Trolling in prop wash

[SteveJ]

Hey J White, I was looking over my special panfish issue of Crappie and noticed in the Spence Petros article, while it mainly had to do with white bass, he said he has had some good luck with lures as close as 5 feet to 30 feet in the prop wash in warm weather. Have you tried that?

[slabbatical]

I'm just a beginner at all this pan fish stuff but after many years of saltwater trolling, I'll say trolling in the propwash will always increase your take....the closer to the boat the better. I've even seen pics of lures in the wash from the fish's viewpoint and a lure will appear much more like real forage because of the distortion caused by the wash...it's worth a try.

[Barnacle Bill]

Back in the days when I got to sit in the back of the boat once in a while I would often rig up 2 short poles using 1/16 oz white jig head with a minnow on it. I would only let them, out 6-8 foot. Big motor not running, just trolling motor on the front of the boat. I've caught a lot of crappie doing that. I guess they just get curious some days.

[J White]

Sorry took awhile answering, not like me, but I've been over stirring up
trouble on the Turbo Diesel Register site, think they are about ready to
tar and feather me! NEVER question a product in the midst of a bunch of
brand-loyalist! I have tried trolling crankbaits with a short line, big weight
in line ahead of it, probably as close as 20' behind/beside the boat -
I did catch some, but some days seem to catch more on planer boards off
to the side than even 50-75 feet straight behind the boat. But I'm not
saying some day the situation couldn't be reversed - never say never with
fish! I have noticed other days when with 100' of line out, it seems to make
no difference, to the side or behind. If I get the chance, like this fall, when
fish are shallower, I'll try to put more thought and research into it. Jeff

[SteveJ]

Petros says it works best in the warmer weather but if I remember correctly he lives in the far north. I was wondering if, taking it to be true, if it was because the prop aerated the water somewhat or if the commotion would draw the fish in to the boat. I remember reading, I think it was W. Horace Carter's Crappie Secrets ( I really enjoyed that book) about some fisherpersons beating the water with sticks etc. and it drawing the crappie in, never tried that either.

[Barnacle Bill]

I read about that too. Beating the brush piles to loosen algae. Evidently this helps knock off algae and other little critters from the wood and suspends them in the water. They attract minnows and then the crappie are suppose to come in.

What I read is that the guys take an oar and beat the heck out of the brush pile and then move on. They go around beating the brush piles and then double back a while later to start fishing at the first brush pile. I guess it takes a while for the crappie to move in.

Stirring up the water with an oar or stick will attract white perch too. I actually had one jump into the boat while slowly moving down the river once. I know, that sounds like a bunch of BS, but I swear it really happened.

[Gar-Getter]

Beating a brush pile to attract crappie dosen't sound much different than dropping lights at night. Eventually forage will be attracted, and i guess crappie will follow the forage.

[rango]

never have tried beating the water, but have tried thumping the bottom of the boat and it seems to get stripers in a biting mood. i dont do it very often but i have done it enough to know that it works. we have some guys that fish in our area that do it religiously and they swear by it. and their results cant be argued with. i have fished side by side with em and them thumping and puttin fish in the boat and me not catching a thing and me not thumping. something attracts the fish to the noise it seems like. i dont know why but it does. sorta like what happend i ww2. explosions on the water attracted sharks from many miles away so when a ship was torpedoed and went down, the guys flung into the water had to face the sharks, that was attracted by the explosions. ships that was hit and went down slowly had sharks circling before anybody went into the water so dont think it was bodies there that attracted em. but the bodies and blood would put em in a feeding frenzy once they got to the ships and seen the buffet being offered by the torpedos.

[jfraley]

This old man took me bass fishing years ago and if you made any noise (like letting you lure hit the side of the boat) he would move to another hole. He told me about reading a study where they put sensors on big bass and track them. The study showed that the large fish would move away from noise, even a loud trolling motor would spook them. I got to thinking about it and if I was a fish that was taken out of the water and had a sensor attached to me, I would be scared of boats too. Anyways, I'm all for whatever puts more fish in the boat and I am very open to new things. Next time I go on a night stalk, I will beat the bottom of the boat and see if I get a spike in the action.

[TAE73]

Sorry took awhile answering, not like me, but I've been over stirring up
trouble on the Turbo Diesel Register site, think they are about ready to
tar and feather me! NEVER question a product in the midst of a bunch of
brand-loyalist!

Jeff whats your name on over there I will going and add some fuel in the fire in your favor.... I use the same name as here. There can be some idiots on that site, nothing like here.