Stocking up with enough crappie for September fish fries isn’t that difficult — if you pay attention to these trolling teachers.
Pulling crankbaits to catch crappie in the state of Mississippi is almost a guarantee to catch at least some crappie on any given day of the year on almost any body of water.
Historically anglers thought of the big U.S. ARMY Corps of Engineer Flood Control Project lakes along I-55 as being the best, and summertime was the only time trolling with crankbaits worked.
Truth is, one body of water at a time, one month at a time, anglers learned that fish still bit crankbaits.
The theory behind cranking is that it targets suspended crappie. If you rule out the actual spawn, when crappie tend to hunker closer to the bottom, crappie spend a lot of time suspending upwards in the water column, particularly white crappie, which dominate most of the crappie populations across the state.
Another theory is that pulling crankbaits only works during the summer, which might have evolved because few other tactics do work in the summer and cranking was the best way to fish in the heat.
An argument can be made that pulling crankbaits in the fall is actually the best time for several reasons. First is that the month of September might be a summer month or it could be a more temperate month.
When it’s hot, thermoclines will still be in place and crappie will continue their summer patterns and, as discussed, cranking is a favorite summer tactic.
Targeting thermoclines
Veteran tournament angler Kent Driscoll said targeting thermoclines in September is still spot on, until water temperatures start to drop later in the month. He targets Sardis, Enid, and Grenada for the most part but admits any lake with enough depth and available open water will yield crappie to crankbaits.
“Finding the baitfish is important to catching fish,” said Driscoll. “Bait can’t live below the thermocline so they end up forming tight schools out in the main lake and at the mouths of major creeks. They suspend around 12 to 15 feet deep out over 20 to 25 feet of water. If I’m marking bait on my graph, that’s where I know I’ll find crappie.”
Driscoll pulls crankbaits on eight rods that he runs along each side of his boat, four to a side. The rods he uses are B’n’M Pro Staffs, a super stiff rod which keeps the crankbait from putting too much bend in the rod while trolling. He graduates the rods in length, starting with an 8-foot rod nearest the transom, then moves up to a 10-footer, a 12-footer and finally a 14-foot rod nearest the front.
“That’s your basic set up,” he said. “You’re going to want to vary your speed from 1.5 to 1.7 or 1.8, sometimes faster if you can get away with it,” Driscoll said. “Sometimes (you need to go) slower if the fish are in a negative mood. You’ve just got to vary speeds to figure out what they want.”
The depth of presentation of the crankbaits is a coordination of variables including the amount of line out, working depth of the crankbait, and boat speed. Driscoll ranges his boat speed on average between 1.5 mph and 2.0 mph. Such precise graduations in speed require the uses of a GPS enabled electronics system that will measure speed to the tenth of a mph.
Gear
In order to get his boat to troll at and maintain that speed, Driscoll uses a 24-volt Minn Kota trolling motor. He can control the trolling motor from anywhere on the boat while he watches his graph for fish and his chart for humps and ditches over which white crappie love to suspend.
The pro has mounted Driftmaster rod holders on either side of his boat at the center of the gunnel. The rod holders securely hold the trolling rods, which are equipped with line counter reels, while pulling cranks.
Having the line counters helps him precisely measure the distance each crankbait is trolled behind the boat. The 8-foot rod has the longest line, then the distance out decreases as the rod length increases. This way the crankbaits stay separated. The front rod, the 14-footer, is rigged as a down-rod with a 2-ounce egg sinker that is attached three feet in front of the crankbait. The weight allows the long rod to run more perpendicular and targets fish at whatever depth Driscoll finds on his depthfinder.
His line choices are10-pound Vicious Hi Vis green in stained water, and clear line in clear water. The visibility and higher than average test line helps him keep the cranks running straight, and allows him to retrieve a bait if it gets snagged.
Driscoll said watching his graph while trolling crankbaits will alert him to how deep the fish are suspending. In order to target suspended crappie, he uses a line-out formula.
Example: If he wants to target fish that are holding 12 feet deep, he lets out 110 feet of line.
His formula is: Amount of line out divided by 10, plus 1 foot. So to get to 12 feet he lets out 110 feet of line (110 divided by 10 plus 1).
Covering water
For the down-rod calculation, using a 2-ounce weight above the crankbait, he simply doubles the amount of line out for the depth he wants to fish. So to reach 12 feet, he lets out 24 feet of line.
“Some days the crappie want the bait slower and some days they want it a little faster,” said Driscoll. “Covering as much water as possible in order to find willing fish, especially after the thermoclines start to breakup and fish get scattered, is another secret to the formula. When you get those variables figured out, you can really wear out some big white crappie.”
Even Driscoll’s fishing partner, Grenada Lake guide John Harrision, isn’t immune to the trolling bug.
Harrison said fish at Grenada will hold off the ends of long points and wait for baitfish to move by. Even as the water levels start to drop, crappie will pull back to the deeper areas but treat a point the same way all the way out.
“There are a lot of different setups for pulling crankbaits,” said Harrison. “I’d rather have all my rods where I can reach them from the back deck of the boat. Then you can put two guys back there and they can reach each side.”
Go-to crankbaits
Harrison said he uses a variety of crankbaits for trolling in the fall, but prefers Bandits in the 200 and 300 series. Bandit makes a variety of colors specifically for cranking for crappie, but Harrison said he compares the color and style of crankbait to the weight and color of a jig when he’s jig fishing.
