YEP!!!! David Welcher is right, been fishing with that rig on Ray Bob for YEARS!!! Learned it from a couple of guys named Randy Denney & Tracy Beaty from Pilot Point about 1997.

Yikes! Catch any crappie?

And how do I make or buy one?

Been fishing that way on RR since around 1999, and have boated around 500 crappie per year. People look at that and say "there's no way a crappie would hit that". My freezer is always full.

Soft plastic or a minnow on that hook?

Minnow, but a friend of mine will use soft plastic. The great Earnest Patty has caught crappie on a piece of cardboard. Crappie are not as smart as most people think they are.

Go to Tractor Supply and buy brass brazing rods in the welding section, they come in like 7 to a package 18" long. I cut them to 12" lengths, then beat each end flat with a hammer and an anvil. Drill the largest hole you can in each end, attach snap ring and swivel on one end, and snap ring and hook on the other end. I even take a glass rattle and attach it to the end by the hook then heat shrink it to the rod. The rattle believe it or not, draws them up close, shake it when you get to the depth that they are at, then bam!

Thx, David. I will have to give it a try. More interested in the 10 lb bass you mentioned than the crappie.

Interesting. What's the theory with the Texas toothpick? Why not just use 65# braid? Maybe as a drop shot?

Barn: the way it was told to me & shown to be effective time after time was the brazing rod acts as a lever to keep the hook free of the branches while jigging it up & down/reeling it in/fighting fish. The rod kicks the hook away from the branches as you're coming up. I lost WAAAAAY too many rigs back in the day while Deney & Beaty never missed a beat with their rig. The braid & hardware allow you to straighten the hook should it ever get hung up. I still have the original brazing rod rig I made in 97 on my Ray Bob timber crappie pole, I've just changed the hooks out every so often...OH & made some modifications.

David: try making 3 or 4 additional holes above the rattle with small willow leaf blades on swivels. As you're jigging the brazing rod you get the flash of the small willow leaf blades & the rattle sound.

Thanks, I've seen some with the willow blades.
Like you say the rod keeps the fish from wrapping around a limb. Sometimes you will have to play with the fish for several minutes before you get him out, buy most of the time you still get the fish out.

Guess the BASSmaster Classic anglers didn't kill all 9 fish in Roberts after all.

LOL - Were saying the same thing, but things are really looking up, there are lots of little bass roaming around everywhere you go, this years stocking is really impressive, lets just hope they make it.

The Texas Tooth pick, first I have heard or seen this. But if It works It works. There's got to be a specific way to fish it I'm sure. Would be neat to see a video of it in action.

I heard about this but first time I have seen it.