Why long rods when pulling cranks?

[Nate926]

Hey guys I’m pretty new to crappie.com. I’m 32 now and haven’t trolled for crappie since I was probably 10-12 years old with my now late grand father.

Back then he used 6’ poles usually had 4-6 out at a time. I understand spider rigging having long poles to get the bait away from the trolling motor, but scratching my head on pulling cranks.

I plan to start trolling again my self. The boat I just bought had a bar across the back with 4 monster rod holders and two monster rod holders one on each side on the gunnels.

From what have read I plan buy the poles and spread them out as described below.

Plan to put two 14’ poles one on each side of the gunnels at a 90 degree angle.

Two 12’ poles one on each side of the outside bar at a 45 degree angle and then two 10 or two 8’ poles in the center at say 15 degree angles.

If I done this with say all 6’or 7’ poles as described above what would I lose from a fishability and performance stand point?

Thanks in advance!! P.S. I am going to move the bar and rod holders on gunnels pictured. Previous owner set them up this way.

[Atimm693]

From what I understand long rods are used in combination with shorter rods to achieve lure separation. You will have mess trying to run 4 or more rods of equal length at the same time without planer boards.

It may work fine until you try to make a turn or hook a fish and it decides to swim sideways.

[Nate926]

Now that you say that I remember my grand father pulling in the rods everytime before we made a turn, but going straight it worked for him with all the same rods lengths

[Nate926]

Plan to put two 14’ poles one on each side of the gunnels at a 90 degree angle.

Two 12’ poles one on each side of the outside bar at a 45 degree angle and then two 10 or two 8’ poles in the center at say 15 degree angles.

Does this sound like a good spread 14’,12’ 10’ or would some other length poles be better?

[CrappiePappy]

Atimm is correct ... the biggest reason for long rods for trolling methods is "separation" of the lines. Similar idea for "Pushing" rather than Longline Trolling --- so the boat can make shorter turns - or in the case of wide S turns, then the baits being closer to the boat means they track better than baits 2-3times as far back. Pushing uses heavy weights ahead of the baits to gain depth at the speeds normally associated with pushing/pulling cranks.

I Push cranks/jigs and use a combination of 14' - 10' - 6' rods (as seen in picture below):



Left side holder front rod is 10' & back rod is 14'
Right side holder front rod is 14' & back rod is 6'
(but, that arrangement was just what I was using that day, because that's the rods I took with me that day)

[murdok]

you got nice rig my friend. i agree with what others said, however i dont think the different length rods make near as much of a difference when pulling straight off the back.theres really good videos on you tube with folks just using 7' medium action bass rods

[M R Dux]

With clients I run 4 -7 foot


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[M R Dux]

7 foot Berkley Cherrywood Rods off the transom and a 14’ Southern Crappie SCR143T off each side.


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[Nate926]

Good morning, I appreciate the info! The more I look I make take the existing back bar off and get the Driftmaster t-5300 long lining system. Then run 2 16’, 2 12’, 2 8’, and lastly 2 6’ straight out the back for cranks.

["G"]

Your spread would not be as wide.....so you would be covering less water if you used all short poles. I also set mine up where I have 4 ft of separation between the lines.
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