Wired2Fish staffer McKeon Roberts unveils the sleeper tactic of pitching micro crankbaits in the shallows for aggressive springtime and early summer crappies.
Like bass, crappies have large mouths well-equipped for eating big meals. Small crankbaits and jerkbaits are an excellent crappie option when you’re seeing baitfish fry darting around — this typically coincides with late spring and early summer, and baits like the Rapala Ultra Light Shad do an excellent job resembling natural forage.
It seems half nuts, but small trebled baits fish amazing clean through reeds while getting cover-locked crappie to lift out of their haunts and eat. Mckeon discusses how to make precise pitch casts to wads of fish while controlling the sink rate of the bait, and how to work it through cover with minimal fouling. This same tactic works well when targeting crappies relating to submerged brush piles, drop-offs and even scatted along grass flats.
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