Secret Slab Sauce: Berkley Powerbait Crappie Nibbles and Slab Sauce by Crappie.com
Keith Lusher 03.17.23
In the world of crappie fishing, anglers often hold they hand close to the vest. So when I made a fishing trip with John Guillot of Kiln, Miss. I wasn’t counting on getting much information out of him.
On the ride to the boat launch however, Guillot began telling me about a new concoction he’s been using to catch more crappie. “This year I am on pace to beat my record of 2,500 crappie caught,” he said.
Guillot fishes the Pearl River Delta which contains the East, Middle, and West Pearl Rivers. Last year he discovered a new way to add scent to his jig without continuously having to spray on attractant.
“One day I was mixing up some epoxy to load into a syringe in order to fill voids in a customer’s transom,” he said. “Then the thought came to me, ‘Is the syringe is strong enough to inject a scent into a hollow-bodied tube jig?” He tried injecting a jig with a product called Slab Sauce made by Crappie.com. Guillot said the sauce is the absolute best in the world of crappie attractants. After injecting the hollow-bodie tube jig, he noticed the liquid draining out. Guillot needed to thicken the Slab Sauce in order to make the injection stay put inside the jig. “I took an old bottle of Crappie Nibbles, mixed them with worm oil help soften them, then mixed that with the Slab Sauce,” he said. The end result was a mixture with a dough-like consistency that was thin enough to flow through a, epoxy syringe, but thick enough to remain inside the tube jig for numerous casts.
The Recipe
When preparing his sauce, Guillot starts with a container of Crappie Nibbles. He adds a Tablespoon of worm oil to the cup and begins working the oil in with a fork. After adding the Slab Sauce he crushes the ingredients in the cup, smashing everything until it becomes a smooth thick pasty consistency without any lumps. “You don’t want any lumps in it because you won’t be able to push it out of the syringe tip,” Guillot said. Then he fills 3-4 syringes halfway with the attractant and slides them into a compartment in his tackle box. When he’s fishing he takes out a syringe and lays it on the bow of his boat to use when ever he needs it. “The stuff’s amazing! I can catch a bunch fish before having to refill the body,” he said.
I can attest to Guillot’s secret sauce first hand. We pulling up to our first spot which was an underwater root ball in 10 feet of water. Guillot filled up his tube jig with his sauce and give the string to me. I filled up my jig, and lower down my line. We both were using simple off-brand chartreuse tube jigs with a black body and a chartreuse skirt. John glanced at his Panoptix screen pointing to a spot on the water’s surface and said, “Right there!” I let down my line and when the top of my rod came to the water’s surface, I held the rod still and felt a thump more associated with a speckled trout than than a crappie. After a quick hook-set I launched a solid 13-inch slab into the boat. We caught over 30 crappie throughout the day and the one thing I noticed is that the fish were swallowing the jigs like I’ve never seen before; I had to use a needle-nose piers to remove the hooks out of three of the fish I caught.
Since our trip I have replicated Guillot’s injection and have noticed an increase in the amount of crappie I’ve caught. If you’re looking for an attractant that is proven and lasts numerous casts, I highly recommend using these two products combined as an injection on your next crappie trip.
