Trolling for Crappie-A guided trip to remember.

[Crappie1]

I have been crappie fishing a long time but its amazing how many different techniques are used to catch this tasty fish. I always had the belief that if you didn't have a minnow you couldn't catch the big ones or near as many as with artificial. We have always fished with a jig'n minnow and tried to find the thickest brush we could find. I was proven wrong when I took a trip to Weiss a couple of years ago.

I had never been to "The Crappie Capitol of World" and my father and I decided to get a guide for the first day. We got a guide not to learn a new way of fishing but to quickly find out where the fish were so we wouldn't spend our entire trip trying to find them.

We started out by meeting our guide at 5:00 am. I had never used a guide so I really didn't know what to expect. I asked the guide if we needed to buy the minnows or was that included. He replied by saying that we wouldn't be using minnows today. I thought to myself, what have we done, :rolleyes: we'll be lucking to catch anything. Within the first 15 minutes of trolling in open water with just a plain jig I caught a 3lb slab. By lunch we had caught fish like I had never caught fish before and limited out. Wow, what a learning experience. It was worth every penny.

I have since added rod holders on my boat and brought this technique back home. The first time I tried it on my own we caught more fish than I ever have in one day. I'm "hooked". If you've never tried trolling and your not catching as many as you think you should, you don't know what your missing. We still take the minnows but we now have another technique to use.

My wife and daughter love to go fishing with me now because now we're catchin' instead of just fishin'.

I guess the more you know the more you catch.

Good fishing.

[GABoy]

AMEN....I agree whole-heartedly....I HARDLY EVER use minnows....in fact, I believe the last time I used minnows was over 2 years ago.....and I am not at a lack for catching fish....

I am a HUGE advocate of trolling with articial lures......

[Crappie1]

Memories that will last a lifetime.
This is what it's all about.

[labill]

Gotta tell ya, Crappie1, anybodywould be happy to show off those slabs! Nice.....

[Cane Pole]

Loved the pic. I try and fish all or any method. Probably why I ain't worth a crap at any particular style. Expand your horizions. Post more pics when u can.

[GABoy]

BEAUTIFUL fish!!!!!

[TheHawg]

When I was a little boy, 45 or 50 years ago, my dad and uncle would troll for crappie. I have never seen anyone else do it like they did. We would troll using a small kicker motor (there were no electric trolling motors then). We used long cane poles with great big corks and about 3 to 5 oz of lead. They were rigged with a minnow and a home made jig made from deer hair. We would put the poles out on one side of the old DuraCraft in some pole holders my uncle had fashoned, and we would putter around the lake. We caught them like crazy.
Great memories.
TheHawg

[treepotato]

I have been crappie fishing a long time but its amazing how many different techniques are used to catch this tasty fish. I always had the belief that if you didn't have a minnow you couldn't catch the big ones or near as many as with artificial. We have always fished with a jig'n minnow and tried to find the thickest brush we could find. I was proven wrong when I took a trip to Weiss a couple of years ago.

I had never been to "The Crappie Capitol of World" and my father and I decided to get a guide for the first day. We got a guide not to learn a new way of fishing but to quickly find out where the fish were so we wouldn't spend our entire trip trying to find them.

We started out by meeting our guide at 5:00 am. I had never used a guide so I really didn't know what to expect. I asked the guide if we needed to buy the minnows or was that included. He replied by saying that we wouldn't be using minnows today. I thought to myself, what have we done, :rolleyes: we'll be lucking to catch anything. Within the first 15 minutes of trolling in open water with just a plain jig I caught a 3lb slab. By lunch we had caught fish like I had never caught fish before and limited out. Wow, what a learning experience. It was worth every penny.

I have since added rod holders on my boat and brought this technique back home. The first time I tried it on my own we caught more fish than I ever have in one day. I'm "hooked". If you've never tried trolling and your not catching as many as you think you should, you don't know what your missing. We still take the minnows but we now have another technique to use.

My wife and daughter love to go fishing with me now because now we're catchin' instead of just fishin'.

I guess the more you know the more you catch.

Good fishing.

Just curious about what some of your favorite lures are to troll. I started trolling last year by dragging three double rigged poles of three different lengths ( to keep them from getting tangled together) about 30 feet behind the boat at about .08 mph to 1 mph. I used slider grubs and mr. twister grubs and had fairly good sucess. I do alot of spider rigging so I just used the same rod racks only let out about 30-40 ft of line and pulled the lures around behind the boat. Worked pretty well but I would like to hear some of the ideas , techniques and favorite lures that you guys use so that I might become even more successful at this technique and enjoy this great sport even more! Thanks ......treepotato

[Crappie1]

I'm not sure what they're called but we used a single 1/16 oz jig that was like a fuzz-e-grub. It had rubber-like body and a marabou tail. Since the Weiss trip we have trolled about every combination of jigs......tube jigs, feather jigs, hair jigs, and even tried tipping them minnows. They all seem to work at different times. I think the key is the speed to get to the correct depth. This year, I want to try the crankbaits.

Hope this helps.

[Tim The Lippa Rippa Mon]

I'm not sure what they're called but we used a single 1/16 oz jig that was like a fuzz-e-grub. It had rubber-like body and a marabou tail. Since the Weiss trip we have trolled about every combination of jigs......tube jigs, feather jigs, hair jigs, and even tried tipping them minnows. They all seem to work at different times. I think the key is the speed to get to the correct depth. This year, I want to try the crankbaits.

Hope this helps.

In your area, I would asume that you are fishing with Hal's Flys. Pretty common, and look a lot like Fuzz-E-Grubs.

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