Slab crappies are meat eaters—sure enough minnow munchers. They take artificials well at times, especially jigs—but big crappie will turn their noses at even the best of the best crappie lures.

In the south Crappie are already pushed up shallow and other parts of the country aren’t far behind. That means it’s time to tie on a jig and head to your favorite brush pile. If you need a new rod, ...

Johnson said most anglers are using small crappie jigs fished under a bobber in no more than four or five feet of water right in the stick-ups. But he said that if an angler gets to the lake early and ...