Thread: Pulling Cranks 101

Originally Posted by downsouth

In my opinion, I think you would do well to have the longest pole on your strongside ahead of you but able to reach leaning forward. Your second longest on the weakside still in reach. The shortest pole behind either one of the other as to best see it and be able to reach it. Your eyes need to be able to see the tips at most all times. Being in a strain to accomplish that will be little fun.

I sat at the console of my boat and sat the rod holders from my seat as I would be trolling. Now I always fish with the wife and she covers alot of ground in the boat. Sounds like you are mainly fishing alone. With a tiller handle and long poles with long lines out I would think you face some challenges steering and reeling. You may need to tighten up the tension on your tiller steer so you can let go and stay fairly straight.

We go long to short back to front.

Good luck, you'll figure it out.

thanks for the advice I usually do fish alone....my outboard is designed for trolling it has rpm adjustments to dial in the speed and it also has a co pilot feature that allows me to lock motor in place, I learned last time out that if I keep my trolling motor in the water i can use it to steer with. my trolling motor will steer the boat without even turning the it on all i have to do is turn it left or right with my co pilot remote....if Im sitting in the boat driving I have been running my shortest poles in rod holder closest to me and then 12' in the next hold and 16' in the last holder....I just wondering if it would be better if i put my 16 footers out first closest to me and then get short going towards the front of the boat

i would say set then up so you cover the most water. i would have 16 on the outside then 12 short rod out the back

Originally Posted by tigerinfielder3

thanks for the advice I usually do fish alone....my outboard is designed for trolling it has rpm adjustments to dial in the speed and it also has a co pilot feature that allows me to lock motor in place, I learned last time out that if I keep my trolling motor in the water i can use it to steer with. my trolling motor will steer the boat without even turning the it on all i have to do is turn it left or right with my co pilot remote....if Im sitting in the boat driving I have been running my shortest poles in rod holder closest to me and then 12' in the next hold and 16' in the last holder....I just wondering if it would be better if i put my 16 footers out first closest to me and then get short going towards the front of the boat

Your doing it right .....that way you are not running lines underneath other poles

What works best for me is the long pole on each side is furtherest forward and it runs the longest line as well, next pole is shorter with a shorter line and so on. I know some say the line closest to the boat should be the longest, boat spooks the fesh, I say BS, we had a battery issue the other day and had to use the big motor to troll, most of our fish were caught on the short pole running 25 feet of line out rite by the boat. Also, I run all rods off the side, nothing out the back. With the longer rods having the longer line out the fesh cant be brought in directly behind the boat without tangling any lines. Everyone has their own way but this is what's worked best for us so far.

Originally Posted by Rees Guide

What works best for me is the long pole on each side is furtherest forward and it runs the longest line as well, next pole is shorter with a shorter line and so on. I know some say the line closest to the boat should be the longest, boat spooks the fesh, I say BS, we had a battery issue the other day and had to use the big motor to troll, most of our fish were caught on the short pole running 25 feet of line out rite by the boat. Also, I run all rods off the side, nothing out the back. With the longer rods having the longer line out the fesh cant be brought in directly behind the boat without tangling any lines. Everyone has their own way but this is what's worked best for us so far.

i do it like reese(rods out the side ,longest rod with longest length of line out),and run the big motor alot and catch just as many fish with or without the bigmotor running

A lot of good info in this thread. Thanks to all that shared. Forgive me for the gewber question if its been covered already. On the amount of line out / depth chart; is the amount of line out measured from the rod tip or from when the crankbait hits the water and starts on its way back? Or does it matter all that much?

Thanks,
JC

Its measure from where your line enters the water......the line in the air from water surface to your rod tip does not count.

Thanks "G". And you too "majfb" for starting this. I really didn't get the bug until all the activity this past Nov/Dec posted by "theygotaeat" over on the LA board. He was killing me with the pics and reports. And now the tally is one troll plate, 4-rod holders, 4-trolling rods and line counter reels (waiting on ups for those); I guess I'm knee deep in it. Oh and I forgot, the countless cranks to come.... Well let's just say I'm determined to make this happen.

Thanks again guys,
JC