In my preteen and teen years, I lived in NE Louisiana and fished the Bar (borrow) pits along the Mississippi River, between the levee and the river. I was a serious kid fisherman and threw baits all over the pits and ponds, and caught whatever bit. Since they were pretty cheap, I was a fan of yellow and of black and yellow H&H spinner baits. In the springtime, I hammered the White Perch (what I called them then) and bass with them in the shallow water among the willow trees. Well, this morning was about perfect, so I grabbed a spinning rig and walked over to our pond. I tossed around a yellow Mepps spinner for a bit and caught nothing. But, looking around, there’s my big willow tree standing in the shallow water. Hmmm. So I dug around and found a black and yellow H&H. Hooked it up and tossed it under the willow tree and Wham, a big old Crappie took it. Caught a nice bass under there a bit later. Good to know that some things don’t change, even after half a century.

So…if you’ve got a willow tree and a pond…

I'm a jig guy myself and have been for a very long time...Spinners are a plus!

The good OL' Minnow.

My old school favorite is the orginal Berkley Crappie Power Tube. I have one left after 25 plus years of using them. The ones they make now are the Atomic tube with the jig head built in. The lead and plastic dont do well together over time so I refuse to buy those. Cant even find the orginals on Ebay anymore.

I`m mostly a jig guy myself but if I had to say my all time favorite bait when I absolutely had to catch a fish it would have to be ....... a catalpa. Why You ask? Simply put he will catch just about everything in southern waters not only that he is TUFF TUFF TUFF! Put him on a #2 hook around a Cypress Tree and he just like a Slo Poke sucker. He last a looooong time before you have to put another one on. Most don`t even know what a Catalpa is. Shoot he even got his own tree. Can I get a witness in the Aman corner or am I all alone?

AMEN,...as a kid in SE Missouri one of my jobs was to take a 12 foot bamboo pole and shake out as many Catalpa's as possible, going tree to tree. Take em home, and put them in plastic bags and freeze them. I had about a hundred bags in grandmas freezer....Crappie, Catfish and Bass love green and blacks...

I am also from NE Louisiana and the Black/White H&H was one of my favorite go to baits for bass, especially in small water bayous and ponds.

This lil ol Blk & Grn Rascal is a monster.I mean he catch`s everything! I had a Girlfriend (RIP), from a little town call DeRidder La, who`s mother had a BIG Catalpa worm tree in her back yard and she would `nt fish with anything else but these things. A broom stick & a brown paper sack ,a few min under the tree and she was gone to lake Bundick.

yep, the H&H or the Beetle Spin is very popular in SE Louisiana as well.. we caught many species with them in the brackish water in the river battures and marshes... yellow was my favorite for H&H and green with black stripes for the beetle spin.. I will be working the Beetle spin often as well as a road runner with a french style blade as search baits as the spawn progresses.. they also made a little mini beetle spin, it had a pointed tail, instead of the 2 little kicker legs on it, and a large version of the beetle as well.

I'm 74 and can remember being chased by Mr Oregan a many a time after being caught stealing his worms. That old man could flat out run but never caught us. i really don't think he really wanted too. Funny how my Pop always knew me and my brother had suddenly found some worms. Come Saturday morning you would find us on Cross Lake drift fishing. Pop would always drive by Mr Oregon house and leave a mess of catfish. we wouldn't get out of truck thinking he might recognize us. We would watch closely in case we might need to escape. Pop and Mr Oregon must have shared funny stories because every time they would laugh and shake hands before Pop returned to truck.

There was a time when I only threw a pale yellow/white tube jig. that was when I only fished for crappie in the spring,
I think the pale yellow imitated the mayfly hatch. I may have to dig threw my old baits and give it a try soon.

MO

Way back in the olden days I used to use the cheap tied jigs you could get at walmart and a slightly better built one called the Fle-Fly. Favorite colors were yellow. But used the white and all black ones also. A couple weeks ago I saw some of the cheap jigs on sale at Walmart, 8 in a pack. They only had white, chartreuse and yellow black and yellow. All the colors they had that day. Fished yesterday and caught two nice crappie and a sand bass on the white jig. The only snivel is you can't put on back in your tackle box wet because they will rust.

I didn’t get serious about crappie till 2001 so I’m gonna say a Bob Young hand tie in Bad Shad. I still have a dozen or so left but hardly use them. He’s been gone 14 years. Before that it was minnows hanging from a Yoyo