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hello, i'm not a very frequent user of fm but am hoping someone is willing to share a little info with me on crappies. we have a cabin up in redgut and we love crappies but can't seem to catch them with any regularity. we always used to catch them right along with the walleyes by just pulling our bait up a couple feet. i have tried this a few times with not much luck but we do get a few. i'm looking for any advice i can get to maybe help put a few more crappies in the boat a little more often. do plastics work well with smaller jigs or do a jig and minnow combo work better? we usually do well for walleyes so it sometimes is hard to change things up to target crappies but this year i'm gonna try with any advice i may receive.

thank you, dennis

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Welcome Dennisc,

I certainly am jealous that you guys have a cabin up in that gorgeous country! wink.gif The biggest key to finding crappies up there in the summer time is to rely on your electronics. A good set of electronics is key to catching those silver dollars. If you own a flasher such as an Fl-8 it can be a great tool to put more crappies in the boat.

I like to fish them with Southern Crappie Pro Tubes. For summer time I like to use ones with a little bigger profile. Green/Black, Chartruese, and White are three better colors. When you find the crappies, just casting the jig out and letting it fall will produce fish...just watch your line for anything unusual...sometimes those crappies can be tricky. For summertime use I like to use 1/16 if I am fishing in 14-20' of water and 1/8 oz. if I am fishing a little deeper. Of course I use a little heavier of a jig if it is windy, but no heavier than a 1/4. Northland make leadhead jigs that are intentionally made to use with plastics and that is the kind to get...they look like a cylinder.

My advice would be to look to the places that you are catching crappies while you are walleye fishing. When you are marking suspended fish on the graph, throw out a marker just off of the school and start casting those plastics into that area. You will catch 'em!

Right now the crappies are scattered, so personally I would wait another week or so for the best fishing! Theres always plenty of walleyes!

Take Care and Good Luck Fishing!

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thanks alot for the info. we'll be up there for 9 days starting friday 7/18 so i'll give it a try and see how it goes. i'll try to remember to post a report when i get back.

thank you, dennis

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