''''' Swim over the top -- I first drop my jig down to determine the right amount of line to get just above the fish. I'll then grab my line several eyes up from the reel, pull it up the slack and pitch it out and let it drift over the top.''''

Ron that is an excellent technique that I had never really thought of doing, thanks so much for sharing it!!!
pitching a jig to get a natural fall , especially in windy conditions has been something ive done for years, but measuring the line out, so the jig doesnt snag into the brush its just never crossed my mind. simple, but brilliant.!!!
its a 2 pronged attack, first you are fishing the top of a brushpile in a vertical presentation as your measuring for the pitch out, then you do the pitch out. so no time is wasted......... your fishing effectively the whole time.
Ron its hard to believe u have only been crappie fishing for a couple years.!!! thanks for sharing!

Thanks guys for the tips. although i have been crappie fishing for decades, i do keep an open mind. It great that this forum has some great & helpful people. The sport has come a looong way since i was too young to drive& would fish with my parents. Still remember hight fishing with sound of a coleman lantern . I recently got Livescope on the boat, pretty cool, almost like video games. Leanin post iam gonna get some rattles, give em a try. Best of luck ya'll

Thanks leanin post. My learning curve has been steeper than most because I live on the lake and fish 2 to 3 times per week. They say time on the water is the key to success -- I've put over 200 hours on my boat and it is only 2.5 years old.

the ones I have have 2 seperate rattle chambers that hang off of a central small hole. so when I slide the line thru the hole and then pinch a 1/8th oz or 16th oz sinker under them, I then pinch a BB sinker on top . when u jig, the sinker chambers flare in and out and make sound, the sinkers act as a stop/slap point to make the rattles move up and down. Im not positive but I think I got them from Bonehead tackle company. I looked on thier site recently and they sell a rattle chamber but its not the same as what I have,,,so dont know if they dont carry them anymore...
the chambers are clear in color and abt an inch long,. it took me a while to find them, theres not alot of selection out there for the set up I wanted . something that may be interesting is tying them onto a jig. as ive mentioned crappie have whacked the rattles on several occasions.
it wouldnt be hard to do, just slide the rattle central hole over the hook of the jig, slide it up over the jig body and position it between the head and the body, and glue it in place.. the hole for the rattles assembly is small so glue may not be even needed.. I will post a pic later of what I have in mind.
way back in the day, there was a company that sold a rattle system that was activated by contact with water. Soundbiter Lures I believe.. I had the lure kit.... it had alot of different attachments in it, one was an inline sound rattle that had an eye on both ends and was shaped like a large TIC TAC.. when you screwed the 2 parts together, and put a watch battery inside, and it went into water, it would start making a intermittent clicking sound,,, like shrimp pooping around in a hamper.. . it was unreliable though,, they didnt work, more than they did work, but when the did work, they generated ALOT of strikes, and another interesting fact is most of the world record fish that have been caught, around the planet,. have been caught on sound generating lures. the thing is though, most of the sound generating systems made now are quite large, and used for targeting saltwater fish.
maybe someone will soon make a reliable sound lure that can be used for smaller freshwater fish,, I think a rattle chamber that has a button or switch on it, to turn the sound on or off would be ideal. the soundbite lure system did not click constantly, it would make sound around every 10 0r 15 seconds when it did work, which was great.. I think different substances in the water like algea, slime, different minerals keep the electronics from working sometimes,, if anybody remembers the little sonar unit you could cast out that looked like a plastic float, and you attached a small sonar reciever screen to your rod, or wrist, it had the same problems, the sonar was supposed to power up when the body hit the water by electrically completing the ground circuit.,, they were very unreliable though.

these are the rattles ive been using,, not having luck finding where I got them over a year ago,, if anyone can find these particular rattles please let me know.,,. also the plastic jig is called a SHADPOLE,, its a Wally Marshall creation, I caught some WHOPPERS with it last winter. and several nice hybrid bass, fishing off deep points .they come in several different colors. the one pictured did the best for me.,

Thanks for the tip, I found them!

Normally I do not like to give away all my secrets, but for you guys, I'll spill my guts. First of all, if you gonna catch a fish, you got to think like a fish... What you need to do it put several jigs out in front of you on a table, look at them and say "If I'm a fish, what would I bite?".

In the morning, roll with this......



Why? Because it looks like a tequila sunrise...Texas Crappie can't resist that in the morning... Then in the afternoon, I switch to this...



Why? I know you're ask'en... Cause it looks like a margarita... Man you drop the tequila 1-2 punch on them they don't know what hit'em!!

Makes since to me. Is that jig head 3/16?
BTW, I got to get me one of those umbrellas.

Plus 2

Plus 2 !! The best advice I can give you and I’m being honest is spend time on the water learn the lake you are fishing and always think outside the box change up colors and size.

Bass Pro sells those under the Bass Pro brand. I use them when making swim jigs for Bass. I havent bought them in a few months but I have bought handfuls of them from the Garland store as recently as March of this year.

1/4oz! It drops like a bomb!!

i've had great luck with rattles in the soft plastic jigs. here is what i use. they are made of glass and you'll lose a few with the jigs but cheap enough.

https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bobby-garland-crappie-glass-rattles?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions&ds_e=GOOGLE&ds_c=BPS%7CShopping%7CStandard%7CFishing%7CGeneral%7CNAud%7CTopPerf%7CNMT&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwJuVBhCAARIsAOPwGARCfqvh9mMPt6Gaj4ucJz61oZkDqtJ9XMD_EFW2zuXFAxBqxhe-AdQaAo5dEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

A lot of great information.