Thread: trolling crankbaits

Hey guys i am from the la board but was told to come here for good info. I'm thinking of trying some crankbait trolling and was wondering how ya do it. I don't want to long line really. I would prefer to do an almost vertical troll with weights. I have read online about using 1-5 ounces of weight. I have a spider rig set-up already so i want to try and use it and push them. Thanks.

x19, I know nothin bout trollin 'cept it apparently works. At least from listenin to the pros here. Gonna trick one of them into lettin me ride along one of these days and learn first hand.

They'll be here soon enough to help you, and welcome to the board from a "Yankee Wannabe Mississippi Redneck Crappie Fisherman".

Wannabe will give you all the info you need, but he'll try to charge you for it, and DonDon will put you under a bridge somewhere, and Torch will show you EXACTLY how (if you can keep up with him when he leaves the dock), and the rest of these guys will chime in with little bits of magical info. (You can get around Wannabe's fees by tellin him he's real purtty).

Good luck tryin to cipher it all out. lol

What you are talking about doing is called pushing cranks. You will need some fairly stiff ( medium action ) rods in several lengths. I use 6 on the front 2 outside 13 or 14 ft, 2 middle rods 10 or 12 and inside can be any length since they are running straight out. Will need 3 to 4 oz weights to keep them almost straight down. Tie on a 3 way swivel and attach weight at the bottom with a short leader, attach your crank bait to the remaining eye on 3 way with a 3 or 4 ft leader and let it down to just above where the fish finder says they are. Push at between 1.5 and 1.9 mph. good luck...:D

3-4 oz won't be enough at 1.5-1.9.... You'll have to either go bigger weight, or slower speed. The limited experience I have pushing them .8-1.2 is plenty fast to give them action, and slow enough to use 4 oz weights.

Yea if you gonna run 1.8 to 2 you gonna need some REALLY heavy weight 8+.

if your going "fast" , you may want to still try it out the back.....

I did experiment with "pushing" the bandit on the front...with a 1 oz weight.....but like pstone said, you will have to keep the speed down......mine luckily went just fast enough to make the bandit wiggle......got 3 good strikes but only 1 in the boat.....had decent luck with the "taco salad" color...good luck....

X, I think "pulling" crankbaits is the easiest option if you want to try trolling. It will produce fish and the rigging is much easier (tie a bait on your line and go).

Somehow the idea of catching crappie with 4 or 8 oz. weights attached to them just don't seem like a lot of fun.

X, you can contact Larry McMullin at 573-283-5465. He is a master at the art. Tell him Double D sent ya.

Pulling is easier and for me, more productive. If you're gonna push, with a long leader, you'll have to be carful of turning too sharp or they'll tangle - depending on how many rods and the spacing. In addition, it's very easy to miss seeing the strike and end up pulling a fish for miles with a heavy weight.

Wannabe...

Originally Posted by Pops

X, I think "pulling" crankbaits is the easiest option if you want to try trolling. It will produce fish and the rigging is much easier (tie a bait on your line and go).

Somehow the idea of catching crappie with 4 or 8 oz. weights attached to them just don't seem like a lot of fun.

I'm new to this also. Does everybody troll with their trolling motor? My pontoon has a 75 HP Evinrude and the slowest it can go seems to be 1.9 mph according to my Lowrance. I have some of the 300 series Bandit crankbaits. Does it make a difference as to how much line you put out and the pound test of the line?