10 Dynamite Crappie Lures You Should Be Fishing Now!
Story and Photos By Darl Black

Spend a day in the boat with a crappie guide, tournament pro or hard-core enthusiast and you'll likely observe a willingness on their part to experiment with lures and try different things, especially when they're not catching crappie.

Meanwhile, many everyday crappie anglers often appear hesitant to change. They throw the same tiny tubes and curly-tailed grubs every time they're out. These extremely popular baits do catch crappie, but not under all conditions.

To help you decide which baits are must-haves for your tackle box, consider the following list of 10 crappie lures, which are in no particular order of importance.

Crappie Slider
Fishermen know that in every lake, sometime during the year, crappie will be found in grass or brush. Therefore, every angler should be prepared with selected snag-resistant baits to reach them. Kentucky Lake guide Garry Mason votes the Crappie Slider the most effective weedless crappie lure on the market. The Crappie Slider is a package deal that includes a classic swim-tailed grub rigged on a specially designed jighead that positions the hook perfectly for the Tex-posed rigging.

"Charlie Brewer designed the Crappie Slider in the early 1980s for the single purpose of catching crappie from cover without catching the cover," says Mason. "Recently, there have been imitations introduced, but none of them compare to the original. The special head and super-soft grub body have no equal. I could not effectively fish the brushpiles of Kentucky Lake without a Crappie Slider."

The Crappie Slider is the first choice for many Northern anglers when fishing grass beds of natural lakes. However, the preferred color choices for clear water usually are more subdued than Mason's bold picks for stained waters.

Road Runner
The patented design of the Blakemore Road Runner provides a compact swimming lure coupled with the attraction of a flashing/vibrating blade. Tennessee guide Jim Duckworth uses a Road Runner as a primary search lure during spring and summer.

"I like to build my own, starting with a willow-leaf Pro Model head and adding a Thunder Skirt," he says. "In spring, I cast it to the bank and slowly reel it out to the first drop, searching for concentrations of crappie. In summer, I'll make a long cast parallel to a deep creek channel, let it sink all the way to the bottom and then slowly swim it back while keeping it as close to the bottom for as long as possible. The willow-leaf blade helps it stay deep, and the horse-head shape deflects hang ups."

Marabou Jig
Long-time fishermen may recall catching their first crappie on a marabou jig. In those days, it was the least expensive artificial lure and one of only a handful designed for crappie. When wet, marabou feathers compress into a streamlined minnow-like shape that undulates with the slightest quiver.

Of course, other anglers understand the power of marabou, too. When Duckworth built a marabou jig for his wintertime smallmouth float-and-fly system, he discovered the jig was deadly for crappie as well.

"When crappie are shallow but not aggressively feeding, an excellent tactic is to swim a marabou jig under a bobber," he notes. "Retrieve it slowly with frequent pauses. Even when it's sitting still, the marabou breathes like it is alive. Crappie cannot refuse it."

Hellgie
"Let everyone throw tubes and grubs," says Dave Lehman. "I've got something different for crappie to look at. It's a subtle-action critter bait shaped something like an oversized mayfly or stonefly nymph."

Lehman is talking about Lunker City's 3-inch Hellgie, which he uses in natural hues like motor oil, purple and crayfish. This unique soft-plastic bait has no built-in action, but the thin twin tails appear to breathe life into the entire lure.

Lehman fishes the Hellgie on a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce jighead when sight-fishing shallow stumps, docks and reed beds that hold crappie during the prespawn through post-spawn period. He casts to the target and allows the Hellgie to drift slowly to the bottom.

Later in summer, when electronics show crappie suspended around deep creek channels, he switches to a 1/8-ounce jighead. Casting it out, he counts it down and slowly swims it back through the school. Although Lehman sticks with the muted dark colors for suspended crappie, some anglers prefer the clear sparkle for this technique.

Wooly Beavertail
Few anglers would have considered the 2-inch Yum Wooly Beavertail a prime crappie lure because the thick body seemed too much of a mouthful. However, Oklahoma crappie guide Todd Huckabee says the chunky Beavertail's visibility and vibration are ideal for crappie fishing, especially in the muddy creek arms of Oklahoma reservoirs.

"A black-and-pink 2-inch Beavertail on a 3/16-ounce Crappie Pro jighead is my go-to bait for dipping in stained to muddy water," explains Huckabee. "The large profile, water-moving tail and high-contrast color all combine to produce crappie. Anytime the bite is tough and I'm looking for a couple of big crappie, this is the bait that catches my kicker fish — without sacrificing bites from small to medium fish. I fish it in 1 to 10 feet of water, simply lowering it alongside cover on a 10-foot-long dipping rod."

Spinnerbait
Some of the best crappie fishermen are professional bass anglers. FLW pro Dave Lefebre is one example. Whenever he gets a break from the tour, he's out crappie fishing and usually catching a lot of them.

