What should you use to bait a crappie hole? What kind of bait and what kind of set-up? (what to hold it down with, what to put the bait in, etc?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated?

I am a firm believer that brush is all you need.

Never bait a place for crappie as it pulls to many small fish. If you want to pull in the nice ones, best to use new brush. Find a brush pile back off the boat lanes and add there. Ernest Paty had a topic here month or so ago, bigger is better and that is so true. But you can add a small amount to a brush pile to re new it for a short time. I use a gallon or so of cement on a couple of limbs and it does work.

My husband and I are new to the fishing forum and recently retired. So we hope to have more time to be able to fish now. So that is why we are asking how to bait a hole so hopefully we can go to one place and catch something. Thank you guys so much for replying. This helps us to know where to focus.

Just tie you a cinder block or 2 into a tree or 3 and drop them over the side. You can drop them as deep or as shallow as you want. About 14'-18' should get you a bite most months of the year.

Brushing a spot is the best way to produce crappie. And using something with bigger limbs is best. Willows work great but will deteriorate in a couple yrs. Dead cedar will be there for yrs. Oak last a long time also. Green limbs are easier to sink since they are full of sap. Green cedars will catch a lot of silt on the green leafy part and pack to the bottom. Baiting with range cubes, rabbit pellets, cottonseed cake, ect will draw in lots of big carp and buffalo and the crappie will leave.

I agree with Ken. I believe putting feed on a brushpile is the worst thing you can do. Just my experience. I know some people put bait out and catch fish but maybe they would have caught more without it. No way to know for sure.

In my opinion the fish on the brushpile are usually not feeding there. Sure you can make some bite but when they are really feeding they are off the brush chasing shad.

Build a brushpile you will catch fish off it.

Welcome to the Forum! What lake will you be fishing and someone on here can give you some pointers or will send you a personal message.

Bamboo, willows, or green cedars are the best in my opinion. Putting out trees gives you a place to start when you launch the boat. Once you establish the depth the crappie are in for the day, the rest of the pieces will fall into place.

I don't put any type of bait out on the places I fish for crappie, the trees will hold all of the baitfish you need.

welcome to the forum!

I'm going to agree with Ken & Ernest

I had some great crappie located and patterned for the CAT tourney.
My partner had bought a bag of Crappie Draw, so we put it out on 2 spots....When I opened the bag, it was just rabbit pellets
So I had Belinda pick up a bag of rabbit feed and made a bunch of containers, then the last evening before off-limits,
Belinda and I made a trip out graphing and baiting the spots.....The spots I had were LOADED.
Come Tourney morning, we couldn't buy a fish!!!!The spots were deserted, except for a few dinks

A couple of days later, I went back to the spots and although they were still barren,
I noticed that there was some fish on a piece of structure that wasn't like the surroundings, not 20-30' from the spot I had been fishing
BINGO!
The fish had moved....not far, just to the next piece of unusual structure
I started graphing the areas around all of the spots I had baited and found the fish

After the bait had dissipated, the fish moved back with only a few on the spots they had moved to

I'll never bait again, just brush up

Thank you all so much. This really helps us a lot. I am so excited. We will be fishing Lake Waco.

The docks with auto feeders produce fish. I'm not a baiter as feed is concerned but I've pondered why these docks produce so well with timed feeders.

I know one in paticular that's won tourneys.

Any feedback?

Welcome to the forum.