“You want a color the fish can see, with an action that they like, especially in the fall when there’s all kinds of bait to be found,” Harrison said. “As for the style, you can adjust that with the amount of line out, but the angle and build of the lip on the crankbait is also going to tell you how deep that bait is going to dive.”
After you get a boat rigged and ready to troll crankbaits for crappie, it’s all a matter of covering enough water to find where the fish are. Like Driscoll, John Harrison’s No. 1 tip is to look for baitfish on the graph before putting lines out.
“I want to make sure I’m seeing baitfish in scattered pods in the area I intend to fish before I start trolling,” said Harrison, who targets open water areas exclusively for this tactic. “Scattered baits means nervous bait and that means predators are down there pushing them around and likely feeding on them. Those predators might be catfish or drum, but hopefully they’ll be big crappie.”
Clear water demands lighter line
One of the biggest differences between trolling crankbaits on a clear water lake like Pickwick and a more stained or muddy water lake like Sardis or Grenada is the size line you need to use.
Out in Mississippi’s muddy lakes, angler Kent Driscoll trolls 12-pound Vicious solar green monofilament line, while in parts north, he may only opt for 8- or 10-pound clear line.
The reason is as clear as the water in Lake Pickwick.
“Those lakes out west stay muddy or at least murky all the time” Driscoll said. “But some lakes are pretty clear and I believe that heavy line spooks fish.”
Another factor has to do with depth of presentation. With the thinner diameter of 6-pound test, Driscoll has no problem getting a 300 series Bandit down to the 15- to 18-foot range with less line out than he has to use with 12-pound test.
He also stresses watching the depth finder. With the navigational charts on most of today’s modern units, the angler can not only see what is under and to the side of the boat, but also the break of the terrain.
“I mostly troll out in the middle of the lake on clear water lakes, targeting offshore humps and points, so hanging up is not as big a concern” said Driscoll, “if I do come across some standing timber or a shallow hump, I’ll see it on the depth finder or on my chart before the baits get there and I can slow down and make the baits float up.”
Trolling crankbaits works on oxbows, too
Another fallacy about trolling crankbaits is that it only works on big lakes. Over the last few years, fishing reports have come in about big catches of crappie that occurred on smaller bodies of water, even from some of Mississippi’s oxbow lakes.
Guide Brad Taylor of Greenville said trolling crankbaits on oxbow lakes not only catches fish, but he believes the fall is prime time to catch both size and numbers.
“Trolling cranks works just as good during the fall and winter, too,” said Taylor, part time crappie guide, past president of the Magnolia Crappie Club, and one of B’n’M’s crankbait trolling experts. “I love to fish them during the months of September and October in the oxbow lakes near my home. It’s a suspended fish tactic, not just a summertime tactic.”
Taylor believes crappie in the Mississippi Delta spend much of the fall suspended, chasing migrating shad, and not really relating to any specific structure. That’s the same pattern for summer fishing except during summer they’re suspending in the thermocline to avoid the heat and bottom predators.
Taylor summed it up by saying that trolling cranks for crappie was still a largely undiscovered art.
“I know a lot of guys troll with their big outboard or a small gas kicker motor, but for me the most important piece of crank baiting gear is a Minn Kota Terrova electric trolling motor,” Taylor said. “I have an 80-pound thrust auto pilot that has the iPilot control system.
“That auto pilot is the greatest thing ever invented for pulling crankbaits. It handles all the steering and boat control. You just set it and forget it.”
Even in cooler water, Taylor said that his target trolling speed is between 1.4 to 1.9 mph on the GPS. He will stagger the lines on his rods at 70 feet on the shortest rod and go 70, 80, and 90 feet on one side and 80, 90, 110 feet on the other. He also likes to make a lot of turns while trolling when he first starts looking for fish. That helps him find the right depth.
‘Troller’s Bible’ now a smartphone app
The fishing information contained in the popular publication Precision Trolling is a troller’s dream come true.
Dubbed “the troller’s bible” by the tens of thousands of anglers who use this information to target fish at specific depths, Precision Trolling is just what the name implies. Precision Trolling is a method of fishing that allows anglers to accurately predict the running depths of their favorite lures and diving devices.
By manipulating lead length anglers can easily “aim” their favorite fishing lures at specific depths, and accurately target fish that they are seeing on their sonar while avoiding costly snagged lures.
Even better, once a productive lead length is determined, it’s easy to duplicate that lure and lead length combination with other lines, putting more lures in the strike zone.
The Precision Trolling Data App goes a step further.
Once an angler has determined that a particular lure and lead length are effective at catching fish, it’s easy to search for other lures in the list of Precision Trolling App that achieve similar depths. Once a productive depth is determined where fish are biting, it’s a logical step to try different lures at the same depth to find the one that best triggers crappie reaction.
The Precision Trolling Data App allows anglers to access a wealth of trolling data. The familiar “dive curves” made popular in the Precision Trolling book are now incorporated into easy to use “pickers” or “wheels.”
The Data Wheels let you adjust the “feet down” to determine the “feet back.” This is particularly useful if you want to target fish at a certain depth that you are seeing on your sonar unit. The Data Wheel also allows anglers to adjust the “feet back” to determine the “feet down” that the lure will dive. This a fast and effective way of zeroing in on a target depth with any of the lures or diving devices included in the Precision Trolling app.
For more information, visit www.precisiontrollingdata.com.
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