cowan lake 6/8

[jeepguyjames]

My son and I made it out to cowan yesterday (finally). Was his 1st weekday off for summer break and he wanted to spend it on the boat with me. We caught a ridiculous amount of crappie, most were smaller, but we did manage 30 keepers, with 3 of them being very, very nice slabs. We caught them all trolling, 90 percent of them came on crank baits, and the others came on road runner w/twisty tail grub. Green/black tiger pattern and white/pearl was producing. My computers still away being repaired other wise I would have posted some pics of the big-ens here. I did post 2 pics on the main forum under the section for fish pictures from cell phones, they are titled southern Ohio slabs, and southern Ohio slabs #2. My son was so proud of the big one he got. We had a great day together. Crappiemax, the info you messaged me came in handy and made for a great day, thank you so much, my son had a blast. Hope every one will check em out he was very proud! Stay safe out the, and God bless

[crappiemax]

Glad to be of help.

[Nightprowler]

What type of crankbait you trolling? I thought that was a southern thang? I'm wanting to try some longline trolling for the first time ... any help with a decent setup. Thanks

[jeepguyjames]

I want to start by saying that I am fairly new to crappie fishing, and the tactics that I use trolling have either been learned from some one on this forum or crappie world magazine, these are not orig ideas of mine. I usally start out with different lures until I see a pattern.usally a roadrunner with some kind of tube or twisty tail grub, 1/8th or 16th size, a plain jig head with a tube, some sort of swim bait and a crank bait, if somthing produces way better I switch some of the other poles to what ever it is. I usally troll between .9 and 2 mph (on GPS). I use 10 lbs power pro braid (2lb diameter) most people prefer heaver mono, but I like the braid. The crank baits I use are the bandits series 100, 200, or 300 series, these are big crank baits, and to be honest I was intimidated by the size of em, but even the med and small size crappie will eat em. The bomber fat A's have worked well for me, the only problem with them is they are smaller and will gill hook some of em. I have had good luck with a small X-rap, I hold the pole in my hand and jerk it a few time then let the slack pull tight and do it again. Long line trolling is quickly becoming my favorite method. It produced 1 over 15 inches 2 over 14 and multiple over 9 on Monday at cowan. Hope this helps. Good luck and God bless.