Pulling cranks.

[Budman]

Want to try pulling cranks. Is this just a summer time thing or will it work other times of the year?

["G"]

I have caught with them in Dec and Feb.....but really works best in summer on white crappie that are suspended in open water.

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[johndeere5045]

my advise is to not invest a pile of money on special equipment until you figure out if you like this type of fishing. Plenty of videos on You Tube of doing this. From what I have read and found out, cranking really works better if your lakes has white crappie. I have not figured out the reasoning for this just yet. Im new to cranking this summer & have had very little success. But we have mostly Black crappie in our lakes in south Alabama.

[CrappiePappy]

my advise is to not invest a pile of money on special equipment until you figure out if you like this type of fishing. Plenty of videos on You Tube of doing this. From what I have read and found out, cranking really works better if your lakes has white crappie. I have not figured out the reasoning for this just yet. Im new to cranking this summer & have had very little success. But we have mostly Black crappie in our lakes in south Alabama.

I think it's "more" of a White Crappie technique, simply because White Crappie tend to roam in open water more/more often than Black Crappie (which tend to be more cover oriented most of the time). Now, Black Crappie "will" hit a crank, but it's more likely to not be out in the open water flats where the White Crappie roam during those warm water periods.

[deltarat]

As said above don't go out and buy a bunch of new equipment right off. Cranking can get very expensive quick. Use the rods you have, buy a few baits that the most used and maybe a homemade rod holders if you are handy with tools. If you like it, there is always someone selling good used rods and holders on here. Good luck

[crp4570]

I caught crappie on cranks from feb thru December last year. This year I've caught crappie from march till current date and plan on still catching them till December this year. The advise previously stated is very good advice. Pulling cranks can be addictive. My advise is to go with someone and see if you enjoy yourself before spending money on a new technique.

[Jwater]

I had some old bass rods I converted to crankin rods and I used the 12' rods I spider rig with. Got another mounting track for my rod holders and mounted those towards the back of my boat; use my regular rod holders. Bought 4 Shakespere line counter reels ( which someone else on here found them about $10 cheaper, ask around) and started out with about 20 cranks, Arkie 350's and Pico's. For me, start up costs were not terrible. Started catching fish consistently from the first trip and went this past Tuesday, still had a blast. I just hated putting so much line on those reels. Good luck!!

[crp4570]

Sounds like you got a great start.

[Cane Pole]

I am an expert at what don't work!

[Central Minn]

We put cranks up here in MN from ice out to ice on,great way to cover a lot of water and find active fish. By law we're only allowed one line per person open water fishing(two lines ice fishing) but on a good day we can still catch a nice amount of fish.My goto lures for Crappie are No.4 Shad Raps UV Orange and UV Pink and the ULC3 Rapalas have been really good too.
We keep our equipment pretty simple,light action spin cast rods and reels with 6lb Nanofil line.