Just stirring the pot. It does amaze me the number of people who believe you have to have a certain color, brand bait, crappie niblets or giblets or whatever they are (a guide told me he NEVER fishes without the crappie bites or whatever they are). I am pretty sure there are times that you need something special or a particular bait or method to catch crappie, but I will almost guarantee you the next couple weeks you can probably catch crappie on most anything. I caught some last Saturday on a 1/2 oz. chatterbait. I have caught them on buzzbaits, hula poppers, #13 floating rapalas, 3/4 oz willow leaf spinnerbaits, plastic worms, bubble gum flukes, my dads favorite bait many years ago was a Hawaiin wiggler, almost anything this time of the year. I am not that good a crappie fisherman because it is the only time I fish for them, when they come up shallow and they are eating. The rest of the year I have never fished for them. Also, I never fished for crappie before 10 in the morning. Before there was a limit my friend and myself had many 200 fish days and 150 was about average when the crappie came up shallow, our best was somewhere around 250. I guess it is a good thing (we were much younger and stupid, would not keep that many now even if it was legal, I did supply the fish for fish fries then though) that we only got to fish a couple days when the crappie are "catchable" back then. The last few years, I have only been able to fish a couple hours at a time. Sure miss the times I got fish as much as I wished to an extent.
I do have many things (fishing and hunting) that I am very particular about, crappie fishing right before they go on bed is not one of them though.
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