Nationwide, more anglers pursue crappies during winter than summer. It has more to do with the perception that crappies are “mushy” and less fit for the table in summer than with any angling consideration. Crappies using open water in summer are more aggressive than they are in winter, and that’s true everywhere. Higher temperatures mean higher metabolic rates mean higher feeding frequencies, and that’s just how the cold-blooded roll.

Past articles detailing the effectiveness of small slashbaits (suspending jerkbaits) for summer crappies outlined tactics that continue to produce big catches. However, suspended crappies only rise more than 2 feet for slashbaits when highly active, highlighting the need to specifically target deeper layers of the water column.

A favorite tactic in my boat for suspended crappies involves 1/32- to 1/8-ounce jig-twistertail combos. Weight is selected by referring to the depths where crappies appear on sonar. When the highest crappies are 10 feet down, I might choose a 1/32-ounce head on calm days, a 1/16-ounce head on breezy days, and so on. I watch the jig fall beside the boat to determine how long it will take to reach 9 feet, pitch it out there 40 feet or so, count it down to 9 feet, then swim it so slowly it neither sinks nor rises much. Just point the rod tip down and reel very slowly. Don’t jig or twitch. Just reel.

The same method applies to swimbaits, but everything tends to move a bit faster—which is great. Summer crappies don’t move at all like winter crappies. In fact, swimbaits can become deep spinnerbait surrogates for gauging bites in a hurry.

Categories and Characteristics

Classic swimbaits have internal weights, usually in the form of some kind of jig, molded into soft plastic, like an enclosed jig-grub combo. Finesse swimbaits are all plastic, so you add the hook and weight, usually in the form of a jig. Micro swimbaits of both styles are being manufactured with thumper tails and with auger tails. But any plastic bait with a fish shape that looks like a grub could be called a swimbait, when the subject turns to crappies. These arbitrary categories are simple aids in communication.

The primary function of a swimbait is to swim (big surprise), which means to move more-or-less horizontally. However, vertically jigging with swimbaits can be very effective, if the bait is balanced for it. With classic swimbaits (weight molded in), look at the eye placement. If it’s vertical and above the head of the lure, coming out at a 90-degree angle, it might hang horizontally with the knot from your leader placed right on top of the eye, or with the knot pushed behind the eye. Finesse swimbaits on a balanced jig may operate vertically, but it depends on the weight distribution of the plastic itself.

Nit-picky details like these become critical when considering the versatility of swimbaits. They’re perfect tools for trolling, drifting, pitching, spider-rigging, and vertical-jigging under a variety of conditions. Consider spider-rigging. The primary plastic “alternative” for spider-rigging is the venerable tube. When using a tube, the spider-rigger is asking it to swim all day long. It’s used in conjunction with weight on the line in the form of split shot, egg sinkers, or some other alternative. The tube may be nodding, rising, and falling when the boat changes direction or speed, but that, too, is swimming. When asking plastics to swim, what better choice than a swimbait? It looks and acts more like a minnow, it requires no additional weight on the line, and the action tail provides more vibration to help crappies zero in on it. Tubes work better when using plastics with minnows, as color and size enhancers. Swimbaits might work better than tubes when livebait isn’t necessary, especially in stained or murky water.

Since the primary initiative of swimbait design is to swim, it should look natural doing it. A slight roll or wobble is fine, but the bait can’t spin or rise up on one side all the time. When trolling or drifting, pay attention to how much speed these baits can endure. Larger swimbaits with heavier weights tend to resist spinning out, giving the impression all swimbaits can be “burned,” but small swimbaits discussed here—from 1.5 to 3 inches in length—can be more delicately balanced. As a general rule, choose the smallest swimbaits in lakes that have pressured insect feeders, and use the largest 3-inch models only when slabs are feeding on shad of that size.

All classic swimbaits are not created equal. Take three out of the same package and two may run true at speed, while the third turns up on its side or spins out. This is because the weight is not perfectly centered, molded too close to one side or the other of the bait inside the plastic body. At slow speeds (drifting and spider-rigging) and when jigging, it may not make a difference. But when choosing a spinnerbait surrogate, something that triggers with speed and flash, you need to select carefully, looking for the baits with the best balance.

With finesse swimbaits, speed to burn arises from the choice of jig style and weight, and the ability to rig plastics straight. The hooks should run straight through the plastic, come out on the centerline or seam of the plastic, and the plastic can’t be bunched up. Bringing the hook out short is just as bad, because it forces the tail down at an angle.

In all tactics about to be discussed, balance is the key. To reach a desired depth and stay there at speeds crappies respond to requires some thought about line. Most classic swimbaits are heavy, in my opinion. In other words, if I were rigging the same plastic on my own choice of jig, I would typically choose a lighter head than the one embedded in the plastic. So the balance of these classics, in the 1.5- to 2.5-inch range, is weighted toward techniques that trigger with speed. But nobody can argue with the overall success of spider-rigging, and part of the reason for that success is slow, strictly controlled, horizontal motion. Most days on the water, when slab crappies are the target, a tube, grub, or swimbait is most successful when following that dictum: Maintain slow, steady, deliberate, horizontal motion.