What are your favorite crappie flies, what is the pattern, and what is the size?
The one I have had the most success with is the olive and orange, which amounts to a no hackle woolly bugger:
Olive and Orange Pattern
Hook: #10 or #12 Mustad 9672 (or other 3X nymph/streamer hook)
Thread: Olive
Tail: Orange Rabbit
Body: Olive chenille
Weight: Small bead (copper or gold)
This year I hope to be fishing other streamers a lot more than I have in the past such as the marabou miss, hot flash minnow, and classic bucktail streamers. I haven’t fished a chartreuse steamer much, and that is a color I hope to fish more, that and hope to be trying olive streamers at least some.
White and Yellowboa yarn flies work well. Goldie Jr also. I ut a dozen foies in two articles inthe archives with crappie flies. “Ricks favorite crappie flies”
I have read your list of Rick’s favorite crappie flies many times, and have used it and my experience years ago using a spinning rod, to guide my own tying for crappies. Your list is much appreciated, and a good guide.
I haven’t gotten a chance to fish for crappies much with a fly rod, but hope to fix that. Currently Boa Yarn streamers, among others, are topping my list for tying, and there is a need to work on some goldies as well.
I have read your list of Rick’s favorite crappie flies many times, and have used it and my experience years ago using a spinning rod, to guide my own tying for crappies. Your list is much appreciated, and a good guide.
I haven’t gotten a chance to fish for crappies much with a fly rod, but hope to fix that. Currently Boa Yarn streamers, among others, are topping my list for tying, and there is a need to work on some goldies as well.
I’ve caught probably 90% or more of my crappie on three flies. A small chartreuse over white bead chain clouser in size 8 or 6, an olive over white deceiver in 4 or 6, and a beadchain eyed nymph pattern I tie with a spikey squirrel dubbed body, a pheasant tail tail/back/wing case, and a soft hackle collar behind the eyes tied mainly on size 8 and 10 long shank hooks. Upsize it to a size 6 hook and its a good one cruising carp too.
#8 Yellow Boa Yarn Leech gets my #1 vote (tied on a 3x or 4x long streamer hook). Crappie Candy is also catches plenty, and Joe Cornwall’s Crappie Killer.
On occasion I will catch them on topwater flies, from bluegill-sized Gurglers, to #8-#10 mayfly paradun, to bass-sized foam poppers.
The recommendations you’ve gotten are good. What you might notice is that most of them are minnow-ish. Shiners are the prime crappie bait and any fly in the right size that might be a shiner will interest crappies.
Pink-over-white Clouser minnows in a size 6
Slumpbusters in a size 8, orange is my favorite
Bead chain hares ear soft hackles, size 8
Furled tail leeches, size 12
And a few simple little flies some friends and I have come up with/modified. The easier the better!
Bluegill222, I know Al Campbell has gone to a better fishing hole, however, I have tied his Crappie Candy on a bigger and stronger hook and successfully caught
many Chum Salmon over at Chico creek where Lady Fisher used to live. I called it “Chum Candy.”
Crunchy
I’ll bet it would, Crunchy. I’ve used it on white bass and wipers, trout, and carp. It’s very similar to a crazy charlie, so I would guess it would catch bonefish, reds, and permit given half a change. I love that fly.
I now use just 2 flies almost all the time.First,I use a clouser in a size6 -12,usually in blue over white or in dingy water in chartruese.The second fly is one of my
own creation—I tie what is intended to appear like a Puglisi peanut fly on a weighted hook that would normally be used for tying a clouser on; I tie the fly
as you would tie a Puglisi i.e.I tie in short bunches of fiber top and bottom down the hook shank.
I like a 1/80ht oz. chartreuse over white micro jig, a small size 8 blue over white clouser and a size 8 yellow and white popper. And then I’ve had success with various small streamers and wooly buggers too so you might say I’m still narrowing my preferences.
When I lived in NW suburban Chicago, I had the good fortune to have a six acre city park lake in my backyard. Since my tying space overlooked the lake, I made it a point to see how quickly I could catch a fish on a freshly tied fly. (I think my record from vise to fish was about five minutes.)
Anyway, the lake was stocked with crappie, bass, catfish, and grass carp (no sunfish). My most consistent fly for crappie was a white woolly bugger with silver beadhead and grizzly hackle, tied on a TMC 9394 (silver) hook in size 10. During summer evenings, though, I found that the crappie would rise to dry flies, and a size 12 brown drake emerger was a killer. They also loved mini-buggers tied with olive marabou and peacock herl in size 14.
Barrington. We lived on the south shore of Columbus Lake, just west of the Cuba Marsh Forest Preserve. Great places to hike and fish in a sprawling urban environment. Greater Chicago’s forest preserve system is one of its greatest assets (and attractions).
Few people fished the catch and release lake, so it felt like our own private fishery. I kept my canoe on the shoreline and was out in it three or four nights a week from May through September.
I dont tie, yet, but friday at the local outdoor superstore, i picked up a couple of #10 leeches with red bead eyes. I also picked up a #10 grasshopper. I dont know if they will work or not, but i thought they looked good. I really need to get some tying gear and start making my own. two dollars for a fly that im going to get stuck in a tree 25seconds after tying it on is a bit ridiculous.
david