As spring comes alive in the Midwest. The ponds are scumming. The grass is growing in the ponds. I noticed today since it was blue bird sky’s ( fishing wasn’t great) there is a ton of frogs and a ton of crappie in the large pond. Does that affect your lure selection? Do you go darker like black and blues to imitate a crappie? Or just stick with the panfish look as usual. 

I would imagine a crappie being pursued by a hungry bass doesn't look much like anything except for a flash of white and then nothing.  Not really gonna be able to mimick that!

 

The best crappie imitators out there in my experience are KGB Glide baits that are made to look exactly like a medium to smallish adult crappie that a large bass might eat - making it look like anything other than a Glide bait in the water when it's moving is another story!

 

I'd worry more about where the bass live and when they like to hunt, water clarity, structure, whether bass are wanting to chase or have it slow, near the surface or feeding low etc. and other things like that when determining lure color and size and category  and all that.

 

Bass eat crappie though!  White is a pretty good crappie/shad/sunfish/baby bass/frog/living animal imitator because most things have white in their bellies and especially the juveniles of most species that bass are likely to favor over fully grown ones - most are just a little pale wisp in the water.

8 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I would imagine a crappie being pursued by a hungry bass doesn't look much like anything except for a flash of white and then nothing.  Not really gonna be able to mimick that!

 

The best crappie imitators out there in my experience are KGB Glide baits that are made to look exactly like a medium to smallish adult crappie that a large bass might eat - making it look like anything other than a Glide bait in the water when it's moving is another story!

 

I'd worry more about where the bass live and when they like to hunt, water clarity, structure, whether bass are wanting to chase or have it slow, near the surface or feeding low etc. and other things like that when determining lure color and size and category  and all that.

 

Bass eat crappie though!  White is a pretty good crappie/shad/sunfish/baby bass/frog/living animal imitator because most things have white in their bellies and especially the juveniles of most species that bass are likely to favor over fully grown ones - most are just a little pale wisp in the water.

Thanks pat!!! Excellent points! I’ve figured out these ponds don’t do well in blue bird sky’s, obviously. Morning seems great. During the week. Weekends are to pressured. Even tho water clarity is 3-4 feet darker jugs and worms do better than browns and greens. But those do work too!! Right now it’s starting to be some a grass fields. And the surface is rapidly choking in slop and filament algae

6 minutes ago, Joedodge said:

Thanks pat!!! Excellent points! I’ve figured out these ponds don’t do well in blue bird sky’s, obviously. Morning seems great. During the week. Weekends are to pressured. Even tho water clarity is 3-4 feet darker jugs and worms do better than browns and greens. But those do work too!! Right now it’s starting to be some a grass fields. And the surface is rapidly choking in slop and filament algae

 

 

Stick with what works is always a good move!  That's a piece of the puzzle you may already have figured out.  😎 

 

Bluebird skies are big fish days.  Target shade and heavy cover near main structure!

1 hour ago, Joedodge said:

As spring comes alive in the Midwest. The ponds are scumming. The grass is growing in the ponds. I noticed today since it was blue bird sky’s ( fishing wasn’t great) there is a ton of frogs and a ton of crappie in the large pond. Does that affect your lure selection? Do you go darker like black and blues to imitate a crappie? Or just stick with the panfish look as usual. 

 

I fished a lot of those type of ponds growing up.  They all had crappie in them and when the crappie are spawning the bass are munching on them, especially the 6-8" ones.  Black and blue or black and chartreuse (dirty water) always worked regardless.  That said, if you want to do a little more match the hatch check out 'mud shad' from sieberts.  I like it just as a general clear water all purpose baitfish swimjig and spinnerbait (as well as the chartreuse tinged version dirty shad).  If your crappie are more of the gold colored black crappie then adjust accordingly.

16 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

 

 

Stick with what works is always a good move!  That's a piece of the puzzle you may already have figured out.  😎 

 

Bluebird skies are big fish days.  Target shade and heavy cover near main structure!

That’s an issue lol. These are round ponds. No shade only downs or anything. I gotta find some with some structure. I’m trying!!!

7 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

 

I fished a lot of those type of ponds growing up.  They all had crappie in them and when the crappie are spawning the bass are munching on them, especially the 6-8" ones.  Black and blue or black and chartreuse (dirty water) always worked regardless.  That said, if you want to do a little more match the hatch check out 'mud shad' from sieberts.  I like it just as a general clear water all purpose baitfish swimjig and spinnerbait (as well as the chartreuse tinged version dirty shad).  If your crappie are more of the gold colored black crappie then adjust accordingly.

Yea.black or black blue works very well for me. Ohh I’ll check that color out!!!

Shade in your situation is the point where your bait disappears essentially.  Deeper spots.  Find deeper spots with clean bottom and work the contours parallel and work them from deep to shallow making contact and keeping it off the bottom and varying your retrieve.

 

Try a 6-8 inch profile like a zoom magnum speed worm in natural colors like watermelon seed and green pumpkin with a pegged 3/16-7/16 oz tungsten sinker with a 3-4/0 worm hook of your preference.

I'd go with some sort of white/silver/gray with some black flake. That's basically a standard minnow color that imitates the young of pretty much every species. 

2 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Shade in your situation is the point where your bait disappears essentially.  Deeper spots.  Find deeper spots with clean bottom and work the contours parallel and work them from deep to shallow making contact and keeping it off the bottom and varying your retrieve.

 

Try a 6-8 inch profile like a zoom magnum speed worm in natural colors like watermelon seed and green pumpkin with a pegged 3/16-7/16 oz tungsten sinker with a 3-4/0 worm hook of your preference.

I’ll give that a try. I’ve never really tried then swimming works actually. 

I would maybe take a black sharpie and add some spots on a swimbait or any softbait....I have some seconds of stick worms and one of my better colors is white with dirt that was molded into it.

 

I have always wondered if it looked like a baby crappie since they are 4.5" stick o's.