• Pulling Cranks 101- The Good Parts Version - Page 4

    Page FOUR of Pulling Cranks 101 By: Iwannafish (and lots of others)

    Read page one here, page two here and page three here.

    Wilbur: Is it possible to push and pull at the same time. I am assuming the speed would be the same for both.
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    G:Scottv and Stevej push and pull at the same time. When I fished with them Scott had the boat set on 1.8 mph.
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    ScottV:Yea Wilbur we push and pull cranks at the same time. I have 2 seats side by side up front and we usually push one crank and pull 3 off each side. I tie a loop knot up my line about 3 ft. above the crankbait and hook a 1 ft. leader with a 3 oz. bank sinker to the loop knot. That way when I put my rod up, I can take the sinker off. Somedays we catch more on the push poles than pulling.



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    Majflyboy:I've got a troll-a-matic that I've never installed and a drift sockthat I've never used. Which would be more effective if my pulling batteries died and I have to continue with the big motor?
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    G:I would prefer the Troll-a-Matic.....because you do not have to deploy it and retrieve it and you don't have to worry about it getting hung up on something or hanging up a fishing line in it. When you are not running at idle speeds or trolling speeds the Troll-a-Matic acts like a stabilizer and will help you get on plane easier and quicker etc. It will affect reverse just a little, it backs up real slow....but it’s good enough to back off the trailer or back away from the dock, whatever. The drift sock would be advantageous on windy days when you are trying to troll and without any motor going, the wind is moving the boat too fast.
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    Yikess:The Troll-a-Matic made my Nitro bob up and down like a bucking broncowhen on plane. Variable size drift socks work much better for me.Where can I buy a parachute for those REAL windy days? Army Surplus?
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    G: On my boat I can not tell any different from when I was running mystabilizer....It runs on plane great. However....I understand that If you do not get the Troll a Matic mounted on your motor perfectly straight and aligned that it will not drive right. Almost sounds like you had your motor trimmed up a little too high and you were porpoising ....might not have been that though.
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    Yikes:I use drift socks to dial in my speed when trolling using my bigmotor. My goal is to be able to maintain a certain speed with theengine in gear but idling only. I use several different sizes to accomplish this and may use more than one to get the speed I need depending on the wind. My little 18" one is a handy little dude.It's worth a .01 mph alone which is some serious fine tuning ofspeed. I normally pull cranks for 1.7 - 1.9 but will check 1.2 - 1.4in the early mornings and run on up to 2.1 - 2.5+ in the afternoon.They are much easier to store than 5 gallon buckets and offer morevariety. They work just as well when drifting with the wind likeFeelay mentioned above. The socks keep the back of my boat facing the wind absorbing the wave impact keeping my rod tips nice and steady on the other end of the boat. They also help plant the back of my boatwhen I'm slow trolling in a cross wind keeping my track nice andstraight. Can you tell I'm a drift sock fan and boat control nut


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    Majflyboy:I've been experimenting pulling Bandits off one side and similar color but other brands off the other. Hard to say at this point but the first time I tried this, the "other" caught more crappie.
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    G:It never hurts to try other crank baits....you might be surprised. I tried pulling rattle traps ( lipless crank baits) out in open water where there was not a lot of stuff to hang up on.....guess what.....they catch crappie, just don't slow down or stop the motor unless you reel them all in because they do not float.
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    Oleblue:Ok time for another question or two. What lb. thrust tm do y'all use and does anyone use a solar charger to get more time out of the batteries?
    Just asking the more I thank about it the more I don'twant to put the wear and tear or the hrs. on my motor.

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    EZPoleholder: I have a 24v solar charger with a voltage regulator on it that I wastrying to use to keep my game feeder batteries charged. It wouldn'tdo the job, so I attached it to my tractor battery, wouldn't do thateither. Before that, I tried various sizes and models of 12v and 6von the game feeders and game cameras. I have had nothing but badresults with them. Now, that has been 4-5 years ago, so maybe theyare better today, can't be much worse. Maj., I'm not going to eatthere again...... As you know, I run 2 live wells and 1 minnow well all day on my battery and it still cranks....minnows and fish still alive..... secret, timers and ice...........

    Just my opinion,but solar panels are a waste of time and money.... rather carry anextra battery...

