Still early for cranks on Truman I guess

[st041986]

We went up for our annual camping trip at Truman State Park this past weekend. The blue catfish bit awesome below Truman Dam. I bet we caught nearly 100 of them in three days drifting cut shad. Sunday morning before we headed out we decided to guy try some cranks along the wood bluffs up on Truman since we had brought our trolling gear and bandits. It was pretty slow as we only caught two small whites and three crappie in a couple hours. Last year on this same weekend we did very well doing the same thing in the same spots but everything was earlier last year too.

It ain't much of a report but figured I'd post it anyways.

[andrewcmsu]

any size to the cats?

[Jigging15]

Them crankbait fish will be ready in a few weeks.

[bryan535]

Where are good places to pull cranks on Truman?

[Jigging15]

Pushing them is easier in most areas. Pulling them can be done along bluffs and along the outside tree rows on main lake channels. Down at the dam along the weir is also a popular place.

[bryan535]

Thanks! Also how is spider rigging the next month or two?

[Jigging15]

It can be good year round. Just have to change areas that you do it.

[beagle man]

pretty good report I think, 100 cats in a couple days, Man I would be poopoin in tall cotton for sure.

[Riverrat13]

Could you elaborate on your trolling set up for crappies? What would you do on Table Rock? Just need a few hints, not looking to pick your brain. Any advice will help. Location? Structure? Depth? Color? etc. thanks

[st041986]

The biggest blue was only about 7 pounds. Finding shad was hit or miss. Our first throw we got lucky and came up on a big school feeding near the surface and got enough for the weekend. We got a few more afterwards by throwing the cast nest in some current breaks near the bank between the bridge and the buoys. That first throw saved us a lot of trouble with the bait. Keep the boat in 30+ feet of water and use the trolling to slow your drift down to 1/2 mph and we caught fish. Mile markers didn't seem to matter much. We did catch a lot more using a 2oz weight and back bouncing instead of fishing heavier weights vertically.

When we troll Bandits we run 6-8 rods ranging 6-16' long with 75-175' of line out and usually always along wooded bluffs. The water is usually 50-75' deep under the boat. For colors, we usually start out with two white, two chartreuse and the rest are bright colored cranks (pink, orange, etc). If the crappie show a preference to depth or color we will adjust all of the rods to that depth/color. As long as the thermocline is around 25' we seem to catch a lot of crappie this way on MTL and Truman.