The Crappie Jig

By far the most widely used and effective crappie lure, the crappie jig is a small chenille, hair, tinsel, or feather crafting attached to a 1/16 or 1/32 ounce painted or unpainted jig head. Often couple by a skirt of the same material, the crappie jig has been proven to catch fish over time.

The marabou jig has been the most effective jig over time. Behind it, the curly tail and rooster tail jig have been effective as well. I like using white colors the best with my crappie lures, but using chartreuse, yellow and green also work well in clear waters. If you find yourself in murky water, go for darker versions of purple, black, orange and green.

Soft Plastic Crappie Lures

A small, soft plastic lure of less than 3 inches long on a 1/8 ounce or smaller jig head is probably the second best crappie lure to throw. Stick to grubs, small worms, sassy shads, bassassins or other shad-like body styles for plastic baits. Again, I like white, but other colors like yellow, green, chartreuse, and black will work as well.

Crappie Spinnerbaits

You can also use small straight shaft or bent shaft spinnerbaits as well. Stick to small, single blade spinnerbaits with a small jig or worm. Again, stick to the basic colors mentioned above.

Crankbaits for Crappie

If you think the crappie are running deep, you can throw a small shad style or minnow style crankbait at them. Something like a 2 inch Rapala minnow or shap rap will work great with a deep running lip. Stick to basic colors like white, green, and natural shad or minnow coloring.

Crappie Flies

For the fly fisherman, you can do really well with crappie flies. Some of the better flies for crappie fishing are Crappie Candy, Clousers Or Minnow Imitations. They come in a variety of colors and styles, so just stick to good basic water color and time of year colors (as I talked about above) and you’ll do very well with these crappie lures.

The Basics of the Spoon Lure

The spoon lure was invented around 1848 by Julio T. Buel. The basic style of the spoon is a simple, elongated, ovular, concave piece of metal with a single treble hook on the end. Over time, the use of silicone skirts, and wire or bristle weed guards have increased the effectiveness of spoon fishing.

The spoon lure is heavy, and made to enable anglers to cast very long distances, and be able to retrieve the lure through a give strike zone, from well behind it. This gives the angler the chance to land the lure, without spooking the fish. Later on, fisherman adapted the use of the spoon for trolling, and created a lighter version of the spoon, giving it the ability to suspend (when combined with a specific amount of weights) at certain depths and trolling speeds to cover a wide fishing area.

Some Spoon Fishing Tips

One of the more widely known methods of spoon fishing is jigging it up and down. In this scenario, the fisherman locates a school of fish, and trolls in and around the school, working the spoon. You’ll want to drop the spoon straight down to the suspected depth of the fish, and then use a vertical “jerking” motion to cause the spoon to bob up and down in the water. Usually the strike will come as the lure is sinking.

Another method of fishing spoons is trolling. Often, striper anglers will use their fish finder to locate fish in a particular area, and then set several poles at different depths, and work the area until the find the fish. Using different lengths of slack in the line combined with weights, the angler can achieve precision depths for a given speed during the troll.

The main downside to fishing with spoons is getting tangled. Because the lure is good at dropping to the bottom very quickly, and because fisherman will often bounce the lure off the bottom, this lure is prone to getting stuck on the bottom. I can’t tell you how many of these lures I have lost in the past. But sometimes, if you troll around the area where the spoon is snagged, you can jerk it off from behind or the side. I have been able to save a few spoons using this method.

So let’s review the main components that make up the buzzbait. There are four main components to this fishing lure, and they include:

1. A jig head on a bent shaft
2. A two winged aluminum blade (perhaps two of these aluminum blades on a double buzzer)
3. An aluminum rivet per each blade present
4. Skirting, or a worm, or a minnow shaped spoon on the hook

The key component that separates the buzzbait from other fishing lures is the blade. The blade is made to spin viciously through the water, and to screech in the process. This creates a lot of vibration and sound in the water, much more so than spoons or spinnerbaits.

The Buzzbait Retrieve

But the retrieve is extremely important when bass fishing with this type of lure. The pros will cast the lure out, and stop the line just before the lure hits the top of the water. This will ensure that the line tightens up, and that the buzzbait will hit the water in the ideal position to retrieve. Often, the strike will occur when the lure hits the water, because the buzzbait will already be in motion, and the splash, combined with the churning and screeching in the water will not be missed by many fish in the area.

