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.
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