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    Quickcarl61:Oh 1 more question, I was looking on BP site and am wondering, will a 12 volt #55 lb. thrust work, I know this was talked about but I am too tired to read thru again to find it, I don't want to buy a 24volt if a 12 will work, although I have a 24 volt foot controlled now, so the parallel thing wouldn't be a problem, already have the batteries and they are 31 series, thanks again for helping us newbies get this right.
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    Tritonman:Well Mr Quik, have you ever heard the term the bigger the better.Well, it definitely applies here. The larger the voltage of your trolling system the longer you can stay on the water trolling. For example a 12v trolling motor with a group 27 battery you can troll for X amount of time, use a group 31 battery you can troll for X+Xa mount of time. Now jump up to a 24v or 36v system and you continueto up your time on the water. Example…. Yesterday I trolled cranks for about 3 1/2 hours and when I got home and plugged back in I still had 75% battery left now that I have gone to the group 31 batteries. Hope this helps some.
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    Majflyboy:Pulled cranks yesterday at Enid from 6:00 til 1:30. Terrova 80/24. Motor was pulling on 4.5 when I finished.
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    ReesGuide:Aw ight, I gots a couple of questions. Pulled cranks this weekend andhad a good time and learned a lot. We didn't catch a lot of fish butthat also gave me an opportunity to see what we are looking for whentrying to locate, so it was a positive to say the least, thankscrappieater really enjoyed Fri and Sat.
    Here we go, I have a fewspinning reels I can put on trolling poles and I know there wereconcerns about using then due to free spooning when letting the crankout. Can’t I just flip the reverse switch and let the crank pullthe line out?

    Next question looked at the bandit site and sawa few (300 Series) cranks on there. There were bunches that had modelnumbers but didn't say 200 or 300 series. Are the model numbersstarting with 2 200 series and the ones with 3 300 series?

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    Majflyboy:I guess you could leave the bail open to let line out but it would be difficult to know how much line you have out. Line counter reels takethe guess work out of it. The Bandits I buy are Series 200 and Series300 only.
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    ReesGuide:Maj, don’t you think a 300 would pull line out if I put the reel in reverse and not open the bail. Also, I have put on line stops at 45,55, 65,and 75 feet so I got a place to start with amount of line out.
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    Majflyboy:I don't know if the 300 would pull the line out or not as I have no experience that. Throw one in the water and see. Your line stops should keep you close.
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    ReesGuide:They pulled out but it was slow so I just opened the bail and watched my line stops, worked fine.
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    Buckbrush82:Went trolling for the first time with crank baits. Didn't find the crappie but caught a mess of bass and catfish, guess i just got to keep at it till i find them.
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    G:Look for the shad balls and other baitfish on your FF....where they are that’s where the crappie usually are.
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    ReesGuide:This is prolly one of the best thread on the net, period.
    Here'sa little input from a rookie, go fishing!! Go figure out what worksfor you, how you want your boat set up and all that. Another piece of advice is to go where they are catching em, don’t matter if they small go where your odds are good and get some experience. Have pulled 3 times before today and all 3 were on a lake that was dead slow, not much fun and not much learning either. Went today and couldn't even get a 4th rod in the water for catching fish, 5 rods when pulling cranks is a lot when you’re by yourself.
    Will postsome more from a rookie stand point as this venture progresses.

    Good luck guys, hope ya’ll are having as much fun as I am.

