Tom Berg,The Spin on Spring Crappies

Fishing for crappies in the springtime is an annual ritual for many Midwestern anglers, and I must admit that I’m one of them. There is just nothing like the feeling of seeing a 13 or 14 inch (or 15 inch!) crappie come up to the surface out of the depths after a harrowing battle on ultralight tackle. That’s when your heart races and you yell “Get the net!”

I can distinctly remember a cloudy early-spring day in the not-so-distant past, when I found a small school of crappies holding around a sparse weedbed in 8 or 9 feet of water. I was using a small Beetle Spin that was green with black stripes, and the crappies were jumping all over it. They were all big pre-spawn slabs, too, averaging between 12 and 13 inches and weighing a pound or more.

They would not rise up and hit the spinner if I ran it too fast or too close to the surface. I had to reel it in slowly, and let it flutter down to the tops of the weeds. If the presentation was just right, they would nonchalantly glide up off of the bottom and suck the bait it. It was almost magical. Ever since that day, small spinners have been among my favorite spring crappie baits.

Crappies have always been attracted to spinners, and they are still falling for them today. Inline spinners and safety pin-style spinners (spinnerbaits) are both productive, but the safety pin-style spinners are probably the most widely used by crappie fishermen.

Spinners are such good crappie baits because they use three different attraction factors. The first is the silver spinner blade. Spinner blades revolve and spin faster and slower depending on the retrieve speed. When the blade spins, it catches sunlight and reflects it - resembling silvery minnows and other baitfish. The flash from the spinner blade is a major attractor.

The second attraction factor is the spinner body itself. The spinner body represents a minnow or other prey animal that the crappie can key-in on once it is attracted by the flashy spinner blade. Some spinner bodies have a single or double tail, while others have a curly tail that undulates and seems to “swim” in the water. All of these factors help convince a hungry crappie to take the bait.

The final and often most important attraction factor, is the body color. Crappie

spinners come in almost every color in the rainbow, from orange to white to blue (and every color in between). Some colors are best based upon prevailing weather conditions, like bright day = bright colors and dark day = dark colors. Other colors are made for different water conditions. Fluorescent colors are often the hot ticket when the water has been muddied by spring rain storms. That’s when fluorescent chartreuse and fluorescent orange (and others) are best. Natural or muted colors like brown, smoke and green are usually better when the water is clear and the fish can see them better. There are no absolute rules, though, so experimentation is always important. Popular Crappie Spinners Johnson Beetle Spins are deadly for spring crappies, whether you are working on schooling fish around submerged weedbeds or whether you are targeting individuals that are spawning in shallow water. Two Beetle Spin colors that are absolutely fantastic for crappies are the green body with black stripes (catalpa) and the white body with red spots. The classic Mister Twister spinners can also spell doom for unsuspecting papermouths. Mister Twister Curly Tail Grubs come in a wide variety of colors, and the curly tail has excellent action underwater. Some of my favorite springtime colors include plain white, plain yellow, chartreuse and white/pink firetail. Plain white is particularly good when paired with a pink jighead. If the crappies become finicky and won’t hit a larger spinner, switch to a Mister Twister 3” Meeny or even a 2” Teenie grub. Downsizing often results in good action when the Ken Crappie! fishing gets tough. If the fish want something even smaller, go with a Mister Twister 1” Li’l Bit spin combo (1/32 oz). Tiny baits can be deadly. For those who prefer inline spinners, I have found that ultralite Mepps Aglia and Comet Mino spinners are very good. The tiny Mepps Spin Fly is another great choice. I prefer spinners with a polished silver blade for crappies rather than a gold or copper blade, and I usually use one with a white or red tail. My other favorite inline crappie spinner is a small white Rooster Tail spinner. One thing is for sure: when crappies hit the shallows in the spring, they can be caught in great numbers with spinners. When the action really heats up, small spinners can even outproduce live bait since no time is lost re-baiting (and you don’t have to worry about running out of minnows!). Give spinners a try this year and see for yourself!

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