with the cost of minnows going up and jigging sometimes not producing, was wondering if anyone has tried or had luck on live craws on a minnow rig???

Just keep on jigging. They will produce when fished in the right place and manner. Just my opinion.

Everything eats Crawdads (kind of like shrimp for saltwater).
And kind of like I tell my customers (everyone likes Crappie (not just people), even the other fish we catch, Black Bass, Cat Fish, Hybrids/Stripers), no one passes up a Crappie.

Years ago I had a small creek behind the house and everytime I'd go fishing I would take a minnow bucket of Crawdads. Sometime use them and sometimes not. But everytime I did use them, something would always hit them, All Fish, including Crappie.

Had a customers the other day, out catching tons of Sand Bass and Hybrids on a two day trip. We would spend each day about two hours Crappie fishing also. Everyone expect him would catch bunches of Crappie and then on the 2nd day he brought some big (REAL) worms (Night Crawlers). He was having trouble again catching Crappie (no one else did), so he put on his worms.

Guess what? He started catching Crappie (Big Crappie) on those worms. He had faith in those worms and they worked for him.

So try the Crawdads in some good Crappie spots and let us know how you did. Maybe you will catch BIG, BIG Crappie.

PS: Also, One day I took out a friend Crappie fishing, and decided I would Bass Fish the brush piles rather than Crappie fish with him. I fished Zoom 6 inch finesse (plastic) Texas Rigged worms in the brush piles while my friend was Crappie fishing. I caught more BIG Crappie on plastic worms than Bass that day (lots more Crappie than Bass).

Some of the biggest crappie I've ever caught were on 6" Gene Larew salty craws while bass fishing. Couldn't believe those paper mouths held up to a 6'6 rod ripping a 4 ott hook through 'em lol. Not as productive as a minner or jig but brought some good laughs while bass fishing.

My biggest Crappie ever came on a 1 Oz. Big bite Blk / Blu Jig with full 6" Gene Larew Craw 3 lb 14 oz. after being dead for 9 hours.

It may have been a Lake Fork Record.

Ron Kelly uses it as his 4 lb. White Crappie mold to this day.


D

Cleaned a big crappie this past Saturday from Palestine with a crawdad inside...

i fished Joe Pool a few yrs ago with a neighbor frind and was bass fishing but on that day we caught about 6 to 8 of the biggest crappie we ever caught there on a black and blue jig with a black crawdad .

I found a crawdad hole full of em. Gonna take the kids and let them have a blast catching them, then gonna go try em out on a good crappie spot ive located.

Let yall know how i do, thanks for the input and advise!!

I've caught plenty when running crawfish baited trotlines in Louisiana.

When it is the best time to go crappie fishing? When do ya�ll normally start to catch good amount of crappies? I usually tried to go out in the wintertime, (during a very cold weather) like in the 20-30�s degrees...so far many years I have not had any luck catching them in decent amount. I usually catch about 3 or 4 if I am very lucky.

I usually use a white rooster tail or light green rooster tail with red eyes on the weight and 8lbs Trilene blue/clear line.

I have also heard to watch out for cattail in the shallow warm(?) water where they like to lay their eggs. When is their mating season anyway? Thanks.

In addition to using Crawdads (which I really never tried just for Crappie, but should work, and catch some BIG Crappie).

You might also want to consider Shad: Following is a previous post on that:

Just FYI, Using shad instead of minnows. (Shad are better)

On the lake that you like to fish, If you have some place easy to catch shad, then use shad to catch Crappie with. Like at Aquilla the water intake had a bubble spot and Navarro Mills has the same thing (by the gates, a bubble spot), Waco has bubbles in front of the Dam. Those Bubbles normally hold lots of shad. Most the time it's a one-throw deal and you�re done (more shad than you can pull back into the boat). But you need a small diameter net and keep the 2 to 3 1/2 inch shad.

Don't even try to keep them alive (I don't think Crappie care at all if dead or alive. Matter a fact more Crappie have been caught on dead minnows than live). Just put them in an ice chest with water and ice (Ice water). I use a jig head (1/16th or 1/32) with a small hook with a short shank and just hook them under their lower lip/jaw and straight up thru their head. Right between their eyes (it's kind of hard there). I normally put a number 3 split shot about 6 inches up, above the jig head/shad.

I use a small plastic bowl to hold some shad as I'm fishing (instead of going back to the ice chest every time).

Those bubble areas (are any where you see shad or fish activity, normally where water is running into the lake) are easy. They may not be there in the dead of winter but they are all spring, summer, and first half of fall.

Shad work better than minnows (that is why I use them if I have a spot like that to get em). Shad is what they eat everyday, it is their preferred food. They really don't make a living eating store bought minnows or jigs (your tricking them it eat those). They make a living "eating shad".

And if you�re worried about the cost of minnows, well then shad are free. (Other than the cost of the net and possibly learning how to throw it).

Note: Use those shad that day and then throw the reminder back into the lake. They don't work once frozen. Only fresh. Matter of fact you need to get them on Ice (or in ice water) very, very quickly.

The only bad side is you get tiny shad scales everywhere as you use them.

Try it, too.

Sometime ago I baited trotlines with shad in the spring time at lake livingston and many times caught crappie, so a definite 'yes', crappie like shad and is probably a good bait.

(I don't know why I haven't tried it over the years)

And I also agree that fresh dead minnows work too. I actually try to see how many crappie I can catch on one minnow. I even gone so far as to injury minnows just to keep them from moving around so much. (Sometime needed when fishing deep structure)
A little tiny squeeze with a pair of needlenose right at the upper gill plate seems to immobilize the minnow.

Never heard of using crawfish for crappie, interesting thought though. However seems like a lot of work gathering bait (crawfish) when their is alot of minnows, shad, and jigs around.

I enjoyed this Thread! And thanks for the heads up on the shad, I will give these a try in the brush piles and standing timber. The ice water tip sounds like a good idea.

Tight Lines Ya!

The guys (Fishing Guides) on our Gulf Coast will actually twist the head of live bait (causing the gill plates to break), resulting in fresh blood from the bait before throwing out the bait to fish. Proabbly something we should try also.



An easy way to catch Crawdads when the creek is clear, and you walk up and see crawdads shooting off (because you just spooked them with your presents, I.E they saw you) is just walk through that creek and muddy up the water. Give it about 10 to to 15 minutes and then with a pull seine, Just unroll the seine enough for a one person pull (i.e most pull seines are 15 to 20 ft). Just unroll about 5 feet and then walk backwards thru that area you muddied up. You get them easy that way. It works good. (Of course if the water is alreday muddy from a recent rain you don't have to first muddy the water.)

Crawdads, I'm sure will work, especially for Big, Big Crappie.

Awesome thread!

Thanks for all the advise guys, didnt get to go this weekend, but the craws are still there and ill let you know how it goes once i try it!