"Maybe it's the bass fisherman in me spilling over, but there are a couple of times during the fishing season when I can catch nice crappie on a mini spinnerbait fished on 4-pound test," Lefebre explains. "The ones I prefer are 1/16-ounce crappie spinnerbaits, which are hard to find in many areas. But jig-spinners — blades attached to safety-pin wire arms that clip to lightweight jigheads — work almost as well. A mini spinnerbait offers flash, vibration and color, all in a snag-resistant package."

To make the spinnerbait streamlined and easier to cast, Lefebre gets rid of the stranded silicone skirt, replacing it with a Mizmo Crappie Tube or Venom Super Do fan-tail lure. He also replaces the small Colorado blade with a willowleaf blade. His most productive body colors are clear with silver flake, white, pink or chartreuse.

"One of the best times for slow-rolling the 1/16-ounce spinnerbait up North is shortly after ice-out when bigger crappie show up in shallows and are fairly aggressive," adds Lefebre. "The crappie will be holding in the remnants of lily-pad beds and on wood cover, so a snag-resistant spinnerbait does the trick.

But it's during summer that a tiny spinnerbait shines for suspended crappie. I'll mark fish on my sonar, throw out a spinnerbait, adjust my trolling-motor speed to achieve the right depth with the bait and make passes through the school." A small slip-sinker can be placed in front of the spinnerbait to make it run deeper while still maintaining the lure's small profile.

Crankbait
Casting a crankbait might not make a list of the most productive techniques for crappie in many parts of the country, but pulling a crankbait is an entirely different matter. Crankbait pullers are targeting the same fish that Lefebre does by trolling a spinnerbait — crappie that are suspended at mid depth (perhaps as deep as 12 or 15 feet) and loosely schooled over a large, flat area. Alabama guide Brad Whitehead often uses this technique to load the boat.

"I pull cranks on 10- and 12-foot B'n'M Pro-Staff Trolling Rods," he says. "I use 10-pound monofilament on the 12-foot rods and 8-pound on the 10-foot rods. The lighter line on the inside rods allows the bait to dive a little deeper, thereby reducing tangles with the outside lines. This technique works best from late spring through early fall."

The crankbaits that Whitehead pulls include Bomber's Fat Free Fingerling and 6A, plus the Rebel Deep Wee R. These baits are 2 to 3 inches in length and weigh 3/8 ounce. For the novice, these lures may seem large for crappie. But keep in mind that the fish are striking out of reaction as these hard baits go by, so size doesn't matter. As long as they can get their oversized mouth around the bait, the crank isn't too big.

Swimbait
One of the hottest lures in recent seasons has been the swimbait. Small swimbaits closely resemble young shad in size, shape and swimming action.

Since many traditional soft-plastic baits used for crappie have a relatively subtle action and very little vibration, they are not the best choice for dingy water. However, a swimbait, such as Storm's 2-inch WildEye Swim Shad, can attract crappie in off-color water with its tail action.

Swimbaits can be cast over submerged cover near shore when shad are shallow or slow-trolled across a flat where scattered pods of shad often linger.

Jigging Spoon
What do you do when crappie go deep in late fall? According to crappie master Bob Hornstrom, you spoon feed them.

"When a stratified lake turns over and the really deep water becomes accessible to baitfish and fish, then my spooning begins in earnest at depths from 20 to 40 feet," explains Hornstrom.

He chooses a 1/4-ounce Kastmaster or Hopkins spoon in either chrome or gold finish, replaces the heavy-wire stock hook with a high-tech No. 6 treble hook and adds a swivel to the front of the spoon with a split ring.

Hornstrom fishes a spoon on a medium-light spinning outfit with 6- or 8- pound test line.

"Depending on where I observe fish on the sonar, I either let the spoon free-fall to the bottom or count it down to suspended fish," he says. "Then I use a snap of the wrist to jump the spoon, letting it fall back until the line is tight. Then every couple of seconds I lightly pump the rod again and repeat the fall. Crappie, white bass and even bluegills will eat it up."

Cicada Blade Bait
The Cicada Blade Bait from Reef Runner Tackle is an extremely versatile lure that has been used for years to catch crappie from 4 to 40 feet. There are several blade baits on the market, but only Cicadas are offered in 1/16- and 1/8-ounce sizes in addition to the standard sizes of ¼ ounce and up. Due to the curvature of the blade, the Cicada vibrates
more than flat blades.

You can vertical fish the 1/4- and 3/8-ounce sizes for deep-water crappie, presenting them like you would a jigging spoon by slowly lifting and lowering the rod. The Cicada puts out as much flash and a lot more vibration than a spoon. The 3/8-ounce model can also be slow-trolled similar to a crankbait.

The lighter sizes allow for shallow-water options. Anglers can fish the 1/8-ounce size similar to a jig on extended points where crappie are holding on rocks, low-cut stumps or sporadic weed clumps. However, a blade is not a good choice for brushpiles or areas of heavy weed growth.

To give extremely shallow crappie a different look, clip a bobber on the line about 18 inches in front of a 1/16-ounce Cicada and retrieve it slowly over a submerged weedbed or across the tops of stumps.

No matter which lure you choose, don't get stuck in a rut. Add these musthave lures to your crappie box and try something different the next time the fish won't bite.