How To Set Up a Slip Bobber: A Beginner’s Guide Fully rigged Thill slip bobber (Photo via Christian Schultz/Premier Angler) Table of Contents How To Set Up a Slip Bobber: A Beginner’s Guide Slip Bobbers: An Alternative to the Traditional Spring Floats What is a Slip Bobber? Setting Up Your Slip Bobber: What You Need to Know Setting Up Your Slip Bobber: A Step-by-Step Process Step One: Securing Up Your Bobber Stop String Tips for Using Your Slip Bobber Rig Slip Bobbers: An Alternative to the Traditional Spring Floats When fishing for crappie or other panfish, many anglers enjoys usin ..read more

Can You Eat Crappie? Photo via Aaron Schultz/Premier Angler While this may seem like a silly question to most folks who have spent years catching this popular game fish, it is certainly worth exploring in more detail. As a short answer, however, yes, you can absolutely eat crappie! And most of the time, crappie is delicious! Many freshwater anglers agree that crappie is one of, if not the, tastiest fish to come out of lakes, ponds, streams, or rivers. While some may prefer the more pronounced flavor of salmon, mahi mahi, or tuna, crappie often make for the most simple and enjoyable meal for fo ..read more

Fall is prime-time for catching some massive seasonal slabs! (Photo via Christian Schultz/Premier Angler) Crappie can be caught during all four seasons of the year. That said, Fall is arguably the best for large thick shouldered slabs. This is especially true in northern states. When the leaves just start to change colors and the surface temperature is still relatively warm (but cooling off during the night), you should be able to make short work finding these beautiful fish. Another attractive part about fall fishing for crappie is the pressure from pleasure boaters and some other anglers wil ..read more

Black Crappie vs. White Crappie: How to Tell the Difference Table of Contents Black Crappie vs. White Crappie: How to Tell the Difference Physical Differences Between Black Crappie and White Crappie Looking at the Markings on a Black Crappie Looking at the Markings on a White Crappie Counting Dorsal Spines to Determine the Difference Between Black and White Crappie How to Count the Dorsal Spines A Quick Note on “Shape” Black Crappie and White Crappie: A Brief Biology Lesson Diets, Size, and Fishing Tips When it comes to crappie, many anglers tend to believe that they are all the ..read more

Crappie: The Complete Fishing Guide Crappie have become one of North America’s most popular sport fishing in recent years. They have not yet reached the fanatical levels of bass fishing, and probably never will. That said, thousands of anglers each year find themselves fishing local, regional, and national tournaments in hopes of winning prize money and glory. In late 2020, the annual Mr. Crappie Invitational Classic welcome 100 of the top teams in the country to Branson, Missouri, for the opportunity to compete for $200,000 cash prize — the largest payout ever for a crappie tournament. The cr ..read more

Fishing today can be quite different than in yesteryear. We now live in an ultra-modern age, where numerous technological advances play an ever-increasing role in nearly every facet of life. These advances have even begun to entwine themselves in the leisure activities which we enjoy in our free time, with fishing being no exception. The role that these advancements play in fishing is perhaps most evident when speaking of the various fish finders that have recently become available on today’s market. While the use of fish finders is certainly nothing new, the ability to watch fish in real-tim ..read more

Crappie Fishing in the Rain: What You Need to Know It’s a familiar scenario for many-an-angler: you pack a quick lunch, load up the vehicle, make a stop at your local bait shop, get a couple miles away from the lake, creek, or pond of your choosing and it starts pouring down rain! Depending on the time of year and your location, experience, skill level and willingness to get soaked en route to a good day of crappie fishing, this could either be a blessing or a curse. I’ve met quite a few anglers over the years who will call it a day before the first cast because they are convinced that there’s ..read more

Looking at Some of the Best Reels for Crappie Fishing 2022 Table of Contents Looking at Some of the Best Reels for Crappie Fishing 2022 8 Excellent Fishing Reels for Crappie Pflueger President Spinning Reel Daiwa Regal LT Spinning Reel Mitchell Avocet RZT Spinning Reel Abu Garcia Pro Max Spinning Reel Shimano Sedona Spinning Reel Quantum PT Smoke S3 Spinning Reel Team Lew’s Custom Pro Speed Spin Spinning Reel Pflueger Trion Spinning Reel Go back through the history of crappie fishing and you’ll find that it wasn’t always an exciting, competitive, multi-million dollar industry. For a lo ..read more

On the evening of Tuesday, May 15, 2018, Lionel “Jam” Ferguson went fishing on Richeison Pond in Tennessee near the town of Paint Rock. As with most anglers who hit the water, there’s always the potential thrill of a trophy catch. While Ferguson certainly expected to catch something, what he didn’t expect was for his catch to break the internet — or a world record. Table of Contents Catching the Black Crappie World Record But What is the World Record White Crappie? Catching the Black Crappie World Record Equipped with some Kalin’s Triple Threat 2″ Grubs (in John Deere color), Ferguson hau ..read more

If you grew up freshwater fishing as a child, there’s almost one guarantee: you have caught a bluegill (or another similar sunfish) at some point. If you hit the water regularly, it’s also likely you have caught a crappie. That said, there are a surprising number of casual or beginning anglers who do not know the differences between crappie vs. bluegill. Aside from the fact that they are both relatively small fish that are fairly easy to catch, bluegill and crappie actually have little else in common. So, what are the major differences between crappie and bluegill? Below, we will look at five ..read more