Too early for crankbaits?

[M R Dux]

I often hear folks say you need to wait till the water temps are in the mid 70s before considering trolling crankbaits for Crappie. I beg to differ and find it funny that us KY boys have been pulling PICOs for well over a month with great results.
Here are pics from my last 3 client trips——all on various Pico INT cranks. Our surface temps are still below 70 and the crappie are mostly still full of eggs.


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[GREENFISH]

I like it! What's the coolest water temps anyone recalls successfully pulling cranks? 50's too cool????


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[M R Dux]

I’ve started in the low 50s several years in the right situations.


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[blueball]

I often hear folks say you need to wait till the water temps are in the mid 70s before considering trolling crankbaits for Crappie. I beg to differ and find it funny that us KY boys have been pulling PICOs for well over a month with great results.
Here are pics from my last 3 client trips——all on various Pico INT cranks. Our surface temps are still below 70 and the crappie are mostly still full of eggs.


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Doug,your the man,its to cool for me to pull,i do better spiderrigging at these temps.

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[Skippa Chippa]

I often wondered while spider rigging in the upper 50-60* water with the fish a @9' if they could be caught on cranks.

[gravelman6]

Some nice fish for proof.

[Crestliner08]

Those are some fine crappie indeed! Congrats!

[skeetbum]

My last two years in TN I also started cranking when everyone else was looking for places where the fish were going to bed.

[Redge]

I’ve started in the low 50s several years in the right situations.


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Can you elaborate more on the “right situation”?


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[M R Dux]

If the water temps start up then stall out in the mid to high 50s due to a cold snap, the Crappie will suspend in deeper areas. When I start seeing scattered fish suspended 12-18 feet deep in deeper water, I going to run cranks thru the area at 1.2-1.6. Those suspended fish aren’t always crappie but if they are, they may be some of the biggest fish we’ll catch all year. It’s almost always one here-one there but at the end of the day it adds up to a nice string. An added nicety is I never have any other boats doing the same thing close by.


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