Northwest Fishing Reports

Whats your crappie bait? I use the 1/64 oz mini micro jig in white and yellow and white and glo, tiped with maggot. I know people use minnows. The newest lur I just heard of is hotshots cant wait to try that. I even heard of people using needlefish and maggot, sounds like it would work but never tried it. I know a lot of people who catch them on accident going for bass and walleye on 6" plugs

i am one of those "accidental" types. i have caught mine while after other fish. i will be paying close attention to this thread though, as i'd love to get a little more specialized and zero in on these fish. i prefer the taste of crappie and in most areas there is no limit on them.

for the same reasons (taste & limits), i'd like to zero in on perch too. i'm in eastern washington (spokane/cd'a area), but venture to central washington occassionally.

i welcome any and all advice, and pictures of successful crappie/perch setups! =d>

I have only caught crappie when keeping it simple with just a worm.

trout cowboy: Panfish are the best. When you find them and figure em out a 100 fish day is very possible. They are very very very tasty LOL. Do you have an ultra light pole? PM me if your intrested in tips I love panfish and would have no problem helping ya out


Bustin: you cant go wrong with a worm. Me like alot of fisherman only fished with worms when I first started fishing, now Im grown and the market as far as gear keeps gettin more and more "hi-tech" but I will never forget my routes. The worm will always put fish on the stringer

i will use jigs from 1/80oz-1/16oz depending on the different situations i'm presented with, but most of the time i like to go as small as possible for weight. my go to baits are small 1"-2" tubes, but i will also use hair jigs, white grubs, beavers, these thingys that i got off ebay that slaughter panfish, and other misc. stuff. always tip the jig with a maggot, crappie nibble, or sometimes perch meat.

gpc wrote:Whats your crappie bait? I use the 1/64 oz mini micro jig in white and yellow and white and glo, tiped with maggot. I know people use minnows. The newest lur I just heard of is hotshots cant wait to try that. I even heard of people using needlefish and maggot, sounds like it would work but never tried it. I know a lot of people who catch them on accident going for bass and walleye on 6" plugs

i agree with u on this one i prefer a small jig tipped with either a bit of night crawler or a berkley power maggot havent tried the minnows or the needle fish

cole steffens wrote:

gpc wrote:Whats your crappie bait? I use the 1/64 oz mini micro jig in white and yellow and white and glo, tiped with maggot. I know people use minnows. The newest lur I just heard of is hotshots cant wait to try that. I even heard of people using needlefish and maggot, sounds like it would work but never tried it. I know a lot of people who catch them on accident going for bass and walleye on 6" plugs

i agree with u on this one i prefer a small jig tipped with either a bit of night crawler or a berkley power maggot havent tried the minnows or the needle fish

Yeah Im not huge on minnows either. Iv tried em but they didnt get me too far. Do those berkely maggots work for you? I have some and only tried them a couple times but they dont seem to work as well as real maggots. Iv used the worms too and they are all right but they dont seem to work as good as the real thing. But when its all said and done Iv been using the real thing my whole life and only tried the fake ones a hnadful of times so maybe Im just not giving them a chance

gpc wrote:

cole steffens wrote:

gpc wrote:Whats your crappie bait? I use the 1/64 oz mini micro jig in white and yellow and white and glo, tiped with maggot. I know people use minnows. The newest lur I just heard of is hotshots cant wait to try that. I even heard of people using needlefish and maggot, sounds like it would work but never tried it. I know a lot of people who catch them on accident going for bass and walleye on 6" plugs

i agree with u on this one i prefer a small jig tipped with either a bit of night crawler or a berkley power maggot havent tried the minnows or the needle fish

Yeah Im not huge on minnows either. Iv tried em but they didnt get me too far. Do those berkely maggots work for you? I have some and only tried them a couple times but they dont seem to work as well as real maggots. Iv used the worms too and they are all right but they dont seem to work as good as the real thing. But when its all said and done Iv been using the real thing my whole life and only tried the fake ones a hnadful of times so maybe Im just not giving them a chance

power maggots work awesome ive caught ive caught all kinds of fish on em i prefer them over the real thing becaude there far more durable id like to try the gulp maggots and see if the better if anyones tryed them tell me how they are

gpc wrote:

cole steffens wrote:

gpc wrote:Whats your crappie bait? I use the 1/64 oz mini micro jig in white and yellow and white and glo, tiped with maggot. I know people use minnows. The newest lur I just heard of is hotshots cant wait to try that. I even heard of people using needlefish and maggot, sounds like it would work but never tried it. I know a lot of people who catch them on accident going for bass and walleye on 6" plugs

i agree with u on this one i prefer a small jig tipped with either a bit of night crawler or a berkley power maggot havent tried the minnows or the needle fish

