I like to keep certain parts of my fishing very simple. Panfish is one of those areas. I use about 3 styles of plastics. I have a handful of colors I stick with and I use basically two heads. One of those heads I really like is the Kalin’s Triple Threat Crappie Jig. It’s a simple ball head crappie jig with a wire keeper, and the unpainted head has caught me thousands of crappie over the years. I’m going to share what about this jig to me is what makes it special and why you might like it for your crappie and panfish fishing as well.
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All in the keeper
The keeper is what makes this jighead special. Instead of their being lead molded into a hook shape on the shaft of the hook, there is just a small hook wire coming out of the head. This solves a couple of problems with crappie jigheads. First the hook keeper is small and slides into the plastic easy while rigging. So this means you won’t tear the head of the plastic putting it on. That head getting wallowed out is what causes your plastic to start sliding off the jighead after a few fish. With this keeper I get a lot more fish on a plastic.
I also found after you rig it if you will gently push the plastic “onto the keeper” it sort of locks your plastic in place for you. Now if you will put a dab of super glue on the head and push the plastic on and lock the keeper, I have had a couple of times where I caught my limit of crappie on a single plastic. That’s a testament to that keeper and head.
Compact Size
The compact size of the Kalin’s Triple Threat Crappie Jig also means you can use a lot thinner and smaller plastics on it with ease. More and more companies are making smaller and thinner bodies for crappie and bluegill and with this smaller head and no lead on the shank of the hook, you can rig these smaller plastics straight without tearing them up as badly in the process. So I like having that option. I’ve used these heads with both Z-Man and Lunkerhunt who use TPE type “stretchy” material to make their baits and they can be somewhat cumbersome to rig on standard jigheads. But they work great on these heads.
I also like that the weight is in the head and the body has more play. So when I tie a loop knot onto this head the bait darts up and down as I lift and drop but the body seems a lot more lively to me. And if I want to skip or shoot a jig under something, they skip really well on this head. It’s the jighead I normally keep on my shooting rods.
Color and size options
I basically stick with two colors on the Kalin’s Triple Threat Crappie Jig heads. I like the natural silver (unpainted) and chartreuse. I think those two colors cover all my bases. And since I mostly fish with only 1/16 ounce jigs, I just keep a bunch of each color. They come 10 to a pack so it’s really a great and simple way to cover your bases on crappie jigheads.
Gets a lot of Bites
Once I find something that works, I stick with it. So I alternate between this head and my Jenko Slasher Heads and these two jigheads do most of my panfish work. I often fish these heads on BFS gear but will also use spinning gear, when I’m needing to skip or shoot baits around cover. I can be a lot more precise shooting a bait into a laydown or under a dock. So I use that technique a lot around cover. And these heads cast well, skip well and fish well back to the boat. So you are going to get bit a lot with these jigheads.
Like I said I put a drop of super glue on the under side of the head and then push the plastic on to the keeper once I thread the bait on so it locks in place and it can handle a lot of fish and a lot of casts on one bait. I catch most of my crappie from a distance casting to them. And This jighead has a nice fall and I’m able to pause it really well with a stutter to get bites consistently.
Worth the money
I’ve caught a ton of fish on the Kalin’s Triple Threat Crappie Jigs with a variety of plastics. I’ve caught crappie, bluegill, shellcracker, bass, sauger, catfish, white bass, yellow bass, etc. on these jigheads. They have a strong hook that is sharp and one head will get you a ton of fish. There are 6 color options, they come 10 to a pack for $3.99. You will hardly find a better deal on crappie jigheads than the Kalin’s ones. Maybe the only con I can find with these is you do have to clear the eyelet on the painted heads. But that’s pretty standard practice on low-priced crappie jigs. Pick up a few packs and let me know what you think and how you do.
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