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Thread: How slow is slow?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Question How slow is slow?


    I have been coming here to the site for a while now and I see people say when the water gets cold you need to fish slow. In some of the post through out the year I see people say fish slow. I have read Tim Huffman's book Winning Crappie Secrets (the book he does with capps and coleman)and it says to fish slow. So how slow is slow? I notice that it takes my boat to be moving about .7mph to make a tail on a kalins grub move. It also takes about the same speed to make a beetle spin blade spin, spin. I sometimes wonder though if this is not going to fast to get a bite. I am in Southern California and all I ever hear here is use grubs or grubs with spinners on them. I know the few crappie I caught the last time I went out I caught on tubes. After the trip I was wondering if I would have done better if I would have just slowed down even more than my normal .7 mph and gave the crappie a little while longer to see those baits.

    I have my boat set up for spider rigging with holders in the front. I really enjoy fishing this way because it gives me some good time to spend with my son. We both fish out the front of the boat with two poles. I am thinking that I would like to start fishing tubes more often than what most are fishing them around here because I believe that everyone around here thinks to catch crappie you have to use a grub. So since we don't have to move as fast to make a tube move my question is "How slow is slow"? I have a lowrance 332 fishfinder with GPS and it seems to pick up me moving at about .4mph and above. Can someone tell me about what the normal speed is they are moving when fishing tube baits?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
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    Possum Trot, Kentucky, United States
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    Post Tubes for me!

    In late winter & early spring I spider rig flats and ledges on Ky. Lake. I use 8 12' or 14' poles spooled with 6# Trilene XL depending on how shallow I'm fishing. If I am fishing less than say 8' deep I use the longer poles to try to keep from spooking the fish before the bait gets to them. I use 1/8 to 3/32 oz jigs depending on what they want. I put a 1/4 to 1/2 oz sinker about 18" above the jig to keep it down. I use only tubes in the 2" to 1 1/2" lengths and tip them with minners if the fish want it that way. If I want to introduce some "flash" with no minner, I'll use a roadrunner style jig. The blade may not spin but it will flop around & cause some flash and some movement of the jig. I think the minner does the same thing.

    I try to keep my speed down to .5 or slower when the water is cold. With my setup this speed puts my lines running at about a 15 degree angle. If the water is warming I may speed up a little. If I speed up I add weight to try and maintain that 15 degree angle on my line. If the water is real cold I creep!

    Another thing I do sometimes, and this may sound strange but believe me it works, I gently rock the boat side to side a little every now and then. I have never told this before cause I thought folks would think I was full of... You know. I believe that this mimics a "jigging" motion, and causes the jigs to rise & fall, triggering strikes. I came across this idea one day when my partner got out of his seat to get a sandwitch and caused the boat to rock. I caught 4 fish while he was fumbling around in the boat! :D When he sat back down the fish quit. After awhile I started swaying side to side in my seat. He said "what in the h*ll are you do'n"? I told him "shut up & catch that fish." After he landed the fish I told him what I was doing and why. He said "you know, that makes since." "Let's ROCK! :D We limited out that day. It doesn't work all the time but then, nothing does.

    This works well for me.

    Hope this helps!
    Last edited by CrappiePappy; 01-02-2008 at 09:40 AM.
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  3. #3
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    I like to spider rig as well and when it is good and cold, I usually go as slow as possible..........and then cut that in half.

  4. #4
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    I troll longlines in late winter and early spring. The slowest I ever troll is 0.6 mph (just because that's the slowest my trolling motor will go). I normally use tube jigs... no "twisty tail" action required. However, for true cold winter fishing, we are normally casting 1/32nd oz. jigs. And LOTS of fish we catch are caught while we're "dead-sticking," which means the jig has fallen to the required depth... usually 15 to 20 feet and is almost directly under the boat and virtually motionless. If no strike comes while it's dead-sticking, I'll usually give it a very tiny twitch or two which sometimes inspires a strike. But bottomline, in my opinion, in cold water (53 degrees or cooler) it is virtually impossible to go TOO slow. Same principal applies on float & fly for smallmouth... many strikes comes while jig is sitting virtually motionless.
    Richard Simms
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  5. #5
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    when ya think your fishing slow enough, slow down even more . now thats slow.
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  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wiskers

    Another thing I do sometimes, and this may sound strange but believe me it works, I gently rock the boat side to side a little every now and then. I have never told this before cause I thought folks would think I was full of... You know. I believe that this mimics a "jigging" motion, and causes the jigs to rise & fall, triggering strikes. I came across this idea one day when my partner got out of his seat to get a sandwitch and caused the boat to rock. I caught 4 fish while he was fumbling around in the boat! :D When he sat back down the fish quit. After awhile I started swaying side to side in my seat. He said "what in the h*ll are you do'n"? I told him "shut up & catch that fish." After he landed the fish I told him what I was doing and why. He said "you know, that makes since." "Let's ROCK! :D We limited out that day. It doesn't work all the time but then, nothing does.

    This works well for me.

    Hope this helps!

    You ought to have 2 kids in the boat witih you while spider rigging. Automatic Boat Rocker. I have noticed this to be true also. The other day I was by myself and decided to prove this theory so I started rocking the boat. You guessed it, I caught a couple of fish.

  7. #7
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    Wink Yep!

    Quote Originally Posted by Minnerman
    You ought to have 2 kids in the boat witih you while spider rigging. Automatic Boat Rocker. I have noticed this to be true also. The other day I was by myself and decided to prove this theory so I started rocking the boat. You guessed it, I caught a couple of fish.

    It works. I never thought about the kids though. I've got 10 grandkids. I could rotate'm out like run'n backs!
    :D
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  8. #8
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    When I am slow trolling with minnows my GPS speed won't even register a speed. Like the other guy said troll slow and then cut it in half. Try taking those twister tails off and troll with straight minnows. It is the natural bait of crappie.

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