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.

Midsummer finds many anglers in hot pursuit of top-line predators such as pike and muskies that test their skills and savvy. Rock reefs and large weedbeds are the structures of choice for this kind of ...