20 Best Live Bait For Crappie (2023 Updated)

Tried the Chromo-Glow version of these a couple of days ago at a local lake, and again just today. I simply put them on the end of a hook, with no other lure or jig or whatever, and these things worked like magic! Literally I would plop my hook baited with the nibble, and a sinker and a bobber, and within a minute I almost always would have a bite.

Works as good as if not better than the nightcrawlers I usually had used. Just today, I went fishing today at my local pond around 6:00 PM, and by the time I left at 8:00, between me and my wife (who had never fished before) we caught 9 bluegill and 1 crappie.

This was even taking time for me to show her how to bait, cast, and catch and release fish! They only thing I can say, like a few others had mentioned, is they can come off the hook easy if you don’t “prep” them.

What I do, is kind of roll the nibble around and “squeeze” it into a little bit tighter of a ball, then bait just the tip of the hook to where the tip of the hook is just barely showing through the ball.

I haven’t lost any nibbles yet doing that, other than the occasional missed fish due to me not paying attention. But yeah, I love these things, and for the number of fish you can catch with them, I like them better than worms!.

I usually fish in the early morning before sunrise, I recently realize they didn’t glow. I use them next to Garland’s “Glo” lure and there is definitely glow with garlands but not the nibbles. Either way it still works and you do get a bit more than the normal Nibbles.

So no harm or foul.

I’ve been crappie fishing for 30+ years. I’ve always used small twister tails until this year. A buddy turned me on to Bobby Garland Baby Shad – and I’ll never go back! I rig double jig rigs and fish two 1/16th oz jig heads about 12 inches apart.

I’ll rig two different color of Baby Shad, until I find a pattern the fish like. Garland Baby Shad are soft and flexible and really trigger the strikes! But, they’re tough enough to stand up to multiple fish! This week, I caught over 30 fish, and never had to change plastics! You can’t go wrong with Garland Baby Shad! I have the best luck on Blood Minnow, Blue Thunder, and Electric Chicken.

used these jigs for a couple seasons now and man do they produce results on a 1/8 or 1/16 jighead. However, The jig they show here as “Diamond Mist” is not even close to an accurate representation of what you’ll actually get.

I got a jig with a super silver glitter back and a pearl colored belly.

I crappie fish with artificial baits only. I gave the Mo’ Glo series a try a couple years back on my 11′-13′ jig poles at my favorite crappie fishing spot. I have always had luck in this particular area but I rigged my rods with these jigs and lowered them at different depths and once I dialed in the depth, it was nonstop strikes and fish in the boat! It wasn’t like this just on that outing, i bring in crappie during the worst conditions and weather all year long with these! The spot I fish is 29′ deep and I catch them from 7′ under the boat all the way to 18′ deep.

If you’re new to jigging for crappie then this is a must have bait and will have you hooked on jig fishing and you’ll stop using minnows. I catch these fish on the Glowing jigs and the standard colors, my favorite is Electric Chicken and Bluegrass.

I have also been very surprised at how many bass and huge bluegills I catch on these jigs too! Give them a shot! All the fish pictured were caught with Bobby Garland baby shads. The dates are wrong on picture due to using old digital camera and date wasn’t set.

I caught some quality fish with the Powerbait Gilly Swimbait. However the rigs and techniques to use this bait effectively require the angler to have experience with soft swimbait rigs and techniques generally.

This bait is worth purchasing; even if just out of curiosity.

Bought a pack of these. Went to Texas rig it and the tail tore with little to minimum force. I’ll still give the other 2 in the pack a try, but beware when handling these by the tail.

This bait is actually really really good, anyone that has any real experience rigging a soft plastic, or knowing how to tune your Bait to run straight(stab a nail in it) will have no issue catching phat bass all year, I tried it last night and it got nailed on what was pretty much my last cast, i cant wait to start catching them on the gilly!.

I bought this bait and immediately put it on a rod and went fishing. In January. I went to a small lake near my house and fished for about 10 minutes. The first five were just me getting the weights on my reel set up and the rest was just fishin.

I didn’t last very long because well. It’s January in Memphis and also windy. On my last cast I realed in a decent 3 pounder. This bait hooked him well kept him on. I then went home due to the fact that I was loosing feeling in my toes.

This is a very good bait and a value for the money.

Bought these for bluegill specifically with the small 1/48th oz Bobby Garland jig heads to fish on the dock at the lake of the Ozarks. Well I catch a lot more crappie with these than bluegill. Crappie were bitting in these better than minnows or larger BG jigs.

Had to let the bait fall on swing down until it is almost directly under the rod tip with no movement until the very end then give a little twitch and hold still, repeat. Often very light bite almost undetectable if its a crappie.

Not like springtime when the hit almost any size jig or weight. These are very finesse, but the only jig I’ve seen produce fish after fish this time of year. Takes longer for bait to fall, but they will produce.

Friend fishing with me thought it was funny to use such a small jig head and jig body, but I told him he wouldn’t probably won’t catch anything until he went smaller as I was releasing crappie in front of him one after another.

