Do you like fishing for big crappie? I sure do and I like fishing for them with jigs and my all time favorite crappie jig is the Mr. Mino by Mister Twister.
Let start off by telling you a little about the Mr. Mino and then how I fish the Mr. Mino to catch big slab crappie as we say here in East Texas. The Mr. Mino is a 2 inch hollowed body soft plastic minnow with the look of a small minnow when jigged or swimmed through the water on a small jig head. It is so life like that it will make you want to take a bite when it swims through the water. Below is a picture of the Mr. Mino and a few colors.
Did I mention that we catch big crappie on the Mr. Mino, well we do and the month of March is a month when big crappie and the Mr. Mino can’t go wrong.
Let me now tell you a few ways I like fishing the Mr. Mino. First in the early part of March I like to use a slip bobber rig. The slip bobber rig is rigged up by using a bobber that is either wooden or a foam bobber about three to five inches long and has a hole all the way through it so that you can run your line through the bobber so that it slides
up and down your line. Next before you put your bobber on your line get a package of bobber stoppers. The Bobber Stopper is a string tied on a plastic tube and has some small beads with the package. Run your line through the tube that the string is on and slide it up your line a ways, now run your line through the bead then through the bobber, next tie your jig on your line. Last but not least slide your line off the tube and pull the ends so that the string gets tight on your line. The tube will have a slit down one side which allows it to come off. Next set your string so that it’s only up your line about a foot to as much as two feet up this will allow your bobber to slide up your line keeping your jig at the same depth. When you pick up on your line to move your lure the bobber will slide down to your jig and when placed back in the water it will slide back up to your bobber stop. Below is one of my clients with a March crappie.
Later in the month the crappie will move out deeper and this rig will play a big part on the deeper crappie as well and when they move into the brush piles well it just keeps on working.
The way I will fish my Mr. Mino on the slip bobber is I will fish it on an eight foot graphite rod with a small spinning reel and your choice of reel will be what you like to use, just make sure it is a small reel with no more than 6 to 8 pound test line. I will take and fish brush, grass and any other type cover in next to the shore line. I will lay my jig in next to the cover and let my jig set for a moment and then give it a slight twitch to make it look like an injured minnow and this will drive the big crappie crazy.
When the crappie move out deeper along the ledges or into brush piles out off shore I will fish the same way but with a slight difference, I will slide my bobber stopper line up my line making it fish at a deeper depth. I may be fishing 2 foot to 20 foot and the only difference in style will be how deep I may have my bobber.
The other way I like fishing the Mr. Mino is on a tight line method. The tight line method is just tieing straight on to my jig with no bobber. I can fish my jig again in 2 foot or 30 foot depths just by casting my jig out and slow working it back to my boat. When fishing brush piles I will drop my jig down to the tops of my brush and jigging it with very slight twitches again making my jig look a live but crippled making the crappie think he has the advantage as he strikes the jig.
Below are more photos of big slab crappie caught on the Mr. Twister Mr. Mino. Try them I think you will love them. You can purchase them on Lake Palestine at the Lake Palestine Resort or you can order them on line at the mistertwister website.
If your coming to Lake Palestine and want to hire a guide or just fishing info then give me a call at (903)530-2201 0r (903)561-7299 or look me up on my rickys guide service website.
By: Ricky Vandergriff
