
There are many different types of swimming tails that are added to a variety of soft plastic baits. Curly tail grubs are still the top choice for swimming a grub style bait for crappie, but there are a lot of other options if you want a bait with a swimming tail action.
Tubes are one of the better soft plastic baits for targeting crappie. They are a great action bait and they catch big fish too. Jig them or swim them with a slow and steady retrieve and you will catch crappie.
Since you are going to be fishing around wood most of the time when fishing for crappie, you’re going to want to use some weedless jigs so you can avoid getting hung up constantly. When you get hung up in the brush, you’re going to scare fish away from that spot and you’re going to have to snap the line and re-tie. Try using a weedless finesse jig to get your live baits and soft plastics to more crappie around all the snags associated with timber.
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