Water temp for trolling Cranks

[crappie_dan]

I hear alot of people say they dont start trolling crankbaits til after the spawn when the water warms up. Does anyone have anyluck on them pre-spawn. I dont normally longline troll but am trying to learn a few things about it and trolling with crankbaits is one technique I would like to learn. Thanks for any info. Dan

[jimeisaac]

I think that trolling is a good method for finding fish during the pre-spawn stage:

Panfish | Trolling for Crappies | 1

Panfish | Open Water Crappies | 1

[smashdn]

One of the reasons that trolling cranks for crappie is better suited to the post-spawn fish is that they have a tendency to suspend either in open water, along ledges, or above cover, and when they follow schools of shad. This makes pulling a crankbait a little easier than it is when fish are on a pre-spawn pattern snuggled up next to brush.

Not to say it doesn't or can't work for pre-spawn fish because I have caught them doing it. If I were going to try it pre-spawn I would try it out on a stump flat keeping the cranks just above the tops of the stumps and keep my speed down a little slower than I would pulling later on, maybe .75-1.0 mph instead of the 1.5 I shoot for post-spawn.

Jim Duckwirth talks about tying a jig on the back treble of a crankbait. This might be a good tactic for the pre-spawn fish. The crankbait would be the attention grabber/downrigger for getting the jig to the fish. If ol slab wasn't feeling quite frisky enough to tackle a crankbait he might be interested in hitting that jig.

Also I use smaller crankbaits than the Bandit cranks. Typically, I use the Norman deep little N or the crappie versions of those because I feel I can get away with using a smaller rod set-up for those. (I don't have much bass gear for trolling the bigger baits. I can troll the smaller cranks on a medium 6'6" -7' spinning rod with 8lb line)