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.

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.

Some 20 years ago, on any given summer day, you would've found me along the bank of a Virginia farm pond or waist-deep in the James River. More than likely, my T-shirt was balled up in the back of my ...