question for the crankbait trollers

[jigsbydirk]

what size of rod, both length and sesitivity do you use and what type of line have you found works the best? thanks for any help.

[BANDIT]

I use Med. action rods with 10 lb line. I am rigged up to fish out of the back of the boat ,so I use 2 12 ft Wally Marshall trolling poles on the outside to spead things out.

[whizkids]

Do you only troll 2 crankbait rods? Do you troll other rigs at the same time?

[BANDIT]

Do you only troll 2 crankbait rods? Do you troll other rigs at the same time?

Sorry for the confusion. We fish 6 to 8 rods out the back of the boat. We stagger the lengths to keep lines seperated. We start with 12 fters on the outside and point these straight out 90 degrees. the next pole on each side to the inside will be a 8 fter, the middle poles will be 6 fters. It looks like you are spider rigging backwards.

[whizkids]

Sorry for the confusion. We fish 6 to 8 rods out the back of the boat. We stagger the lengths to keep lines seperated. We start with 12 fters on the outside and point these straight out 90 degrees. the next pole on each side to the inside will be a 8 fter, the middle poles will be 6 fters. It looks like you are spider rigging backwards.

-------------------------------------------------------------- I troll jigs that way starting with 16FT. Wally Marshalls then, 14,12,10,8,5-1/2. or 12 rods. I think the 5-1/2 would be too limber for crankbaits. I am going to try 16,12,8, and some other 6 ft. mediums I have. The 4 ft stagger really works well with keeping the lines clear. Thanks for the reply.

[kygorski]

For trolling crankbaits, I use 2 9ft fiberglass rods,My line is 10/2 power pro, or spider wire braid.The glass rods are more forgiving on strikes with braided line.When I can find a fishing partner I like to run 4 rods, two of them with planer boards, the shore side with a shallow running small shad rap, and the outer one with a deeper running hotn tot.Flats with a depth of 20 to 35 ft are the areas I target, I'll make a few passes, and if no action head for another area.I use feeding gar fish as a kind of pointer to small minnows, a lot of times it works.

[gooch]

What in he world do you do when you get hung up just break it and keep fishing? I dont see how you could possibly stop and reel all those poles in and go back and get your bait then get started again. Also we have some coontail and hydrilla on my lake do you constantly have to reel in and check your baits for grass?

[Moose1am]

Trolling for bass or Crappie using crank baits can get messy if your lake is full of weeds or stumps.

I read the buck perry book on spoonplugging and gave it a try. It worked. I hooked into a 4 to 6lb largemouth bass on KY lake within a few minutes. I was trolling the 400 series Buck Perry spoon plugs using a deep sea type rod and reel with wire core line. I got hooked up on a stump or something right after I hooked that big bass and lost my spoon plug. Now it was the only spoon plug I had of that size so that ended my trolling that day.

I was on KY lake just upriver from Cypress Bay or Cypress Creek and on the East Side of the lake near LBL. It was at the intersection of Piney Creek where it dumps into the TN river Channel. It's a very quick way to find the bass in deep water. You can cover a lot of ground.

But it's almost impossible to troll crankbaits in weed infested or stump infested waters. You need lakes that are clear of obstructions that have clean bottoms to get this to work best. But you may be able to troll using very shallow running baits. Baits that float up when not being pulled may be your best bet.

I use a lure retriever to recover crank baits that get stuck on a stump. You attach a weight to the fishing line and send the weight down the fishing line to knock off the lure or grab the lures trebble hooks. The lure retriever has its own strong line that is used to pull the lure and bait retriever free and back up to you.

I could easily fill two or three big tackle boxes with lost crankbaits. But that is part of fishing.

What in he world do you do when you get hung up just break it and keep fishing? I dont see how you could possibly stop and reel all those poles in and go back and get your bait then get started again. Also we have some coontail and hydrilla on my lake do you constantly have to reel in and check your baits for grass?