How to catch a crappie

Greetings all,

I am new to ice fishing. Does anyone have advice on how to catch a nice crappie on the ice?

Hey Bassmaster, where were you fishing that you kept 7 northern pike?  Especially keeping hammer handles.  Those need to go back in the hole and get bigger!

Nice job! They're not HUGE, but those look to be perfect keeper size. Good sized gill too!

Hoping to get my first fish through the ice tomorrow. 

couple nice crappies there Bass...... are you sure youv'e never fished before? Looks like a nice meal or two of fish.

Are these big? We would of got a bunch more but those long snake like fish kept biting. They brought very old beer for us drink. Brand was awful also. 

Get a live scope and catching crappies becomes childs play.  Seriously, hammered hundreds of them last year.  See a school coming in.  Drop into the school and slowly bring it out of the school and you get chasers.  I will admit it feels a little like cheating.

as other have said, Tip Downs with a 14 or 16 treble and crappie minnows.   Drill an extra couple holes between 5 and 10 feet from your tip downs.   When you catch one on a tip down start jigging in the hole close to it.  Normally you can tell the direction that the school is moving by the direction of the tip down line.

If you are interested I sell tip downs

Also sometimes there just under the ice less than a foot under the ice those always catch me of guard but it happens.

Perfect the "wobble".  Its not a fast jig.  Kind of like making a wave in your rod tip or spring, with no slack being put in line.  Keep the wobble going as the fish is moving towards bait.  Do not stop.  Keep bait above fish.  Do not drop the bait to fish.  Even if fish is not moving.  Keep the bait moving above them.  Be aware of "up bites".  Bites where instead of rod tip going down, rod tip pops up with slack put in line.  Set the hook.  I also have crappies do the "bite and hold".  When this happens, the rod doesn't go up nor down.  Just your "wobble" stops.  Set the hook.  I do better with lighter jigs.  Crappies seem to get spooked by fast falling jigs.  

When using tip downs I have my best luck using the smallest treble hook you can get, I usually use #14 or #16 and the smallest minnow in the bucket.

Tip down tipped with a Rosie or fathead works for me.

Jigs and waxies are great. Minnows as well. Small spoons and jig n raps work as well. I start in the basin and keep looking. Fish above the marks. 

In shallow water 6' or less use lil cecil tipped with couple waxy's and jig just below the ice. 

In the pothole lakes of southeastern wisconsin fish the deeper holes - some are 20 feet, others are as deep as 50 feet.  That's where I've had luck finding them. An hour before sunset until an hour after sunset is best time, though early mornings can be good as well.  Hali jigs tipped with waxworms work well.  Glow in the dark, even better!

I fine them quite difficult to catch on the ice, however if you use your locator and locate a school of them in the water, now you have a real chance to catch one. Put your bait above the school (they like to feed up), and while holding your pole, scratch your crouch, to give your bait about the right action for crappie. Crappie fishing is always enjoyable, even if they are negative. Love fishing dem crappies. Best of luck.

Fish the last hour of daylight, till completely dark.   Fatheads for bait.    CARPIO