Duck Commander and Duck Dynasty stars troll crankbaits for crappie at Enid and Grenada lakes

Jay Stone from Duck Commander landed this Grenada slab pulling crankbaits.

Duck Dynasty star John Godwin said catching crappie with Grenada guide John Harrison was better than a ham sammich.

Members of the Duck Commander crew paired with B’n’M Poles pro staffers over the weekend to learn the art of catching summer crappie on crankbaits.

Duck Commander stars invade Mississippi with crankbaiting on their minds

What do the guys from Duck Commander do when they aren’t filming the nation’s number one TV show or building duck calls? They fish for crappie. Facebook and the internet were abuzz last weekend as word spread that John Godwin and Jay Stone from Duck Commander had been seen hitting local Mississippi lakes Enid and Grenada to work on their crappie fishing skills. Godwin and Stone, both crappie aficionados in their own rights, came to Mississippi to learn the art of trolling crankbaits.

“I’m going to have my boat ready to do this back home in West Monroe in about two days,” said Godwin. “I never thought that using a bass bait to catch a crappie would work but it sure does, and big slabs too. It’s a lot of fun and it looks like a good thing to take your family out and enjoy the day with them.”

The Duck Commanders paired up with pro-staffers from West Point based B’n’M poles to learn the ins and outs of crankbaiting and to spend some down time on the water. The crew spent Saturday catching numbers of crappie trolling crankbaits on Lake Enid, then spent Sunday hunting Grenada’s legendary 3 pounders.

“We’d be hard pressed to catch so many big crappie on our home lakes,” said Stone. “But in August, you can forget it. I think trolling these cranks is the way to go in the hot summertime, for sure.”

The Mississippi trip also coincided with the release of B’n’M’s new Duck Commander Series of crappie fishing poles. The new series, which includes trolling poles, jig poles, a telescopic bream fishing pole and an ultralight youth-oriented spinning rod, were all designed by the Duck Commanders, who approached B’n’M with some ideas for the rod designs.

“Everyone knows these guys hunt,” said B’n’M president Jack Wells, “but they’re also avid anglers. When they approached us with some of their design ideas, I was amazed at what they had come up with and wondered why we hadn’t thought of some of their ideas before. I’m really excited to see these rods hit the market.”

Wells said the general public can expect the new Duck Commander rods to hit local independent retailers within the next month and would also be available at major retail stores like Cabela’s, Bass Pro and Wal-Mart after the first of the year.