Bobby Garland Crappie Baits – Fishing on Foot

No Itty Bits in Car Kit!

I always have micro jigs in the back of my car. Well — almost always!

One of my sons has a pond on the property of the home he recently bought. Of course, I can’t visit without he and I making at least a few casts.

Last weekend we started out trying to catch bass. Me with topwater and him with a YUM Dinger. He had one fish on but didn’t land it. Nothing for me. We both had bluegills and green sunfish pecking at our bass lures, though, and we wanted to catch something, so we decided to downsize.

My car “fishing kit,” which consists of a pack rod, a light spinning reel and an ice cream bucket with miscellaneous lures and terminal tackle in it, always includes at least a couple of packages of Bobby Garland Itty Bit baits. Or at least it is supposed to. To my surprise and dismay, there were zero Itty Bit packets in the bucket that day!

The kit doesn’t have a formula, and its contents change a lot. I’m often throwing things in and grabbing things from it, and if I grab something from the bucket and put it in a vest pocket one day, it might end up getting put away in the basement instead of going back in the bucket. So I can see how it happened. Still, there are usually multiple Itty Bit packets. That’s the closest thing there is to a standard item.

There was one packet of 1/48-ounce Itty Bit Jigheads, and my son found a single Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R loose in the bottom of the bucket. He tied that on and and I rigged one of the little jigheads with just the tail section of a Bobby Garland Mayfly.

Those did the job fine, and we managed to catch several bream and one shiner. I felt very ill equipped with no Itty Bits packages in my bucket, though.

That has since been fixed!

Fishing on Foot Lures

Why I use the lures that I do for the Fishing on Foot blog and YouTube channel.

If you read posts on this site or watch videos on my Fishing on Foot YouTube channel, it won’t take long to figure out some of my favorite fishing lures or notice that I talk repeatedly about some of the same brands, such as Rebel Lures, Bobby Garland Crappie Baits and Thill Floats.

If you read stuff to the end (appreciated!) or pay attention to video descriptions, you might notice occasional mention of a discount code, FOF15, for 15 percent off orders at Lurenet.com.

Some explanation seemed fitting, in part for the sake of disclosure, but more so because it tells a bit more about what is behind the Fishing on Foot blog and YouTube channel and a bit more about me as an angler.

My Real Job

Throughout my career I’ve carried the broad title, outdoor writer, and for many years I free-lanced full time, writing fishing stories for magazines and websites and taking on various editing, photography, speaking and writing projects, mostly fishing related.

For the past decade I’ve worked full-time for one company, PRADCO-Fishing, doing the same type of work. I manage the blog at Lurenet, which is our retail site, shoot fishing and lure photos, help with video stuff from both ends of the camera, create social media content for some of our brands and more.

PRADCO-Fishing is a fishing lure manufacturer based in Fort Smith, Arkansas that owns and operates more than 15 lure brands. The brands, which collectively cover pretty much every type of fishing, include iconic brands like Heddon, Smithwick and Rebel and some of the most popular modern brands, including Great Lakes Finesse, YUM and BOOYAH.

The good news for me is that MANY lures from these brands were among my go-to lures long before I went to work for the company. Examples include Rebel Wee-Crawfish, Tracdown Ghost Minnows and Crickhoppers, Heddon Spooks and Tony Torpedoes and Bobby Garland Baby Shads and Stroll’Rs.

Fishing of Foot’s Place

The Fishing on Foot channel and blog are before- and after-hours play for me — creative outlets and opportunities to share with a focus on the types of fishing that have always been at the core for me. Neither channel nor blog is intended to sell fishing lures.

That said, my job and my own media are highly complementary. I gather a lot of Fishing on Foot content while I’m out with the primary purpose of shooting photos for work, and I often end up getting content I use for work when I’m fishing on my own in the evenings and on weekends and am mostly seeking Fishing on Foot video content.

Because our brands cover any type of fishing I ever do and because there’s always a need for fresh content with our lures, I genuinely have fished very little with anything else for more than 10 years. I speak and write frequently about Rebel Crawfish, Bobby Garland Mayflies and Lindy Quiver Spoons because they are lures that so often tied to the end of my line — the ones I know the best and can share about with the most confidence and to provide the greatest benefit to readers and viewers.

So, in case you’ve wondered, now you know!

How to Catch Crappie from Docks

Docks provide great places to fish for crappie without a boat. Here’s how to fish docks effectively.

Docks commonly offer great opportunities for crappie fishing without a boat because they bring together fishing access and crappie habitat. Light spinning tackle and small jigs are all you need to catch these fish.

Whether it’s a boat or marina dock that you have permission to fish from or a fishing pier in a park or other recreation area, this kind of structure provides shade for the fish, cover of various sorts (often including brush that that has been placed nearby to attract fish), and forage in the form of minnows and aquatics insect nymphs, which are drawn to the dock for the same reasons.

The dock puts you within easy casting or pitching range of the crappie, and in many cases, directly above them, making controlled, accurate presentations easy.

Dock Presentations for Crappie

Docks allow for very controlled presentations of crappie jigs.

A 1/16-ounce or smaller crappie jig is tough to beat for crappie fishing from docks. Often the best way to fish a jig from a dock is also the simplest. Drop the bait straight down and suspend it beside a dock support or over a brushpile, either holding the rod tip completely still, twitching it slightly or slowly lifting and letting the bait fall again.

Experiment with different depths and try various spots, giving extra attention to corners and crossbars on that connect dock supports.

Sometimes the crappie prefer a moving jig. Two great techniques are casting parallel to the dock, letting the bait sink and then reeling, and making a short pitch parallel to the dock, closing the bail and letting the jig pendulum to straight below your rod tip.

Dock Crappie Fishing Tips

Minimizing noise can help you catch more crappie from docks.

Tread Lightly – Sound resonates. Walking lightly and minimizing banging when you set down gear helps keep the crappie unaware of your presence.
Soften bait movements – Sharp jigging is more apt to spook crappie than to prompt strikes. Less is more!
Double Up – A tandem rig, with jigs spaced 2 feet apart, allows you to work two slightly different zones and experiment more efficiently with bait shapes and colors
Do Not Touch – When you hook a fish with a vertical presentation, if possible land the fish without touching the reel handle. This allows you to drop the bait back to the exact same spot for the next presentation.

4 Top Baits for Dock Crappie

Use the code FOF15 for 15 percent off your entire order at Lurenet.com