If you want to catch more crappies, Dan Galusha says to reach for baits you would use to catch black bass.

When fishing for crappies, thoughts go to using baits like small tube jigs, T-Shad, Phat Shad, panfish Road Runners, ice jigs with Crappie Nibbles, and minnows. However, through the years, I’ve learned that black bass lures can catch a lot of “strawberry bass”—especially the larger ones.

This is a selection of my most productive bass lure “crappie catchers.” There are others, but these have proven the best over the years.

Swimbaits are my best bass baits for crappies. I like to stick with the 3- to 4-inch sizes, such as the Natural Forage Baits’ Swimbait and Fat Head Shad (Green Shad and Toledo Shad), and B-Fish-N’s Pulse-R and Paddletail (Oyster). These are used like the Slab Dragger, but sometimes with a faster constant retrieve, as well as for longer drops in deeper water, and for bottom crawling. The bottom crawling isn’t as effective for crappies, but often works with a drop to the bottom where it is allowed to sit for a couple of seconds before imparting a quick, upward jerk followed by a constant retrieve. Strikes often come just as the lure is jerked from the bottom. I’ve found this to work earlier in the season where weeds are just starting to grow.

Similar to swimbaits are “no action” soft plastic stick baits like a NFB Lil’ Killer and Drop Shad (Green Shad, Toledo Shad and Shad). I use these lures with a straight “do nothing” retrieve, lift-and-fall, or straight “finger jigging.” The most productive has been the finger jigging, especially when paralleling a shore or fishing over and on the deep side of submerged, fish-holding structure (brush, weeds, and so on).

Another lure that is fished just like the stick style baits is B-Fish-N’s Ribb Finn (Oyster). This bait’s ribs create a little different motion, especially with finger jigging. The ribs also create bubbles and hold scent, such as the Kick’n Crappie that I use frequently with all baits, including the Natural Forage Baits that already have Kick’n Bass scents “cooked” into their lures.

Most crappie anglers totally ignore soft plastic jerk baits. I use the NFB 5-inch Jerk Shad and FT-Shad (Green Shad, Erie and Tennessee Shad). It is large, and mainly for large crappies that will look at it when in a very aggressive mood. In fact, I was totally surprised the first day I was consistently catching crappies on it, and it being the lure of the day. Since then, there have been several times when it excelled, especially along riprap areas with weeds and brush in nearby deeper water.

The hook of choice is the Daiichi Bleeding Bait Copperhead in the 3/0 and 4/0 sizes. This is a very large hook for crappies, but evidently not for the larger ones. I think the flash of red also helps. There is no difference in technique when using the lure for bass, other than I fish it more with a slow, constant retrieve, or finger jigging, which is where it helps to use either my B‘n’M Poles’ 8-foot Russ Bailey or 7-foot 75 Series rods. The one-piece 75 Series works the best, especially for finger jigging

Of the soft plastic lures mentioned, other than the jerk style, I use on four different jig heads. The main one is the B-Fish-N H2O Precision head that is used with all, with the others being a Road Runner, Casey’s Runner Head and Blitz Pro Spin Underspin.

Quite a few years ago, professional crappie angler Larry Stephens told me that his secret to catching large fish in tournaments was using bass crankbaits. Instead of using “spider rigs,” he would go after his “kicker fish” by trolling with 1/4- to 3/8-ounce crankbaits. His favorites were Bill Norman’s N Series.

I’ve also used the N Series with success, but I’ve probably caught more using the 1/4-ounce Mini Rat-L-Trap, and occasionally the 1/2-ounce size. Use this like when fishing for bass, with no special retrieve. Even the colors are a mix, just like when fishing for bass. Whatever works on that day is the one used, and since I have about 6 main Rat-L-Trap colors, it would be difficult to say one outperforms the other.

The next time you are in a situation when you want to fish for bass, but don’t care if there is a good crappie bite as well, pull out the black bass lures, and you just might catch some slab size “strawberry bass.”

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