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.

Visit your nearby bait-and-tackle store, or roam the aisles of Bass Pro Shop, and you’ll be amazed at the variety of jig heads filling the peg boards. Some plain, but most painted in every color ...