I am thinking about tying some more streamers for bluegills and crappie. I usually tie no hackle buggers, Clousers using rabbit fur for tailing and winging, and some standard Clousers for those few times when I want to fish a bit deeper.
Normally I tie only relatively small streamers, but have thought that perhaps I should tie a few larger ones for crappies.
The question is “what hook size is the largest size that you actually regularly fish for crappie?” (Not the largest you tie, the largest you regularly fish.)
Gandolf,
Typically #1 to #12 for crappie, #8 to #12 for gills.
I have been taught quite a bit this year by some very knowledgable folks. A lot of it is still fermenting! #1 question you have to ask is: what is their natural forage in the water you’re fishing at the time you’re fishing it? Is it fry and small minnows? Young of year (or bigger) shad? Insect larvae?
If it’s early in the year, and all they have available to eat is young-of-year and bigger shad, you better give em something big! Even when the water’s cold, I’ve seen some impressive results (on the spin fishing side of life) using bigger baits than you’d think to use for early crappie. After fish start spawning and fry emerge, go small when they’re eating those.
For bluegills, a #12 black furled tail mohair leech flat smokes 'em 9 times out of 10.
Just ramblings from a fat kid who likes to fish in south-central Kansas! Take it with a grain of salt…
What everyone else said about the sizes, but I like to tie my streamers on a shorter shank hook. You get some short strikes, yes, but you also don’t get the swallowed hooks, either. I’ve recently found some small circle hooks I really like that seem to be working really well especially for the gills.
I tied a chartreuse over white Puglisi style baitfish pattern on a size 6 mustad 37187 stinger hook for bass, and catch more crappie than bass with it. The pattern must be 2 1/2" long.
I know a guy who does very very well vertical jigging 1/4-ounce jigheads with a 3.5" plastic designed for bass fishing. The plastic is easily as big as my thumb. He may not catch a TON of fish, but he catches BIG ones!
I use mostly #6,8 or 12 size hooks. My most productive crappie is a all-white bugger tied on a 1/64 oz. jig head or a white rabbit fur strip with some pearl wrap tied to the same size jig head.
I’ll be a little different. Get tons of them on #4 clousers, chart over white, with bead-chain eyes. I tied 1000’s of jigs on #4 because I felt I stuck them better than the 8-10 I used. Went over to the fly rod, so I just kept the size going. Ran out of 4’s one day, and went to a 2. Got a lot less, but those I got were on the larger size, 12-13" mostly. The places I fish are pretty brushy, so I throw them with a 7 or 8 wt, 10-12# tippet. Got several bass this year over 3, one about 5. A few good cats, and some saugeye. Like it was said earlier, crappie have big mouths and will hit a decent size streamer.