re: Crappie Jigs

If Im casting and retrieving does it make a difference?

Loop knot makes it hang or swim more natural.

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by Ron Cheramie

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Ronald The Cajun Hedgehog Cheramie knows of what he speaks. But he's a front ending sob though.

We made a pass this morning with minnows and caught one. 10 min later a church friend comes behind me and fished for an hour pulling slab after slab with these. I was sold after that.

Kind of a long post, but I go for quality not quantity (There's pics for the picture book lovers too!), and day in and day out, crappie fishing is pretty much THE outdoor pursuit of my choice so I'm passionate about it. For the TLDR: put a glow stick or bass rattle inside your tubes and use a bait injector and wear some muddy water fish out.

When fishing the muddy COE lakes in Mississippi (or any muddy lake for that matter, and of which 95% of our lakes consist of) I'll use a glow stick OR a bass rattle- depends on what stage of crappie I'm fishing for and water clarity- to help the fish key in on the bait. A glow stick/rattle inside a tube will wear their arses out when others won't, especially in muddy water, and with a road runner giving some flash and thump in any situation, the aggressive fish- the hungry fish and the ones we are after- will have plenty incentive to bite. (Sometimes I change to hot color blades on my road runner heads like chart, orange, etc., when trolling for the big COE flood control reservoir females). I use 1/8oz. road runner heads 99% of the time whether single poling or spider rigging.

A unique benefit of using a glow stick inside your tube is that the glow stick wants to float. That means that you can use a heavier jig head but get the same rate of fall similar to a 1/16 oz (or less) jig head to get strikes from the finicky fish too. Also, using fishermans super glue for this technique (or any technique for that matter) will take about 30 seconds longer, but you can catch 20+ fish before you lose a glow stick/rattle/tube and have to re-rig, and that's usually because the tube is wore out.

Other than the tube/plastic that I'm using and the jig head, I'll gather up 4 items to rig up my jig with: 1) Fisherman's Super Glue from Carlsons Tackle. You can get it at Academy on the cheap. I never leave home without it. 2) One of "The Torch" rod tip glow tubes OR a large bass rattle depending on the day's needs. 3) A Bait Injector for crappie niblets. 4) A can of that BAM cover scent in crawfish or whatever my local store has it in. I believe in finicky fish (or fish period) being able to smell stuff like gas, tobacco, etc., and if you buy one of the injector pumps, if you use tubes, you'll never fool with a single crappie niblet again.

I like southern pro jumbo umbrella tubes the most because the following technique can be utilized more easily because it has room inside the tube. Plus it falls slower, they are of good quality and they aren't too expensive. (Bobby Garland is getting outrageous.)

I take my plastic and my jig head (And if my jig/road runner has one of those stupid "jig keeper" barbs along the hook shank, I pinch it off with a pair or leathermans. I do this regardless because I hate those things.) and I tie the head to my line and hit the knot with a shot of super glue to make it hold in the perfect position for hook sets, and it also prevents knot failure after catching 30+ Grenads giants in brush piles all day.

I then thread my tube onto the jig head as close to the top of the tube "chamber" as possible to give as much room as possible inside the tube for the next steps. Where the hook shank enters and leaves the tube, I place a drop of super glue to hold it tight.

I then take a glow tube (or bass rattle) and crack it in order to get the glow going, put a drop of glue on the smaller non-bulged end, and quickly slide it inside the tube. Glow sticks I like the best, the Torch:



I then take my crappie niblet injector and squirt the niblets inside the tube under the glow stick or rattle. Don't worry, there's room: It'll inject in there and fatten up the now glowing/rattling tasty sum bich even more. I like the crappie niblets with the sparkles in it. I then hit it with a shot a cover scent and go fish. The injector I have:



It seems like a lot, but it takes maybe 90 seconds to do it. If you ain't catching chit, try it out. I rarely fish without a glow stick or rattle in my tubes and never fish without a crappie niblet injector and a tube full of niblets. It's like a little crappie Tootsie Roll.

The final product with the flash on:



Now with the flash off, the crappie Tootsie Roll:



Don't knock it until ya try it because it works!