“Tony Stacy Catches Summertime Bass on Mister Twister’s Worms and Super Lizards and Crappie on Mepps’ Spinners”

Part 5: Spin-Up Those Papermouths

Editor’s Note: Tony Stacy of Andalusia, Alabama, a tournament bass fisherman in the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League (WBFL), a part of the Forrest L .Wood (FLW) tournament circuit, is an avid fisherman, who is on lakes and rivers 2 to 3 days every week.

Question: How are you using Mepps spinners to catch crappie?

Stacy: As I’ve said all week long, I’m a big fan of giving fish various lures and different tactics from what they see all day, every day, on most lakes. In south Alabama, where I live, crappie are caught two ways – on live minnows or on jigs. Fishermen are using these two tactics because these two methods are the ones people always have used to catch crappie. A southerner is very traditional and often will do something because his daddy did it that way, and his daddy before him did too, so why change?

But when I got this Mepps Panfisher Crappie Kit with five types of little spinners, including the Aglia, the Comet Mino, the Aglia Long, the Thunder Bug and the Black Fury Combo, I decided that some of them ought to catch crappie. I used 6-pound-test line and starting fishing these lures around brush piles where I thought crappie ought to hang-out. I especially liked the little Black Fury Combo. My wife and I have learned that that particular spinner in the Mepps Crappie Kit is the one that south-Alabama crappie like the best. I’ve found the Black Fury Combo to be most effective when the crappie are holding in shallow water as they come in to bed. I don’t know whether crappie can see colors or not, but I think they can. I believe that spotted blade with the red bead really gets the crappie’s attention.

My wife and I like to crappie fish, and I have to admit that sometimes she’s a better crappie fisherman than I am. Another thing we’ve learned is that most people who have docks on a lake will have brush out in front of those docks. Very-few docks don’t have brush either in front of them, under them or beside them, although this brush may not be visible from the surface. But if you start fishing those Mepps spinners around docks when crappie are near banks, you can usually brush and catch crappie.

The crappie seem to take those Mepps spinners more readily than they will minnows and jigs, especially on lakes where they see minnows and jigs every day. I think crappie, especially the bigger crappie, wise-up to minnows and jigs more quickly than we think they do, and that’s one of the reasons that I believe the Mepps spinners are often more effective than the tried-and-true methods of fishing minnows or jigs. Give these spinners a try the next time you go crappie fishing. Even if you’re fishing with minnows and jigs, carry some Mepps spinners with you. When the crappie stop hitting the minnows and the jigs, you just may can start them back on a feeding spree by swimming those Mepps spinners through the area where you’ve been catching the crappie.