How many is too many fishing rods by Brad Wiegmann

How many fishing rods did you crappie fish with today? If the crappie were deep into the brush or next to pole timber you may have answered one rod. While that’s appropriate when fishing those situations it might not be for a crappie angler fishing large areas in search of schools of offshore crappie.



Longlining is an effective way an angler successfully catches offshore crappie. Finding and catching offshore crappie. Unlike utilizing a single rod, longlining engages crappie anglers to put out multiple rods at one time while trolling with the boat’s electric trolling motor in productive looking areas. Even the multiple rods may have on multiple lures or baits on.


Before you go all one rod; one lure on me take a breath and remember; the fun of fishing is catching them. It doesn’t matter how many rods, lures or live bait you use to catch them as long as it’s done legally. The point is to catch fish and have fun.


One team of professional crappie anglers utilizing the longlining technique is Mississippi’s own Brad Chappell and Brandon Fulgham. Both are crappie fishing guides (www.grenadalakecrappieguides.com) along with having popular Facebook pages with posts showing off big crappie caught while longlining.


“What we like to do is target crappie around or under shad when longlining. We are not targeting fish on structure. Once we find the fish; we will pull our jigs through the area where the crappie are located,” said Brandon Fulgham.


Brad and Brandon keep it simple when longlining. “Our set up is two jigs tied together on one line about three or four feet apart. We also use a loop knot exclusively for this set up with the top knot about three or four inches in size while the bottom loop knot only about ½-inch in size,” said Brad Chappell.


After rigging up the rods, Brad and Brandon begin the task of setting out eight rods without tangling them. Of course, Brad and Brandon have been setting out rods to longline for such a longtime they make it look easy.


“We begin by setting the rods all out in our Driftmaster (www.driftmaster.com) rod holders; first, we begin with the shortest rod and move outwards to the longest rod which is an eighteen foot rod. It looks a little odd to some people, but it’s a really good way to catch suspending crappie,” said Brad.


“We’ll troll the two jigs from 1.2- to .08-mph. Normally, we have two different color patterns like a Cajun Cricket or Bluegill Fire 2 ½-inch Bobby Garland Stroll’R lures (www.bobbygarlandcrappie.com) rigged on a Road Runner (www.ttiblakemore.com) jig head with a 1/16-ounce on top and 1/8-ounce on the bottom. If the water is clear, we will change up and put on more natural colors. Normally, the crappie will tell you if you have on the right color,” said Brandon.


Due to the time to set up eight rods, Brad and Brandon may have to make a hard decision on staying and fishing the crappie in one area or move to another area. “The determining factor is what our expectation of the area is that we are fishing. On a new body of water, we like to fish it thoroughly before moving. We like to see if a pattern will develop as we fish the area before moving,” said Brad.


“I like to go on history of the lake I’m fishing. I know if it is producing that day or not. If the crappie aren’t biting or big enough, I will move,” said Brandon.


Of course, Brad and Brandon follow all the laws and regulations when it comes to using multiple rods. “It depends on what state you are in, but we like to use at least eight rods in our Driftmaster Rod Holders if legally possible,” said Brad.


Multiple rods equal more opportunity to present lures to crappie. Of course the challenge with longlining is the number of rods increase the opportunity to tangle, but it’s worth the gamble when fishing for crappie out in open water.