Page TWO of Pulling Cranks 101 By: Iwannafish (and lots of others)
If you missed it, you can read page one here.
Majflyboy: For those who've asked, here are some pics of the rod holders E-Z made and installed on my boat. The pics appear to be 2-pole holders but they are actually 3-pole holders with the third holder removed. Remember, I'm committed to starting this pulling crank thing with four rods.
These are not great pics but they're all I have right now.
I'm really looking forward to trying them out. BTW. My HB 788 ci dual beam, GPS with map card came in today. WOO HOOOOO!!!:D:D
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DonDon: You know the hardest thing you're going to have to learn is how to keep the boat running straight when you're pulling one in while pulling cranks. It CAN be difficult if you have much wind. Just remember run straight lines and make big sweeping turns. There's an article that Jeff (Jwhite) wrote somewhere on this site that talks about all that. Try a Search and track it down. You'll learn ya something. Old Jeff's a pretty sharp cookie and a dam nice fella
Here's Jeff Whites great article on Pulling Crankbaits. It is a must read if you're thinking about cranking.: Cranking for Crappie
Jeff is one of the original crankers. He presented the technique to us crappie.com members back at Jerry Blakes Crappie Camp on Lake Greeson, Arkansas, back in 2006.
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Boatstall: Question for all you experienced folks. I have a pontoon with an 8ft. beam. Any recommendations on the spread? Is wider better, or is a narrower set easier to turn? I usually have someone with me so I am thinking 6 to 8 rods. I have 20 drift masters onboard and can set them pretty much wherever needed. Should I try them all off the stern, or stagger them off the sides and the stern? She's 28 feet, so turning real tight is not possible. Any advice????
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Creekslick: I use a 20' toon to pull with. I do not have a bench in the back so I have my rod holders on each side behind the console. I have my bimini top forward enough that is does not interfere with rod tips when landing a fish. Have your
longest rod toward the front and shortest toward the back. Run the least amount of line on the front rod and the most on back rod. Do not try to turn sharp.
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Creekslick: Guys I think we are try to make this harder than it is. When I started pulling I was using some 6' med spinning rod and would cast a crank bait as far behind the boat as I could and troll. You don't have to have line counter reels, 20' rods, planer boards, 20 lbs of sinkers, or 100 Bandits. Just start out with some of the equipment that you already have and make sure you like pulling before you invest a small fortune. Pulling crank baits is not for everybody.
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Wannabe: Shhh Creek. You're hosing up my Economic Stimulus plan. But you are right. I started with milk crate and pvc holders and bass rods and some cranks I robbed from my bass stuff.
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Majflyboy: The checkout lady at Bass Pro said that I had the longest register tape of the day, imagine that, the longest.:D Got a few more Bandits, 200 and 300, some jigs for the long lining, and some other good stuff.
Throw in a quad pack of Okuma's, a HB 788ci combo, and a few more Bandits and BAMM!!
Not only is there now no room on the dining room table for any food, there's no money left to buy food anyway.
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Wannabe: OK, we've covered Rods, line, holders, reels, bandits and pretty much talked bad about all the gewbers around here.
Let's talk about pulling non-bandits.
I have a box chuck full of non-bandits but really only experimented with 1 thoroughly and tried a few others a little. The one I did have success on was a Fat Free Fingerling by Bomber. Seems to run a tad deeper and have a wider wobble. Basically, a firetiger and a brow/red are the only colors I have. I also ran some Poe's Cedar Shads and some Norman DLNs but didn't have much luck with them, although I didn't give 'em much of a fair shake.
One other thing I ran this year was a Storm Swim bait - 4". Huge! Not a big producer, but I did manage some of my best fish on 'em. Down side is one single hook + 2 ounce weight (running off the front) + larger fish = lower landing ratio.
I know Torch claims to run "stick baits" of which I've never actually seen a pic of and Yikes has a couple of "speshuls" he likes to run. Duckhunter is a fan of DLNs. So, what else ya'll running out there?
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Catchumdeep: I catch most of my fish on Wally Marshall cranks. Good product with red hooks. I almost always catch more on the wm cranks than bandits when running them together. I've had a fair amount of success with the DLNs. They're a bit larger and tend to catch the bigger crappie. They run a bit deeper than the wm and bandit cranks with a given amount of line out.
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G: I know some folks that run the lipless crank baits and do good with them. Rattletraps etc. Some like the smaller size ones and others claim that the big ones will catch bigger fish. I don't know but I am going to try it.
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Majflyboy: I finally did it. Pulled cranks that is. Stayed at Enid Sat night, got up early Sun, & got the boat in by bout 7:30. Put all 4 B&M pro trollers with the line counters out, all with different color bandit 200's, put the 12' poles out 70' and the 10'ers out 50', followed the contour lines on the lake map to stay in about 10-15ft and WOW!! That was fun. Had 3 of the 4 poles with fish on at one time!!. Pulling cranks to fishing is like 3rd base in baseball, ACTION!! I caught many crappie shorter that 12", a whole bunch of white bass and some green bass. That was so much fun, I don't know if I'll ever buy minnows again. I took pics but haven't loaded them yet. I will get them on here as soon as I can. If you haven't tried it yet (pulling), you don't know what you are missing.
