Anybody got any new ideas for a crappie/bluegill rig? Kinda tried all I new and experimented, but now it's time for some new stuff.

It's not new, but one time fishing for smallmouths in the evening on a topwater prop bait, I caught a big crappie. Well actually caught it after several small top water swirls and missed strikes. Yet I kept trying until the fish bit the hook.

The other weekend I did something I was kind of proud of. I had some roostertails that I had never used. I cut the wire in the middle then using 20lbs leader material I more or less reassembled them on as a typical duel crappie rig. I put a heavy duty barrel swivel at the top. At both ends I tied a knot to hold it in place, then the bead, the feather, and a snap. I put the snap on so I could switch from plain hooks to jigs with grubs on it.

-James

Have ya tried a sabiki rig ( click here ) ? cabelas has them. I have used them for catching bait for catfish, course it worked well for crappies also.

Check the local regs before using a Sabiki. They are effective, but illegal some places that have a 'two hook' regulation. Tom

Try catching them on a fly rod. If you don't want to spend a whole bunch on new equipment, use a clear casting bubble about 2 to 3 feet above the fly. Make sure to use mono cause it has less of a tendency to sink. I use a little bit of WD-40 between the bubble and fly when the line starts to absorb water. This is also a great rig for getting kids into topwater fishing without having them perfect working a topwater bait. And yes make sure to use dry flies.

the only thing i use for crappie and perch is ice fishing jigs moonlite ones i use them year round they work great on spring and early summer walleyes to

A trick that I have found very effective for panfish is to take a regular inline spinner (I use a Worden's Rooster Tail) and tip it with some powerbait trout dough.

i found that glow in the dark jigs with a minnow green is best works great

i use moon glow jigs with either a minnow or wax worms. there is times that it's good to use small crank baits on the surface or just below it-- like the baby bang-o's or rebel wee-r's and even the small floating rapala's worked right on the surface. when i find the crappy hanging over the weed tops. i rig what i call my cheap beetle spin and they work great.

my cheap beetle spin is------ i take a small jig....1/32 up to no bigger than a 1/4oz......i have a box of different colors in each size at hand. along with a bunch of saftey pin spinners......ranging from size of 0 to 4's colorado blades....... i do have 5 different colors for my blades....silver, gold, yellow, chartrouse and orange.....the curl tail grubs.....use the size that fits on the jig hook and for color my best has been black, white, pumpkinseed and motor oil.

a couple of years ago i add the roadrunner jigs to my jig box so i would have the double spinner affect......this 1 has worked great on the small eyes in my area----- at least the one i just moved from ----

I have found Crappie to be a lot more sensitive to color than most any other species.  For instance you can be trolling four rods  with four different colors and most of the time they will cater to one color over the other three.  Usually, after a few fish I will change all of them to the same color but tomorrow may be a different story.  Sometimes I have doctored up the jig with a minnow on the hook as well.  The last couple of years I have gone to trolling with a small crank bait.  Wally Marshall has a fairly good color mixture but they are overpriced in my book.  Last year I tried building a few small spinner baits that worked OK.  The main change for me in the last few years has been size.  I don't catch as many but most of what I catch are really nice--somewhere from a pound up to an occasional three pounds(usually it is the wife that gets that one).  Next thing you know she's telling where to troll and how fast and do you think we might try another spot?  It sure beats shopping at the mall unless you are lucky enough to have a Bass Pro shop or similar kind of store in you mall.  Good luck and great fishing--one of the best eating fish I know of.  Uncle Tom

A trick I discovered by accident works great for me.
While fishing with my wife and daughter they had a serious hook accident.
I had just cast out and had to lay my rod down as the situation required immediate attention.
After playing surgeon, nursemaid and therapist, I returned to my fishing. As I brought the roostertail up off the bottom and burned it through the water a big slab crappie detonated on it.
The crappie hadn't been biting too well that day but after repeating this tactic several times I was able to land quite a few good ones. Just cast out and let it lay for a couple minutes and then burn it in.

I've thought of trying to design a specialty rig in the past.

Can anyone add to this?

I watched an episode of Rusty Faulk outdoors one day. It was about trolling for crappie using crankbaits. By using line counter reels, you can control the depths of your lures by how many feet of line you let out. Run out a 100 feet on one reel and 110 on another and so on. He was using 6 rods from 8 - 16 foot (longest ones up front) and used a range of 70 thru 120 feet in 10 foot changes. I tried and it worked pretty good. Use different color lures until you develope a pattern. Pink seemed to be the best for me. Caught some bonus fish too.

saw a guy last spring catching crappie on a little bobber with very small goby about 3 feet down.

My go to lure is a 1/32 jig with a Creme 2" tricolor twister tail in blue/black tipped with a crappie nibble.  Those Creme twister tails are hard to come by in N VA so have a buddy in SC who sends to me - gets them from WalMart. Use this in Spring as casting, long lining or trolling. Add weight in front depending on what depth level you want to fish. Winter fishing the live minnow reigns surpreme.... only bites on 12 JAN - cold foggy day were on minnows - rosey reds. Other boats near us weren't getting many bites. Have had success with 1/64 oz trout magnets in the spring.