Finally he gave in and switched and started catching fish. One problem is the baits get torn up pretty easily by the fish action, putting new ones on frequently. That’s a good and bad thing I suppose, but because the tails are so small occasionally they get bit completely off and I kept having to thread plastic body back on when they would get pulled partially off the jig head.

eventually it’s an every cast issue and you just have to put a new plastic on the jig head.

I bought this a few months ago and I really put it to the test. I love the action it has when jigging and casting. The colors are great. I catch crappies every time. Some might not be big slabs but thay are keepers.

I have just a couple cons i have noticed. One is the bait gets beat up quick and starts ripping because it slides down my hook and starts to rip where the hook comes out. I found a way to make it last longer.

Before you slide the bait onto the jig head put a drop of superglue under the head. It holds for a long time. Now for the second con is that i received a couple packs that didnt have any flake in them.

I still catch crappie like i would with the flake. Just wish quality control was a little better. Will always be my go to bait.

I am in Southeast and fish for all kinds of fish including crappie, white bass, stripped bass, large mouth, etc. My favorite is crappie. I have used all kinds of crappie lures and Bobby Garland 2” Baby Shad is my go to lure and Academy Sports and Outdoors is my first stop for it.

Academy has frequent sales. The subtle action from the tiny tail of this lure works wonders. You can use it for gigging, swimming, shaking under the tiny float and crappie cannot resistant it. When I need a little more action and a slightly bigger meal for the crappie, it use this 2” Slab Slay’R instead.

My favorite colors are blue ice, monkey milk. Buy it and you won’t be disappointed. It catches everything under the sun: crappie, sun fish, white bass and sometimes even large mouth.

Charged with helping my brother eradicate 100 crappie from his pond, I tied a 1/16 oz jig head with one of these, in white/chartreuse, and out-fished The Master on his own pond. Mid-way through the second day of this, he figured he’d try one of these.

Bonus! Obviously a very good attractor tail for crappie, bluegill and even bass! The “Junebug/Chartreuse” version worked equally well.

I bought a package of these this spring. I got the monkey shine because of a reviewer. I went to a small pond and was amazed at the results. It catches everything that swims. I like the fact that the lure is 2 inches and not 1 1/2 inches like most others.

It also has a fat ribbed body which seems to add to the profile. When the lure drops the tail will helicopter on the way down. I have fished several times at 2 different ponds and it was the only lure I used and was catching fish all day.

I then bought the hot and electric chicken colors and with 2 others in the boat and each using a different color we had many doubles and a triple. I have been fishing a long time and this is one of the hottest lures I have ever seen.

It does catch a lot of crappies but it is impossible to keep other fish from grabbing it. Is that a problem ? Not for me.

Very good color combo and action with the paddle tail. They work very well in the Missouri lakes that I fish.

These seem to attract every kind of panfish I’ve run across: pumpkinseed, bluegill, crappie, bass (bass are in the same family as most other panfish, so it’s really no surprise they like these too). But here’s the crazy bit: apparently, no one around here told our rainbow trout that they aren’t supposed to like crappie nibbles.

I’ve caught just over 20 trout, up to 14 inches, over the past couple weeks, on a crappie lure tube jig and these nibbles. I switch to trout dough and they won’t touch it. Silly fish. I catch so many adolescent bass, my fingers get tired of pulling them off; I’ve also snagged a few real good sized bass with them.

I love panfish and I very often fish for them; if I have a rod and reel with me, I always have at least a couple jars of these on hand too. They’re no substitute for good technique, but once you know how to present them a tasty-looking lure, this can make a “maybe I’ll hit it” lure into an irresistible one.

For the past few years my one and only bluegill bait is a Gulp Honey Red worm with a Crappie Nib on top. I lose a lot of Nibs but I have caught as many as 12 Bluegills on a single Red worm. They don’t dissolve and hold their shape real well.

I fish mainly Farm ponds and have caught a lot of 1/2 pond Read ear Gills. I always out fish crickets, meal worms and any other artificial bait you can throw at them. No bra just fact.

I operate a fishing website and have recently started to learn how to fish for crappie while filming sac-a-lait trips for the site. I’ve fished with numerous professional anglers and I’ve noticed that the ones who use these nibbles catch more fish.

They even have a wide enough variety of colors to match any jigs that are being used at the time.

I used this, this past weekend in ohio in our first crappie tournament of the year, color was chartreuse and black. things slowed down with the baby shad and jighead and minnow, so i pulled a few colors of these out and it started to produce not huge numbers but fish were ending up in the boat when they shutdown on other baits.

great tail action best of both worlds with a shad body and twister tail action. bobby garland does it again.

These are excellent baits that mimic a swimming minnow and provide tail action that is very enticing to fish. I use them casting or trolling slowly and have caught nice crappie, panfish and bass with them.

They have great action on the drop. If you are fishing for brim however, note that they will bite often but usually won’t get far enough up the bait to get to the hook and will often bite the tail off.