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G: Were you pulling with your outboard Maj ?
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Majflyboy: Yes G, Sat got is right, was going 1.6 to 2mph. Not sure if that is the right speed or not, but had a ball doing it. Fishing from the console, I had a chance to get to know my 998 a little bit. That thing is awesome and I've only scratched the surface so far.
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Satdoc: That little 25 Maj got is prefect, just put it in gear and it will push you around fine without a trollin Plate.
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DonDon: Hey G-3. just do what I do, grab ya a few 5 gallon buckets and some rope then start chunking buckets out the back til it gets you down to where you Idle at whatever speed you want to be your low end speed. That's how Bigger told me to do it and darned if it don’t work. AWESOME JOB Maj
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Wannabe: Skip the buckets and get you some drift socks. Work better, plus the buckets suck when trying to spider rig with wind at your back.
By the way, on any given day, my starting target speed is 1.8. Usually, I let the wind and direction against the wind modify it down to 1.6 or up to 2.2. On a dead calm day, my boat wants 2.0 dragging 2 buckets. But dead calm days are few and far between. Need to break down and get me some drift socks as well.
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Majflyboy: Who says there not biting? Showed you the pics of Enid pulling and now pulling at the rez. DonDon, you're late. I didn't catch a lot today but I did catch a couple of good ones, including this 16", 1.98lb girl.
Pulling is different. You guys who have been fishing crappie for a while, I'm sure have your techniques. I'm trying to learn several methods at once. I probably should have stuck with one pole, one minnow, but the economy would be that much worse off.
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DonDon: Times almost here to start pulling even on Ross Barnett. only bad thing about Barnett is you have a window to pull them in. After that thermocline sets up, put the cranks up.
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Yikes: Why? That's prime time at Sardis. Look at it this way, Mother Nature just eliminated 95% of the water for you. If you know how deep your baits are running with absolute certainty and you can see the thermocline on your fish finder, all you have to do is present a favorable color for the current light conditions slightly above their nose and hold on.
For some reason there seems to be a natural tendency to dive bomb to the bottom when it gets hot outside or slow down their presentation. In the middle of the summer I start at 1.9 mph and go up from there. Catching fish at 2.5 to 2.6 isn't uncommon at all. Just my .02 cents....:D
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DonDon: Biggest reason is that there is so much timber in the Rez that you are limited to certain areas to pull. The old lake beds that so many fish move to in the summer have way to much timber to pull in. Our thermocline at the Rez is 10-12 feet deep, that's it and once it sets in, you won't find a fish deeper than 12 feet anywhere on the Rez. You'd lose every crank bait in your box pulling in those old lake beds. Now in transition from spawning to those old lake beds, that5s prime time for pulling cranks on Barnett. Well, except for winter time when you're on a warming trend, you can get into them pretty thick then to!!! I even caught a few this past winter pulling up on the North end of the lake with low 40 degree surface temp
I didn't have a trolling plate or buckets so I was running 3.0 to 3.2 MPH and was wearing them out
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Yikess: That doesn't surprise me. I have found that speed is normally your friend. Now if things start to slow down I may make a few "S" turns just to make sure they don't want it a little slower but then I'll start switching colors to turn them back on!!!!! Why are we working?? Let's go fishin......
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G: Yikess, are you pulling with your outboard? If so what size motor are you running? Are you using buckets or a trolling plate?
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Yikess: G, I use my Terrova but it's only good for 5 hours or so. Then I switch to my 90hp 2-stroke Merc to finish the day. Often it takes a drift sock to get my speed under control. I have a 24" and 30" but only use one at a time depending on the load in the boat and the wind conditions. Drift socks are a lot easier to store than buckets.
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G: Tell me more about the drift sock. How long a rope do you use and how do you keep your prop out of it etc. I have a 115 Yamaha 4 stroke and it idles pretty slow...I will have to take my GPS and check it again....I checked it once before but I have forgotten.
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Yikess: I think it's about 15 feet. I tie it around my rear seat post so it will stay in the center or the boat and it's easier to get back in when I need to move or call it a day. The drift socks have a float on one side of the opening so they will stay up and away from the prop.
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Biggerjigger: Kent Driscoll runs his with the longest line out on the shortest rod....the farthest one to the rear. He does it that way in theory that the prop wash will spook some fish and that bait needs to be farther from the boat. Good theory.
I run my short poles with the least amount of line out and the longest poles with the most line out. When MY outside pole gets hit there’s enough difference in line/bait depth that my when the fish comes to the surface there’s more of a chance for the fish to go behind the other lines and to the center line of the boat, thus decreasing a chance of tangle.
Driscoll’s lines are longer on the short poles and there’s more of a chance for the fish to get wrapped in another line en route to the center. Just the way I do it and it works out real good.
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DonDon: Most of the time it’s not a problem but on occasion when you have 8 poles out and they get to spinning behind the boat, that's when I've gotten some tangles. Biggest trouble is when you're going upwind and then want to turn a 180 and go back through the same spot again. If you caught several and want to get back in there, I've turned to sharp a couple times and had a sho nuff mess. My fault completely but that wind will tend to turn the boat funny at time along with my to sharp a turn
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