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.

There’s no indication that Shakespeare’s Juliet was into bass fishing, but her famous line: “A rose by any other name, would smell as sweet,” applies perfectly to one of the sport’s hottest and most ...