Yeah Im not huge on minnows either. Iv tried em but they didnt get me too far. Do those berkely maggots work for you? I have some and only tried them a couple times but they dont seem to work as well as real maggots. Iv used the worms too and they are all right but they dont seem to work as good as the real thing. But when its all said and done Iv been using the real thing my whole life and only tried the fake ones a hnadful of times so maybe Im just not giving them a chance

power maggots work awesome ive caught all kinds of fish on them and i prefer them over the real thing because there far more durable id like to try the gulp maggots and see if their better if anyones tried them tell me how they are

Yeah I have the GULP! maggots. I think those are supposed to work better. They are a buck more per jar and that gulp is supposed to out fish live bait 4:1, I dont know if I believe that or not. But I prefer the GULP! powe eggs over the regular berkely eggs. But who knows maybe thats why I havent done too well with the fake maggots, I got the $6 jar and got skunked, you got the $5 jar and are knocking them dead LOL,

i used to use a small hook and a fake maggot in north carolina and catch a bunch. since i came out here, i have been using small gitzit jigs 1/32 i believe. i havent tried them with maggots yet but i was thinking about getting the gulp maggots i saw at wally world. you guys know where to get crappie nibbles at? wal-mart in renton doesnt seem to have them. they have the trout nibbles though.

tnj8222 wrote:i used to use a small hook and a fake maggot in north carolina and catch a bunch. since i came out here, i have been using small gitzit jigs 1/32 i believe. i havent tried them with maggots yet but i was thinking about getting the gulp maggots i saw at wally world. you guys know where to get crappie nibbles at? wal-mart in renton doesnt seem to have them. they have the trout nibbles though.

Sportsmans warehouse in federal way has a pretty larege selection of ceappie nibbles. There is only a couple colors of crappie nibbles but last time I was there they had just about every color

gpc wrote:Yeah I have the GULP! maggots. I think those are supposed to work better. They are a buck more per jar and that gulp is supposed to out fish live bait 4:1, I dont know if I believe that or not. But I prefer the GULP! powe eggs over the regular berkely eggs. But who knows maybe thats why I havent done too well with the fake maggots, I got the $6 jar and got skunked, you got the $5 jar and are knocking them dead LOL,

yea i noticed that they costed more but they look really soft and flimsy and i want something that really hangs on to the hook i mean who wants to be constanly rebaiting

cole steffens wrote:

gpc wrote:Yeah I have the GULP! maggots. I think those are supposed to work better. They are a buck more per jar and that gulp is supposed to out fish live bait 4:1, I dont know if I believe that or not. But I prefer the GULP! powe eggs over the regular berkely eggs. But who knows maybe thats why I havent done too well with the fake maggots, I got the $6 jar and got skunked, you got the $5 jar and are knocking them dead LOL,

yea i noticed that they costed more but they look really soft and flimsy and i want something that really hangs on to the hook i mean who wants to be constanly rebaiting

Yeah I hear ya there Id rather be fishing than rebaiting. Maybe taht was the problem I was just using the wrong kind. Ill have to get some of the other ones. They are a lot cheapert than real maggots. I cant touch or even look at a maggot unless I pay for it. And they dont last on they hook at all. When I hitten the crappie I probally pay $15 for the weekend. So these would be worth a shot. Cool thanks

Just a jig, or does a guy use a slip bobber as well?

heck yea ill fish my jigs under a bobber . i like to cast them out and retieve them real slow i think the bobber adds more action to the jig sometimes plus u can move the bobber up and down your line to fish different depths to see where the fish are at

Wilkstr wrote:Just a jig, or does a guy use a slip bobber as well?

Ill use a bober when fishing from shore, but I do most of my crappie fishing from a dock, and you dont really need a boberfor verticle fishing

One of my favorite lures is one of those tiny beetle spin detatchable spinner bait arms with a variety of small jigs with any small plastic,(curltail, tube, etc.) just cast and retrieve.

mallard83 wrote:One of my favorite lures is one of those tiny beetle spin detatchable spinner bait arms with a variety of small jigs with any small plastic,(curltail, tube, etc.) just cast and retrieve.

Iv always heard those woeked well what kind of bait do you put on there? if any. And what color do you like to use

sometimes i tip it with a piece of worm or Gulp power maggot (white). mostly i don't tip it though. I prefer to mostly use white when using cultail grubs, and greens and browns when using tubes and beaver tails. but i will switch colors if weather and water clarity differ from my normal spots. those are my favorite all around colors though for any conditions. also the smallest plastic shad you can find work well too as this imitates a small school of baitfish if combined with the tiny spinnerbait blade. and a small maribo jig will work well on this as well. The best thing about this lure is the virsitilty of being able to switch jig heads and plastics in a matter of seconds. This set up is a fast and effective way to locate schools of crappie for still fishing. I have also caught some nice size largemouths and other panfish and trout on this little settup