What is your favorite crappie/bluegill bait besides live bait? I am trying to become a better ultra light fisherman.

Buy the smallest shrimp you can find at the supermarket, they work extremely well for me. (Also if you live nearby an Asian food market, they will have really shrimpy smelling dried grass shrimp skins.)

If the bluegill are stocked where you live, corn can be a killer.

Powerbait "nymphs" on a 1/64 oz shad dart(I use the ones from trout magnet), under a slpi float..

Bluegills, where I live, eat everything from slugs to senkos.  

I have caught bluegill on some pretty odd baits. I have caught them on bubble gum, a bare trebble hook, and small poppers and torpedos topwater bass fishing. These are just extriem events though that do not happen much. When I first started fishing I would fish for bluegills often and the best baits were bread and corn. I would catch a large number of bluegill with them. Now adays I do not fish for bluegills anymore but I often catch very good size bluegill throwing a medium size yellow or white rooster tail while fishing for bass and crappie. That is probably the best bait for good size bluegill.

For bluegill I like small bits of nightcrawler.

For Crappie nothing beats live minnows. If you'd rather use artificials, try a small marabou tail jig fished vertically.

I'm not much of a crappie fisherman, but if I had to try and catch one without live bait I would go with small maribou jigs (used to be called crappie jigs) under a bobber.

For bluegill I really like small in-line spinners (Roostertails) and small safety pin spinners (Beetlespins). Thes will also catch occassional crappie.

Beetlespin, Beetlespin, Beetlespin...Uh Oh!  Now I've done it.

I have caught them plenty of times on poprs when bass fishing too!

Beetlespin - black with yellow stripes.

BassPonder72 nice fish

Should've gotten a replica made! ;D

Well, I caught a 3 inch  bluegill on a 5/8 ounce crank.  Sucker musta tried his best to get his tiny mouth on that hook.  I have had them grab at a T-rigged finesse worm.  But, when going to catch them, nothing beats a nightcrawler, a bamboo cane pole, and a cork bobber.

crappie - live minnows, bluegill - crickets.... if you had to pick an artificial, I would suggest some type of small jig, or beetle spin type bait

Bluegill:  crickets

Crappie: small minnnows on a split shot rig & small plastic crappie jigs on a 1/16 oz jig jead

i love 1/8oz rattle traps for crappie.  also small crank baits.  they tear em up.  

For bluegill I like a Beetle Spin or a Strike King Bitsy Pond Minnow.  I catch some honkin' BG on the Strike King.  

For crappie I like a Blakemore Roadrunner with a curly tail grub, or a small deep diving Shad Rap in silver.   I'm not much on jigging for crappie.  

That little Bitsy Pond Minnow will catch anything:

Another plug for the Bitsy Pond Minnow, and my son and fishin' pardner

...small in-line spinners (Roostertails) and small safety pin spinners (Beetlespins). Thes will also catch occassional crappie.

Ditto!

And also add maribou jigs in chartreuse or yellow.

try a little rebel crawdad they work great and you might even catch a few largemouth too  

I just caught 20 perch/bluegill on hotdogs today. I was fishing for about an hour and a half. I also caught two bass (3 lber and 1.5 lber).

live: peice of nightcrawer, or red worm, or mayfly

artafical: paddle bug, or small curly tail grub

Blue gill- chartuse grub, red worm

Crappie- chartuse grub, minnows

a fuzz-e-grub fished above weeds and fish nests

for bluegills i use bread and critter spins

I have only caught two crappie in my life but i caught one on a beetle spin brown tail and on a rattle trap

Bluegills, where I live, eat everything from slugs to senkos.

Ditto but the best thing I have found is a small(1-2.5 in) piece of red or brown senko. Also 4" ribbon tail worms chartruese w/ green flake Strike King works real well in the crick.