Forget being a fish whisperer — when it comes to catching crappie, Nick Young is a fish listener.
Do the fish want shiners, jigs or maybe a combination of both?
“Let the fish tell you what they want,” Young said.
He usually sets out six to eight poles in his spider rigs. He baits some with shiners on a plain gold hook, some with jigs and plastic trailers and some with jigheads trailed by a live shiner.
“Unless we are really locked in on a pattern and lure, we try several different setups and then keep up with which poles are getting bit,” he said. “As we determine what the fish want, we switch the other rigs over to match what they are biting that day.”
Young says there is no real concrete science to making that decision, but there is one thing he is sure of: Fish with what you have confidence in.
“If you think you can catch a crappie on a 1/32-ounce purple hair jig, then you probably can. If you don’t have confidence, you won’t catch fish on anything you are using.”