But if you don’t get the strike during splashdown, the you’ll need to go back to bass basics, try to canvas the cover areas that are near the lure’s location. You may have to extend your rod in a weird direction in order to pass the buzzbait very near the cover, but it’s worth it. Bass love hanging out under sticks, bulrushes, lilly pads and the like, and the closer you get to them, the better. But be careful not to cross into the cover areas, unless you have a weedless hook, otherwise tangles and impairments to the action of the lure will occur.

And as always, when you are considering which colors to fish, stick to natural colors in clear water, and more vibrant colors in murky water. Also remember that bass tend to enjoy black and purple regardless of conditions. So that’s buzzbaits in a nutshell. So get out there, and catch those fish!

But I remember when I was growing up, that we would go out to a friend of the family’s property, which had a nice sized pond on it. This pond was absolutely loaded with bass. Now some people think pond bass fishing isn’t very exciting, but I am here to tell you that we pulled some whoppers out of that little pond! And we caught most of them on a tiny spinnerbait.

This tiny spinnerbait that we used was a bent (angled) shaft with one small, broad Colorado blade and a tiny one inch purple worm with a curly tail. We did not use any kind of skirt, just a purple a worm on a jig head. Normally we fished during the spring and summer, and we usually knocked them dead, catching many bass, most of them in excess of 3 pounds, even as high as 6 pounds and more.

This bait worked very well for me, but let’s get back to the different types of spinnerbaits and when to use each one. With spinnerbaits, you basically have two types of shafts, a straight shaft and an angled, or bent shaft. Most anglers, including myself, prefer the angled shaft spinnerbait because it presents the reflective blades a little more prominently in the water, and helps to keep the spinnerbait balanced, so the hook will ride up during the retrieve.

Spinnerbait Blades

There are three basic types of spinnerbait blades.

• The elongated willow blade looks like a an oval with two hard corners on either end. These blades are good for general fishing in multiple types of conditions, as they provide a lot of reflection and some vibration in the water as well.
• The broad shaped Colorado blade creates more vibration in the water, and therefore can be retrieved slowly. This makes this type of blade good for cold weather conditions, and murky water.
• The tear shaped Indiana blade is good for warmer water conditions, with slightly murky water.

Many spinnerbaits have multiple blades, and can even have blades of different types on the same lure. Stick with the basics, and then experiment with some of the combinations available.

Spinnerbait Skirts

After the jig head, many spinnerbaits are equipped with a skirt, usually made of silicone or rubber. The skirt hides the hook, and helps to make the spinnerbait (somewhat) weedless. Using a weedless hook with your spinnerbaits can ensure the ease of retrieve through heavy cover. The color of the jig head and skirt is up to some experimentation, but stick the basics, use more natural colors in clear water, and the more vibrant colors in murky water.

So that’s spinnerbaits in a nutshell. Again, the basic spinnerbait componens are a shaft, blade(s), a jig head and skirting or a worm. Spinnerbaits are very popular baits, and have yielded some good bass in many different locations.

Topwater Plugs

Within the topwater plug family, you’ll have a selection of popping lures, propellers, crawlers, frogs, stickbaits, and topwater spoons. A popper has a concave depression right at the eye (where the line attaches) of the lure. These lures are best when used with a jerk retrieve. This will create a “pop” or “gurgle” on the top of the water, summoning fish to come and get it.

Propellers are pretty self explanatory, they have one or more propellers attached at the front and/or back ends of the plug. When fishing these lures, use a steady or short stint retrieve, giving the lure the opportunity to cut the water with its blades, attracting nearby fish.

Topwater crawlers are plugs that have a large metal lip or arms in the front, and are designed to wobble violently on top of the water. The sound that these lures make often resembles a gurgle.

Artificial frogs are generally made of soft plastic and include a weedless style setup. Because of the soft plastic, the legs of the frog with shake and dance as you retrieve this lure.

Stickbaits are nearly the same as propellers, but without the propellers. They are basically a straight topwater plug. In order to attract the fish with this type of plug, you’ll need to twitch or jerk your retrieve, perhaps with some stops and starts, in order to create action that will draw a fish.

Topwater spoons are made of metal, and are designed to shake and move through the water, all the while reflecting light, and disturbing the water’s surface. This double action of light and sound can draw the fish in.

Subsurface Plugs

These lures come in three basic styles, minnow plugs, vibrating plugs and crankbaits. Minnow plugs have a long, thing body and resemble small (sometimes large) minnow bait fish. They’ll usually have 2 or 3 treble hooks and small lip, and dive anywhere from 1 to 6 feet down. Many will be naturally colored, although their is a myriad of available color options.

