Questions from a crank pushing Newb

[Hammmerhead]

Im wanting to start pushing some Cranks and had a few questions for the experienced guys.


I have 12' and 14' PST's, should I stagger the lengths for more line space inbeteen them? Should I shoot for 4 poles out or can you get away with 6?


Do I need to purchase the deepest diving Arkies even though Im going to use big weights?


What weight would be a good all around size to start with, given the poles Im using? I was thinking 3 oz, but saw where some are using as little as 1oz.

And finally, (many thanks guys), what is your go to color? I was going to get an assortment, but didn't want to miss out on the best producers.

Im going to be in the AR river channels mostly and maybe few central AR lakes.

Thanks again friends

[sinkermaker]

No need to stagger the poles I would use the 14 ft ones. With weights you do not want deep diving plugs the weight is what controls the depth. I would probably start with 2 oz and adjust from there. You do not want your lines more than 45 degrees back towards the boat so this will detail you trying different weights to achieve what you are looking far. The poco lures are doing real good. With pushing cranks you can also pull jigs out the back of the boat. There are a lot of threads about pulling and pushing to read. Hope this helps

[CrappiePappy]

Guys I know are using 2oz trolling weights ... 5ft leaders of 6#test ... Bandit 300's ... @ 1.8mph ... as a "standard" approach to Pushing. At that speed & that amount of weight, lines are not going to be at the 45deg angle that most depth charts are calling for, so I don't know how much line they have out to reach certain depths. My guess would be they have lines at around a 23deg angle ... so they measure depth by multiplying length of line out times 0.3 (60ft of line x 0.3 = 18ft depth of bait)

All I know is they seem to pretty much always catch fish using this setup.

[RK1]

No need to stagger, just keep rods fanned out as if you were spider rigging. I wouldn't go any lighter than 3oz if it were me. Lowest I ever push is 1.6 and commonly get up to 2-2.2 so heavier the better. Any arkies will work, pretty much any crank will work as long as it's not too big and doesn't put too much pressure on the pole. Go to colors would be hot pink, black bubble gum, chrome clown, okatibee, and blue/ chart. I fish a lot of Central AR lakes too and that's what works for me


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[Hammmerhead]

Thanks for the help guys. My Troller won't pull my boat but 2.2mph all out with the engine up. Im wondering if I should go ahead and get the deepest running Arkie or the shallow version? If there is no downfall for the deeper while pushing, I figured I could pull some too in case the troller isn't up to the task in wind.

[Cray]

Dosnt matter which bait you use. I run 2 oz most of the time. I like running the little 220 Arkie or something equvilent like bandit 100 or 200. Push your 14's and pull with 12's at the same time with deep divers. Let the fish tell you which way they want it. Some days pushing works best and some days it's pulling. I rarely push over 1.5

["G"]

No downfall on useing the deeper running baits.....it dosent matter because you are contolling the depth with the weight. You can even push rattletraps....they work good by the way. I have some smaller shallower running baits but dont use them much usually use a Pico INT series which is a bandit 300 size bait.

[Hammmerhead]

Thanks again for everyones input ! As soon as this heat breaks Im going to get my Dad out there and we are going to give this a shot. Been kind of slim here lately with minnows and jig fishing in our same old spots that do well from Feb. to June. Time to adjust

[Dlogfish]

The hotter the weather the better it is for cranks! Me personally I use six rods all 12’. I use 2 oz of weight and as far as speed goes I generally go less than a mph. I also go with the Arkie 220’s for pushing and up it to the 350 when pulling. The smaller crankbaits work great for pushing as the have less resistance and you can get away with smaller weights.

[Hammmerhead]

The hotter the weather the better it is for cranks! Me personally I use six rods all 12’. I use 2 oz of weight and as far as speed goes I generally go less than a mph. I also go with the Arkie 220’s for pushing and up it to the 350 when pulling. The smaller crankbaits work great for pushing as the have less resistance and you can get away with smaller weights.

I just bought a set of the Arkie 350's for a pretty good discount. I hope I don't regret not going with the smaller and more shallow running version for pushing. I have 1 oz footballs that I could stack, but should I just go after 1 piece 2oz or 3oz weights instead of the footballs?