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.

I started crappie fishing as a young kid, probably around 6 or 7 years old. My dad Roosevelt Williams was an older man when I was born, about 50. Being that age, he provided me with many stories about ...