Anyone been pulling crank baits at the Lake of the Ozarks?

[bryan535]

I have vacation next week and gonna give it a try.

[Eric Dennis]

My family and I were pulling cranks way up the Gravois Arm last week. Pulled Jointed Shad Raps in 20 -25' of water. Bite was much better in early morning compared to the evening. Several 12-14" fish with the biggest right at 16"!!

[bryan535]

Nice!! Thanks for the reply.

[CrappieHusker]

Bryan
Cranking has been very good the last few weeks....yes, better in the morning. You should do well with bombers, wiggle warts and bandits....Also jointed shad raps! ....good luck!
Eric,
Great looking fish and family!
The Shad Raps in the picture look like the bigger JSR-7 and not the smaller JSR-5? or am I not seeing that?
You musta found a school of 'big'uns'?
Great job!
Husker

[Eric Dennis]

Husker
The cranks I was using were are all JSR-5. I stopped trolling a few times once I thought I had them pinpointed and I would fish with jigs and minnows thinking I would load the boat with slabs and all I could catch would be 8-9"ers. Take off trolling and start hitting the big fish again. It was obvious that they wanted the bigger baits. I wish I had a few JSR-7 just to see what would happen.

[Wood]

Great report and even better pics! Looks like a memorable trip. Thanks.

[fishin_addict]

Husker
The cranks I was using were are all JSR-5. I stopped trolling a few times once I thought I had them pinpointed and I would fish with jigs and minnows thinking I would load the boat with slabs and all I could catch would be 8-9"ers. Take off trolling and start hitting the big fish again. It was obvious that they wanted the bigger baits. I wish I had a few JSR-7 just to see what would happen.

I've never tried trolling cranks for crappie on LOZ. So I assume your trolling via your outboard as opposed to electric? And just getting your cranks down to whatever depth they go, like 5-10 ft.? So I gather you like the perch color over a shad color crank?

[Eric Dennis]

The JSR-5 will dive to 10-12 ft. You can get them down a little deeper by long lining or adding weight if needed. This particular trip to the lake I was actually trolling outta my ski boat. Just had to bump it in and out of gear to keep it down around 2 mph. Color didn't matter, we caught fish on them all but when my wife caught the biggest fish on perch color it didn't take long until my son changed his to a perch color! Haha Can't get out fished by MOM!!

[wilbur]

Don't catch em all , save me some. I will be down first week of Oct.

[CrappieHusker]

...better hurry...only 17 crappie left in the whole lake.....ha ha ha
Husker