The best example of a vibrating plug that I can think of is the Rattle Trap. This is thin plug, that has less violent wobble that generates sound waves in the water. Fish can pick up on the sound waves, thus these baits can be a good alternative when fishing murky water. The Rattle Trap also comes with rattles, creating additional sound to entice the fish.

And finally, we come to crankbaits. My personal favorite in the plug family, these baits are generally short, stocky plugs with a sizeable lip, allowing them to dive anywhere from 1 to 20 feet. They offer a hard wobble, and sometimes have rattles to offer additional sound. Suspending crankbaits offer the angler the chance to do a start and stop retrieve, offer fish a look at a bait that is getting spooked, and a good target for them to feed on.

Crankbaits Make, Size and Shape

Crankbaits tend to be short, wide and have a violent wobble. Their main bodies are made of either cedar or balsa wood, or of hard or foamed plastic. Crankbaits will have a lip, and the length, width and angle of that lip will determine how deep the crankbait will swim. Crankbait depths can be as little as 1-2 feet for shallow crankbaits, all the way up to 20 feet in some cases. Generally, bass fisherman like to use crankbaits that are 2 to 4 inches in length. In this regard, I am very similar, my favorite crankbaits are about 2 to 3 inches in length.

The standard crankbait will float on top of the water, and then dive as you begin to retrieve. Retrieve fast will cause the crankbait to dive to its lowest depth, while a slow retrieve will run the crankbait at a higher depth. However, some crankbaits are made to sink, and some, like the Bomber I talked you about above, are suspending, and therefore offer a great opportunity for stop and start retrieves, maintaining a certain desired depth.

Crankbait Color

Lure color always seems to be a heated debate amongst anglers. The color of the crainkbait that works the best on one day, may not work as well on another day. But for simplicity’s sake, when you are fishing clear water, natural or medium colored crankbaits will tend to work better. But if you are in murky water, brighter, or more vibrant colors will typically produce better results.

My favorite crankbait colors for catching bass are white and white with a splash of dark yellow. I generally fish lakes that have fairly clear water, and these lures are pretty natural in their appearance. I have had the most success fishing with white crankbaits that dive to 4 to 12 feet deep. Again, you need know what areas and depths you are fishing, in addition to know the temperature of the water, so that you can have an idea of where the fish will be, and at what depth they will be.

To sum it up, crankbaits are a great way to cover a lot of water in a very short period of time. They are used by many, many anglers including professionals, and have yielded some very nice catches. Crankbaits are simple because you don’t need any weights or complicated rigging, just tie them on to the end of your line, cast, and retrieve. Often, there isn’t any need for complicated retrieve, just simply cast, and retrieve at a set pace for the desired depth of the crankbait. And just to reiterate, I have probably caught more fish on crankbaits than any other type of lure…

Personally, I think bass fishing with plastic worms tends to yield better fish than with other baits, the problem is that you’ll generally be working the plastic worms slower than other baits, and thus you’ll have to be more patient, and more selective with the spots that you fish. With other baits, you can work them faster and easier, and be able to cover more water, looking for fish.

The Ideal Scenario When Bass Fishing With Worms

The very best situation when working worms is during the spring, summer, and early fall when the water temperatures are warm. Look for heavy cover and drop your worm right in the thick of it. This is another advantage of worms, they are almost always rigged to be weedless, and you can work your worm right through the bass’ most favorite habitat. If you are working deep water, drag the worm right along the bottom with a slow retrieve, and wait for the tap. Give the fish a moment to take the worm, then set the hook hard, to make sure to penetrate through the worm body and the bass’ mouth.

Some Different Types of Worms

Generally, worms range from about 4 to 12 inches in length. Mostly, I like to use 6 to 7 inch worms, and they will work in most cases. If you use a worm that is too short, you may not get enough tail action to attract the bass. But if too long, you may end up losing fish due to bass hitting the tail of the bait, and not getting the hook.

The color of the worm will vary based on conditions. However, generally the use of a purple, black, or motor oil color is going to work to attract the bass. Do some experimentation. In dark or murky water, you may want to use a chartreuse, pumpkin, or red color instead. But in clear water, translucent colors like blue, grape, white and red will probably work better.

The shape of worms can also vary greatly. There are a tremendous assortment of worms, eels, salamanders, lizards, and perhaps even small snakes to choose from. If you are just starting out, I would recommend sticking to a 7 inch, motor oil or purple regular worm, perhaps with a firetail (a different colored tail end of the worm).

Stay tuned for next week, when I take you through the bass worm rig, a couple of the styles that are very popular, and that I recommend for bass fishing with worms.