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    Bfish:What is the coolest water temp that you pull cranks in? Do anythingdifferent for winter pulling?
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    Majflyboy:A lot of folks say they don't pull cranks in the winter time,however, I won a tournament this past March doing it. Don't rememberwhat the water temp was but it was cold. Fished with Bandit 300's butwith only 8 to 12 feet of line out, caught them right at the back ofthe boat. My baits were running so shallow I could actually see the hits. I caught more fish that day than I ever have before or since, Iwas culling fish that were nearly 2lbs. I fished another tournament the next Saturday at the same lake, doing the same things and didn't do diddly. Go figure.
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    Yellowjacket:Do u guys think that color matters or do u think it’s the vibrations off the bill?
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    Wilbur:I would have to say Color matters the most.
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    G:Yep........I agree with Wilbur....color counts and they will hit one color early in the morning and when the mid-morning sun starts putting more light in the water.....you will more than likely have to change colors as they will quit hitting the one you started catching them on earlier.
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    Iwannafish:Will pole angle and distance of tip of pole above the water affect depth on the Bandits? Charts did not address that, nor did vids onMid-West crappie. Did not see any mention of this. I seem to remember from my green carp days that if you lowered tip to water depth increased and a raised tip brought cranks up in water? Wont there bethe same variable in pulling cranks? If one rod tip is 24 inches above water, and the other is angled up at 30 degrees and with long poles that may be 5 feet above water, it seems that you would have tolet more line out on the higher rod to reach the same depth????
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    Gator1:I pull with poles straight out the side. Parallel to the water. Thecharts are a reference only. Once you find the depth the fish are,keep all the rod tips the same distance from the water, you can useyour line counters to duplicate the depth over again. And stay at thesame depth.
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    EZPoleholder:It's been my experience, however right or not, that the depth of your bandit starts where the line goes into the water. As an example, if u have your pole high enough to where there's 10 ft from your rod tip to the water, then you'll have to subtract that from your line out counter to get close to the bandit depth in ref to the chart. If I have my poles high, and I do the ones out the back, I usually let outline till the bandit is in the water then zero the counter.
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    Iwannafish:Wow......Do i feel like a dummy? So simple, yet it did not even dawn on me and I spent several hours trying to figure it out this afternoon. I guess that’s why they call you EZ, huh? LOL!!!
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    WT101:Quick question for you guys who are old hands at pulling cranks...I bought several Bandit 200s when I made the initial investment to get into this. I noticed the other weekend at Guntersville I didn't trollany of the 200s much, only the 300s. Do you guys find yourselves pulling the 200s at all, or mostly just the 300s?
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    ReesGuide:I like to use both. I pull 300s a good bit but this weekend I had myoutside poles with 200s on em, I run my outside poles with more lineout, mostly targeting a certain depth. Fished some clear water andthe 200s let the baits run further back. I think too it has a lot to do with confidence you have in a bait.
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    Majflyboy:I use 300's 95% of the time. Have caught fish at the back of the boat2-3' deep on 300's.
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    G: 300's 95% of the time… I also pull a lot of baits pretty muchequal to 300's like Rebels.....Strikeking.......andWiggleworts.....and Brads Wigglers......and Lindy Shadlings in size7.
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    Iwannafish:New question.... I am getting ready to pull the trigger on about 25new Bandit 300's. Question is....how often do you end up with aspread of all the same baits? After you determine which color theyare hitting, go you try to put that lure on every pole? In other words, do I need 6 of each color that I plan to buy?
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    ReesGuide:I wouldn’t at first, get 2 of each, maybe 4 of a couple of good colors and figure it out from there. I got one color I leave on atleast one pole all the time and every now and then you will find onlyone thing that works. Want a list??
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    EZPoleholder:I think it would be great if u posted your list, and anyone else that wouldn't mind sharing. I painted several that I'm partial to, such asan electric chicken and a blue with hot pink belly and a black withhot pink belly.
    Orange crush, my absolute favorite, stays on one of my poles 90+% of the time along with the blue, the electric chicken and the black to start with.

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    Deltaduk:I have been pulling cranks with my outboard, but I am getting pretty tired of hearing the motor (Yamaha 40hp 2 stroke) run all the time ,not too much "peace and quiet". I have tried using the foot control TM but if I pull my foot off the control the TM turns pretty quick causing a tangled mess if I ain't careful. Is there some trick to keeping this from happening? I fish by myself some.
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    JTMavs:No trick, buy a Minn Kota Terrova with i-pilot!!!

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    Slab:I think it would be absolutely great if someone could consolidate this thread into an article that could be published on the Crappie.com home page. Someone that knows a little about the topic. I'd even offer that person a prize, maybe something on the order of one of our raffle prizes. Any takers? PM me if you are interested.
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    Iwannafish:What was I thinking!!!!!!!

    Thanks Iwannafish for consolidating all this great information. It's a lot to absorb, but at least now it'll be that much easier to wade through. - Slab and the rest of the Crappie.com community appreciate your efforts.
    Comments 6 Comments
    1. darcie1's Avatar
      darcie1 -
      We use 16 footers upfront with 3 oz wt. We use 14 footers in middle with 1 oz wt and 12 footers off back with 1 oz. Some very good info from everyone here.
    1. Billbob's Avatar
      Billbob -
      good read
    1. majflyboy's Avatar
      majflyboy -
      Good job!!
    1. brucec's Avatar
      brucec -
      That's some more good stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    1. kickingback's Avatar
      kickingback -
      Nice info.
    1. Boa3's Avatar
      Boa3 -
      This has been one of the best reads of the Year !
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