So use a shorter bait for brim. I like to cut a 2 inch slider down a couple of rings/notches and then the hook is at the back of the grub which makes hookups easier.

We fish all over the midwest , Minnesota to Kansas and every where in between. We catch crappies, sunfish, bass and walleye on these baits ! Our favorite colors are live minnow , eclipse,red thunder and white.

These lures are excellent for any water type!! I love using them in creeks & larger ponds. Ive hooked into all kinds of different species!! Pike and Smallmouth Bass love em!! Amazing value here!! I will be purchasing more!!.

I have enjoyed using this type of crappie magnet bait for many years and have caught a lot of pan fish especially crappies with them. One of my favorite colors are the monkey milk. And they are a great value at under ($2.

00) for a (15) count package.

Full disclosure—I am a magnet lifer and the body pack is an important part of my arsenal. Great for any condition, method, or depth. Love this tackle!

I have used these for over a year and they work amazing. Have caught a lot of crappie with these baits. Have a bunch of different colors

Have only used these a couple times but they have produced. I’ve caught both white perch and redfish with them in shallow water areas. The design also seems to make them somewhat snag resistant but not totally snag free, I’ve lost one to snags.

Have to say it’s a very good lure at a reasonable price.

I bought one of these wanting to try something different and found that the fish love them. every other cast i was pulling in a fish until it got snagged and i lost it. after that i didn’t catch nothing till i switched back to the roadrunner.

this is the next best option without going to live bait. I always wait until I absolutely can’t get a sunfish to bite, to put these on. One thing I’m not a fan of is the durability. If you don’t get hit on three casts, the Crappie Bite is a wrap.

Bought this to get my daughter into fishing without having to get her over worms and such. A couple of nibbles but after hours of fishing, no bite. Swapped to some old shrimp I found in the freezer, bam bites.

Perhaps it’s more particular on the region. But, north Texas isn’t it.

Not comparable to Power Bait/Berkley crappie nibblets. These were not as effective when compared with Power Bait/Berkley. The crappie bite would not release sent as it got into the water like Power bait/Berkley nibblets do.

I do not recommend.

I catch and release all up and down the rivers in Southwest Ohio, using a fly rod. I’ve tied flies professionally, but switched to Bitsy Tubes and Circle Hooks. Their White tubes float for top water, chartreus and green imitate minnows, brown and orange for crawfish after mid July.

The Circle Hook takes in the mouth, not the gills or stomach. And after 10 years, Bitsy Tubes take the most fish, hands down.

Every trophy sized smallmouth bass I’ve ever caught has been on this lure. I pair it with a bass pro 1/8 oz tube head and the action is ridiculous. It has resulted in many days of 200+ fish. Fished on a st croix avid medium light 7 foot rod paired with a shimano stradic 1000 series makes it even better because of the sensitivity of the rod and drag capabilities of the reel.

Absolutely the best purchase you will ever make if you’re on the hunt for big smallmouth bass or numbers of fish.

I choose these soft baits because I pursue bluegill, perch, walleye and sauger. These specie are found in the lower water levels and pulling these little plastics through the terrain down there, I like their endurance characteristics.

They hold up and last.

Great mini bait for trout, perch, crappie, and bass. Will catch big fish as well as small. Easy to rig, just fish slowly under a slip bobber with 2 jigs of 100th ounce.

So I thought the original Baby Shad was the end-all be-all lure. I’d seen guys claiming that some of the tube lures and the Marabou Jigs were the best lures for crappie. I would have put the Baby Shad up against any of those or any other lures that are popular.

But now Bobby gave us this Swim’R which just ups the ante to a level I’ve never seen. I fished this thing against live minnows yesterday. I’m talking side-by-side in the water at the same time. I’d say the Swim’R beat the minnows by about 6:1.

When I first saw the Swim’R my initial thought was “oh boy…why are they messing with the Baby Shad? This new thing is just hype…”. I was dead wrong. I am now going to clean out my crappie box and rid it of most of those other lures that have been hyped up but hasn’t produced for me.

This will make room for the more Baby Shads and Swim’R s. My favorite is the Pearl White on a 1/16 Minnow Jig head with a #4 sickle hook. I bought the Monkey Milk as well but haven’t thrown it yet. But I’m sure it won’t disappoint.

Works as every pickerel rig should. Nothing more or less than you would expect.

Works as it should. Have used this product on several occasions

Bought these in a variety of colors and fished them on 16th and 8th oz ball head jigs. We caught dozens of nice Crappie, Yellow Perch, slab Bluegillls and a few 10-15″ Largemouths. We found the red/chartreuse and lime/chartreuse (both on a yellow chartreuse jig) to be the most effective.

It was a GREAT day out and panfishing is always a nice little break from hardcore Bassin.

Using these tube jigs has been successful for Crappie. The pink/yellow color combination works well.

Easy to put on hook, don’t come off after every fish, durable and lots of colors to choose from, it’s a great products and price is right…