In most situations, go with bright jigs

Jerry Gross of Meatgetter Jigs of Rison, Ark., is one crappie fishing fool — and, I mean that in a good way.

Check his personal Facebook page or that for Meatgetter Jigs, and you are going to see photo after photo of huge slab crappie caught on a company jig. There sure must be something to what they are doing. I’m betting it is the jigs.

“We love to fish Mississippi for crappie,” said Gross. “Y’all have some of the finest crappie fishing lakes anywhere in this whole country, and trust me we have been to them all. One of my favorites of course is Lake Washington because it is close to our home base, but we really like the reservoirs over there especially Sardis, Enid, and Grenada. Those are super crappie lakes.

“It goes without saying that we are jig fishermen, since we make them. Doing so gives us plenty of opportunity to try out our products on the real thing at a lot of lakes around the country including Mississippi. We use a lot of different weights for different rods and set-ups, and, we have so many different colors and combinations we can’t keep count of them all.”

So much variety; so few limitations.

“Sure people at the fishing lake docks, ramps, and local tackle dealers ask us all the time about our favorite jigs,” Gross said. “I’m really not lying or trying to fool anybody by saying that we have good success catching slabs with a lot of different jigs that it is nearly impossible to just pick one or two as the best.

“If I had to be cornered, I would just say I really like the bright-colored jigs best. I do catch fish with the basic white, black, and red, depending on how clear the lake water is. I really like a hot pink, blue pearl, orange, chartreuse and combinations of those colors. You have to catch the eye of a crappie to get them to slam the bait, so bright colors are the trick.”

Crappie anglers all have their own favorite jig styles and jig colors. Most have a whole tackle box full of them. Switching colors often is not unusual either in order to find what fish are hitting hard.

That is probably the smartest strategy for crappie fishing. Have a huge selection of jigs and use them all until the ice chest starts filling up.