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.

The most useful and versatile inshore terminal-tackle rig in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia is a sliding cork affair, appropriately called the "float rig." It's also the inshore rig that ...