Pulling crank baits, newbie question...

[Hank,J]

I put in at Coffman on LOZ at 8:00 AM (late because of a flat.) I fished to 1:30. I had 3 crappies, 6 bass (2 over 15" and 2 under 4"), 1 drum, 1 catfish, and 1 biue gill.

I don't think either my 200/300, Bandits nor my Flicker Shad baits are getting as deep as advertised. I'm using 12 lb Big Game, and 15 lb NoBo (no stretch) Buck Perry metered trolling line (lead core, too hard to use). That is what I used for stripers in Georgia and on Beaver Lake in AR.

I trolled across some bars today that got as shallow as 12' and don't think I hit bottom much.

I am also catching more catfish, bass, and drums, than crappie. I'm going to go deeper using Dipsy Divers probably paired with Repala, or Rebel minnow baits. I will use 50 lb. Spider Braid (no stretch) to the DD then a 10' leader of mono. My objective is to put a bait down to 20 -25'.

Want to experiment with Dipsy Divers... I have 2, 0 (zero) sized I will donate to anybody willing to pay postage.

[Lil Baby]

I would'nt use anything over 10 lb mono, or 12 pound Stren Magna Thin. I also have used braid up to 30 pound and seems to get the baits deep enough. I use the same rods I carp/channel catfish with and they all have 12 pound Magna Thin or 30 pound Power Pro. If I were going to dedicate rods specifically to trolling cranks Id use 8 pound mono or 15 pound braid. I also use my jigging pole with 6 pound mono but thats pretty light if you hit a snag.

[Hookin'&Cookin']

The Precision trolling app is what we use and it is very accurate. If you have the dipsy's then use them, you may also look at the offshore tadpoles we've been using them and like them alot.

Glad you got the inverter thing worked out, the fan is a pretty good idea.

[LOZ Targa]

The rods I use have 10 lb vicious and 30 lb power pro. Most of the time I run about 90' of line out and troll main channel bluffs or points. You will catch a lot of catfish drum and bass too. Watch your graph for the shad balls and the crappie should be right below them. To see what depth to run.

[Hank,J]

Thanks all.

[beagle man]

10 lb. 75 to 110ft. 1.5 to 2.5mph I troll bandit,and flicker shad,and shad raps,,, and some of the new arkie lures, and catch lots of crappie. On Stockton Lake, points, flats and bluff areas.

[Speck]

IMHO I only use 10 pound Vicious Hi Vis on my cranking rods. Most trolling charts are based on 10 pound mono. The heavier the line, the shallower your cranks will run. It is also my experience that if you are catching catfish and goo's (drum), you are fishing too deep. We call that dumpster diving. Try shallowing up a little. We've been hammering them with only 20-30 feet of line out. I primarily run Bandit 300's, Number 5 and 6 Flicker Shads and custom painted C55's. Arkie 350's are awesome as well.

[LOZ Targa]

Speck you said you were catching them with 20'-30' of line out reminded me one of the last times I was out. I wasn't doing very good then I caught three fish while making a turn short enough that my Bandits had floated up quite a bit. I went from 90' of line to 40'-50' and caught quite a few. This was in 60'-65' of water.

That is a NICE mess of slabs there. They look a little cold though. LOL!!!

[Speck]

Speck you said you were catching them with 20'-30' of line out reminded me one of the last times I was out. I wasn't doing very good then I caught three fish while making a turn short enough that my Bandits had floated up quite a bit. I went from 90' of line to 40'-50' and caught quite a few. This was in 60'-65' of water.

That is a NICE mess of slabs there. They look a little cold though. LOL!!!

Good eye there Targa!!! It was too dang hot to throw them in the livewell, so we were putting them on ice instead.

[Hank,J]

Just curious, was that at mile marker 5 or MM 50? I keep hearing about all the trolling and catching going on. When I put in at Coffman there were 2 trailers in the entire parking lot. I talked to one of those guys and they were fishing cut shad for catfish. When I pulled out at 1:30 there were ZERO fishing boat trailers and only 1 jet ski and one kayak trailer in the lower lot, zero in the upper. If it is that easy to stack ém up, why isn't the lot full?

I have been fishing for over 65 years and my experience is, no boats on the lake and no trailers at the ramp = S L O W fishing.