My brother and I have been tying crappie jigs for 20 years and exclusively fish with them. We have people ask us to take them fishing all the time but most are minnow fisherman. We tell them that we only fish with jigs and would be happy to take them but jigs will be used. Most reluctantly agree but after the trip see why we fish with jigs. One thing I have learned to do to help them be successful is depth control. Anything less than 20 feet my brother and I hand line but that's not a technique you can teach in an afternoon outing. It is a fantastic way to keep your depth each time down and stay just above some of the structure you are fishing. Took Larry and Elaine out yesterday evening and had high vis line on each of their rods. Marked the line at 14 feet with a black sharpie as that is where most fish were at. Braid line works best. Elaine was able to keep her bait at the same depth every time down and did quite well! Had mono on Larry's and that wore off after a while but will fix that for him next time out!

Not trying to start a war here but I think a lot of people are missing out on the simplicity of using artificial baits-Made a believer out of several people that last few weeks.


Sent them home with 28!

Little by little I'm trying to convert,

Being your from Gainesville, do you fish Lake Muenster any?

Yes. Seems to be an on again/off again when it comes to the crappie population. Do good for a stretch and then not so much. Fantastic bait fish population and justifies why 150 or more water turkeys winter there. Good bass population too if that means anything to you. When I stick one out there I try and shake them off so I can get back to catching real fish!!

Go slow though-LOTS of timber above and below the water!

I bass fished it a few years ago and thought it would be a good crappie lake

Shouldn't be a war over this, once you put someone on a good bite with artificial and they see how easy it is take one fish off and catch the next one, they will be hooked for life.

Got that right! Even if the bite is tough you can still figure out what to do if you have a good selection of jigs to choose from.

I crappie fish 90 percent of the time with jigs. Both plastics and hand ties. However, ill use a minnow on a jig head when it outperforms straight jigs. I am all about catching not fishing. I don't feel any manlier just using jigs. My .02

I never use minnows, if I’m crappie fishing I’m using jigs. I just enjoy fishing. I live at the lake though. If I only got to go to the lake every so often I might try minnows if they were not biting that day on jigs. Usually I can get a mess if I’m wanting to eat some fish.

There are advantages to both artificial and live bait, depending on your goals. Most of the time I am fishing, I am chasing records. I use both artificial lures (including flies), live bait, and cut bait. Next time you are catching some fish, try a little bigger bait or lure. There are some big ones out there.

Good Lord-what did that one go?

It was 17” long and 2 ounces short of 3 pounds.

The sharpie markings of depth is also how I teach others to jig fish. Set up.on a brush pile and its it's often fish after fish for them.

Had to come up with something as felt bad watching them either constantly hung up or not catching fish when I was. I figured someone else had already done this but just wanted to share if it would help anybody else. That's what this forum is about right!

i am coming around on jigs. most of mine are double rigs with a plastic on bottom and hair jig on top. no reason you can put a minnow on the bottom jig and see which one catches better and adjust accordingly. and ALWAYS with a crappie nibble in pink or glitter silver.

my two kids like the minnows so they are a bonus. but they also like pink jigs decorated with glitter nibbles so it is win win either way!

i also like the sharpie marks on my yellow braid. helps a great deal.

I use mainly jigs for crappie however I will also use minnows during certain times.