Finesse Angler Creates “Cult” Following

We’ve started getting some cold weather in South Carolina, and for the last few mornings the recent rain that collected on the cover of my boat has turned to ice. Locally, our resident lake temperatures have dipped into the mid to lower 50s, and by all accounts it looks to be an early winter.

The only pleasant thing I can say about winter crappie fishing is that I’m a member of a crappie “cult” following that a local bait manufacturer has amassed — followers of the Slabtail jig. You see them on every lake within 100 miles of here. Boats camped out under bridges and over brushpiles, anglers intently staring at the limber rods in their hands. To say the tactics, gear and attitude of Fish Stalker Lures proprietor Tom Mundy are finesse oriented is a gross understatement. Mundy’s tactics shine when our lakes — and particularly Lake Murray — turn cold and crappie move deep into brushpiles to sit and shiver.

While fishing with Mundy last winter during my indoctrination to his finesse style of crappie fishing, he handed me a rod he had made using a 6½-foot ice-fishing rod blank. The corresponding reel was a discontinued Zebco 33 spin-cast model spooled with 4-pound Mr. Crappie camouflage line. The rod quivers in your hand, it’s impossible to hold still. A local outdoor TV show host, another follower, told Mundy that “if your heart is beating, that rod tip is quivering.”

On the business end of the line is a 1/64-ounce jighead and a Fish Stalker Slabtail jig body. The plastic tail is simplistic in design, a 1½-inch solid body with a flat, pointed tail. Mundy hooks the bait flat so the tail flaps up and down and not side to side.

The key to the presentation is that Mundy drops the tiny bait straight down into a deep brushpile, a feat that takes a little time with such a small bait. The small gap in the tiny hook rarely hangs in the brush. Mundy then engages the reel and slowly turns the handle on the smoothest low-gear-ratio reel I’ve ever fished. Regardless of how deep the fish are or where they bite, he always goes to the bottom and inches the bait upward.

He asked me to watch the rod while he retrieved. Trying to exhibit my crappie fishing prowess, I watched with eagle eyes as he reeled.

“See that?” he asked.

“I didn’t see anything,” I protested.

“Exactly,” he said with a sharp upward snap of his forearm and proceeded to reel in a cold-water slab that weighed just over 2 pounds.

“What just happened?” I asked, confused.

“The rod quivers during the retrieve,” he explained. “When it stops moving, a crappie just inhaled the jig. The combination of deep brush, tiny baits and an in-your-face presentation is more than the crappie can stand.”
With a little practice, I was soon hooked too.
For more information on Mundy’s finesse tactics and tackle, visit his website at www.fishstalker.com.

Phillip Gentry
pgentry6@bellsouth.net