Trolling Bandits

[crappieranger]

:rolleyes: What is a good selection of colors for trolling Bandit crank baits? What has worked for you? Also, I see where Bass Pro has 10% off the price of Bandits; check out their Clearance and Sale Barn.

crappieranger

[SpeckWick]

I've heard the 200 and 300 Bandits in Mistake, Splatterback, Chartreuse Pearl, Chartreuse Blueback, and the chrome ones are good depending on clarity of water. I like Bandits, but for $4 plus a piece, they are a bit expensive to troll in my opinion. I hate losing that much money everytime I break off. I troll mostly jigs or minnows, but occasionally push cheaper cranks. If you use a large sinker at the end of the line and attach cranks up the line 18" apart, you can troll any crankbait at whatever depth you want. Even lipless ones.

[SteveJ]

I troll 200 and 300 Bandits but think the 300's are by far the best. My best colors are Pearl Red Eye, Pearl with any color top or bottom, Translucent Red Crawfish, Parrot and Red Crawfish plus any combo with Chartruse. I made a plug knocker with 4 oz lead, a snap and some of that small chain like you use for heavy pictures. Put it on a length of trot line, get over your hang and hope for the best. Haven't lost too many. Jeff will check in I'm sure and he knows a lot more than I. Check his article at top of page.

[Bingo]

I troll them and they do good but i agree they are to expensive and when you troll like 6 poles out the back with bandits, it gets expensive going on and breaking a bandit or bandits off.

When the fish are comming up into shallow you need to use your 200 bandits and if you try trolling 300's when the fish are 9 feet or more shallow, you will lose alot of 300's. I have a good selection of both 200's and 300's.

I have used most every color they sell and if you made me choose only 3 colors and really that is all i need and keep in mind i troll 6 or 7 at the time. My number one color that catches fish far the best is called awesome pink. It has been a special order bandit but Bass Pro just got some this year i notice and i think bandit is making them now where they are not special order. Then i like one that is solid chartruese. Then my last one i like is called mad cow. Sometimes a solid chart will rival my awesome pink but usually my awesome pinks catch the most.

The solid chartruese is sometimes harder to find and if you can't get it solid chart, any that are mixed with chart is good. I notice like another mentioned in here any combo with chart is good. One i almost forgot and this makes more than three is red crawfish. It is very good.

1.awesome pink
2.chartruse or chart combo
3.madcow/red crawfish
4.pearl(red eye) or peal with chart or pearl with red or orange on bottom

I have many more but for crappie i like these the best. I tried one from Bass Pro called a pink sparkle and it is a very punny light pink, not like awesome pink and it would catch crappie but the large mouth bass loved that untill i lost it and have never replaced it. I will sometime. I am doing bandits this year but i am going to troll jigs more and road runners as they are not near as expensive. When it get's really hot, try your 300 bandits and a lure called hot lips(luhr jensen) and they will get down deeper when it gets hot and you keep moving and keep a small breeze going.

On a three way swivel, you can put a bandit on one about 25" leader and then the other leader make it about 10" and just put a 1/16th or 1/8th jig and troll a bandit and jig. Troll your bandits at 1.2mph to 2mph and the very best for me is 1.4mph for crappie and bandits. When trolling motor starts to lose juice, i have caught them at just over 1/2 to 3/4 mph but i was surprised the crankbait would work that slow. If you come up on shallow and using 300's, slow down to just under 1mph where you won't hang up and lose your bandits.

I notice in here alot of people love pink jigs also and so do i or a pink jig head. Why is pink so good? Can a crappie or fish in general see pink better? The same with chartruse as they love that also.

[SteveJ]

Bingo, what part of the country do you mainly troll? Good info in your post.

[Bushrod]

...like most guys, I probably have every color of the rainbow in my tackle box...but there's one thing to keep in mind: any crankbait that mimics the natural forage will do well...for me, that's anything resembling shad/minnows...BTW, the most popular crankbait color is FireTiger...

Bushrod

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

FYI Bluff City tackle in Alton, IL carries nearly every color that Bandit makes. I guess there are nearly 150 colors or so! Anyway, they just had an open house this last weekend, and I was there. They were running a special on them for well unde what BPS sells them for. They do mail order too. Check out their web site: http://www.bluffcitytackle.com

I like the Rootbeer/Chart, Red Craw, and Clown patterns as my top 3.

<,"}/>{ Rippa

[Bingo]

Thanks SteveJ. Kentucky Lake on TN side. Big Sandy area and out by the power lines.

[Bingo]

SteveJ, i'll try a plug knocker like you are talking about. These Bandits seem to keep going up and they are already expensive.

[SteveJ]

SteveJ, i'll try a plug knocker like you are talking about. These Bandits seem to keep going up and they are already expensive.

I also use the Calela Deep Grave Diggers @ $2.99 and they work real well too. I think the Bandits are a little better plus a better selection of colors but @ $2.00 cheaper I can live with the GD's.