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Mainly clear skies. Low 63F. Winds light and variable..

Mainly clear skies. Low 63F. Winds light and variable.

Slip bobber rigs can excel for catching crappies such as this one.

Slip bobber rigs can excel for catching crappies such as this one.

My sonar unit registered a large school of crappies suspended over one of Lake Arthur’s submerged creek channels. The bulk of the fish appeared to be holding in 8 or 9 feet of water over the 13-foot depths.

Among the stack of rods on the deck was one rigged with a slip bobber and light crappie jig. I quickly adjusted the bobber stop about 7 feet above the jig. After tipping the hook with a Berkley Crappie Nibble, I cast the setup in the direction when I’d scanned the school of fish. A few seconds later the bobber slid below the surface, and I quickly swept the hook home of the first of what would be many Fourth of July crappies to succumb to the slip bobber rigged jig setup.

Crappies can be taken in a variety of ways, and when they’re hovering over specific cover, slip bobbering is one of the best. It places the presentation directed in the face of the fish, ones that are likely to stay in the spot when they are relating to a particular piece of structure or cover. In the preceding example, the fish were concentrated in a spot where the remnants of a bridge carried railroad tracks over a creek channel.

The main components of a slip bobber rig consist of a bobber with a hollow stem through which the line can pass; a bobber stop that is affixed to the line so in limits the travel of the bobber; a leadhead jig and/or sinker to provide the weight necessary to pull the line through the bobber to the point where the bobber stop jams against the bobber.

The most common type of bobber stop is simply a piece of thread or fishing line that’s tied to the line. While you can tie your own bobber stop, typically a pre-tied knot is used. These come tied on a short piece of hollow plastic like a drink stir. The plastic tube is threaded on the line, then the loosely tied knot is slid off the tube onto the line, and the cinched down. Two tag ends remain that need to be trimmed. The diminutive knot can be retrieved through the rod guides and onto the reel without issue. Since the bobber stop is usually thinner than the inside diameter of the bobber stem, a small plastic bead is threaded between the stop and the bobber to prevent the stop from passing through the bobber stem.

It’s important to match bobber size with the weight it will support. Too large a bobber and it won’t reflect light bites; too small and it will sink from the weight of the jig or sinker. Some bobbers, like Thill’s Wobble Bobber, are rated for the weight each model is designed to support, such as eighth-ounce, three-sixteenths-ounce, etc.

The beauty of the slip bobber system is that you can accurately suspend bait at a given depth. Crappies typically feed up, so it’s wise to place the bait a foot or two above the depth where you suspect the fish are holding. The bobber stop is slip up or down the line to accomplish this. You can use the rod as a measuring stick to help determine the distance. The rod I was using in the opening example is 7 feet in length, so in sliding the stop to where it was at the tip of the rod while the jig was at the butt end, I knew I the bait would be at seven feet. Had I wanted to the jig to hang at 10 feet I would have rigged it a bit shy of 1½ rod lengths.

Crappies can be finicky biters. Even when using a small soft plastic crappie jig like a Bobby Garland Slab Slayer, I tip the jig with a Crappie Nibble when slip bobber fishing to entice bites. It’s wise to wind in a bit when the bobber dips to take in slack line. Lengthy, moderate-action rods work best for presenting slip bobbers. Slip bobbers also excel when fishing for other panfish such as bluegills and pumpkinseeds.

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