Gotta find more Nungesser spoons !Tipped with shiner heads or tails they caught 4 nice thick Crappie between 11-13.5 " through the ice today .Low 20's and was just getting dink perch and gills toil I went shallower ,later in the outing .They hit 4:30 -5pm .Missed my first two till I let them slowly swim away a little .When the line tightened I set .

Good Crappie on Hus spoons /Minnow heads or tails .Got five between 10.5-12.5" a few days ago.Cant find these larger spoons on the net any more .Been using what I think are 1/4 and 1/2 oz spoons .

A few months ago .Catching these on two #test and 32nd oz. tube Jigs is great fun!

Nice looking black crappies John.

They are good sized in my home lake now Dick .Not sure if they are crowding out the better Bluegills though .

Here's some custom jigs I've done this past week.

Those are indeed custom jigs...great work!

Great ties Allen I really like them heads with the recess for the eyes.

very nice

Allen;; are those sickle hooks on these jigs?/  where did you find them

Carl, yes, those are sickle hooks.  Got them from crazyanglertackle.

Ok, did a couple more today.  Bottom two are rabbit zonkers, really like the looks of those.

i like all of them Allan!  thanks on the advise on crazy angler.

Love the ties Allen them rabbit zonkers will give a lot of life to the jig.

Excellent looking Crappie Jigs Allen!

wow nice jigs Allan

The Crappie certainly like the slow fall of a jig or spoon and it seems too much movement will turn them off . The White Perch will take to the more frequent twitches but Crappie ,moreso just a tight line fall. Spoons untipped or with a piece of Crawler  , Tube Jigs in red/White are attracting them.

Some smaller Crappie caught from shore using Fatheads, Shiners ,Night Crawlers and Tube jigs . Tube jigs out fished the minnows and crawlers this time .

Looks like the crappies are restless WTG.

A dozen 5" Crappie(one 12") took Fatheads today at my home lake .Bonus Largemouth 2#6oz.

Excellent Richard!... looking forward to seeing some pics!!

the elusive Master Angler Black Crappie Master Angler has eluded me thus far

I was catching some decent 13" Crappie back in Oklahoma, in the Arkansas River, just below Keystone Dam.  Live minnow under a float, toss it out into the tailout of the scour hole during hydroelectric generation.  The bait would be maybe 3' down, just above the rocks.  The current would set up an eddy that covered the entire stilling basin.  Throw out as far as I could, and just keep the slack out as the rig drifted in the current.  When the float went under, fish on!

Last time out the Crappies were 12-13 " got 7 on Shiners .Went a little deeper 20 or more feet  and picked up three good Yellow Perch .They are in the same area around rocks near a bluff and quick dropoff.

Now I know where you and your beer were stationed...and I still can't get to it!

shhh!

Two three lb Bass and 2 Pickerel mixed in with 5 Crappies yesterday fishing with pal Steve O 'Bringer. No Perch though .Shiners again nothing on Crawlers.

13" took a Black /Chartreuse tube Jig

black and chartreuse is a all time favorite here to John !   great looking slab !

It out fished the Pink and Orange yesterday Carl!

Thanks man!

Has anyone seen ,or have a picture of a Crappie/Flier Hybrid?

My favorite crappie catching spot is frozen over. Spring can't come fast enough!

Gary;;  nice little place to catch them !

Nice-looking lake!  Will it freeze thick enough to walk on?  Do you have ice-fishing gear?

I've never been fishing in cold weather...until now. John seems to think I'm on my way, though. This lake isn't too deep, so I expect it would freeze over totally. I have no ice-fishing gear, so I would be starting from scratch.

Yes Allen that lake freezes and most of the ice fishing pics I have up are catches from there .This year may be too warm  because of El Nino perhaps.  There is ice fishing allowed in the deeper  half of the lake the northern shallow part is reserved for skaters .I catch fish from 8- 22 ' through the ice here . Some real fine Crappie in years past .Perch ,Gills , Bass , I even got this pretty ,though thin Brown Trout one year .

heres a better pic: http://bigbluegill.com/photo/ice-jigged-brown-trout?context=album&a...

Nice!

Gary, I'm in the same boat, as far as ice-fishing equipment.  I just moved up to Michigan a couple months ago.  No ice-fishing gear at all.  Money's been a little to tight right now for me to acquire much in the way of gear.  I've bought an ice-skimmer, but only because it's cheap.  I still need a spud bar, ice auger, and a rod-reel rig at the bare minimum.  Really will want a flasher and a pop-up shack if I truly want to take off on my own, which is not really the safest thing.

Never having ice fished, I didn't know all that equipment was needed. Never thought about it. I'm in the situation now where I'm pricing out all the goodies I want to properly trick out my new kayak. Between now and Spring I expect to drop some serious change on a variety of gear. Ice fishing gear will have to wait. Guess I'll just have to sit back and enjoy the pictures everyone else posts over the next three months.

I hear ya there!

Regarding Black Coloring of Crappie being Male only , here is a quote from ,'In-Fisherman Critical Concepts 2 ;Crappie Location ': "Crappies turn dark to absorb maximum sunlight .The heating process then keys their metabolism for greater feeding and  quicker egg maturation . Some anglers suppose that only Males turn coal black" Apparently both sexes do .Could this be at all true of Bluegills and other fish? 

Only one but hope this bodes well for a Crappie turn on ! 12"

Crappie fishing is on at the home lake ,lots of 8-10 " hitting 32nd tube jigs mostly . Some more aggressive fish hitting the 2" and 4" 'Keitech easy shiners'. Fishing the lake I caught the 12" below ,tomorrow afternoon to dark bite .I'll be with brother Greg hunting for them and other species , Gill, Bass, Perch, Pickerel.

Happening today too.Took bigger 4" bait better today . 16th oz head on a Keitech ES.

Greg and I vertical jigged up about 9 Crappie between 12-15" in 8-12 ' of water . 3" Mojo reefer,3 and 4" Keitech  Easy Shiners took them .The Crappie are definitely more  aggressive now .