Money in the Bank by Brad Wiegmann

How would you like to double your money? When trolling for crappie with crankbaits an angler can simply troll out the front of the boat and also out the back. Sounds simple and that’s because it is.


Like all anglers everyone has a different approach to trolling out the back of the boat. What’s interesting is both Mitch Glenn the owner of PICO Lures and crappie pro/Godfather of power trolling Les Smith like to troll with rods up on the front deck while pull crankbaits out the back or sides of their boats. While Glenn on his home waters of Beaver Lake doesn’t have a fishing pole limit per angler; Smith is limited to the number of fishing rods being used by number of anglers in the boat. Both put out the maximum number of rods they think gives them the best presentation for catching crappie without tangling.



“Putting out multiple fishing rods in the back and front of the boat is like doubling your money,” Glenn went on, “You just have to know how you are going to keep them from getting tangled; in addition to how to set up the poles to present the lure correctly. I’ve been doing it so long that I have a method of running 4 fishing rods up front and 8 fishing rods off the back.”


Glenn utilizes PICO Lures crankbaits when trolling for crappie once the water of the reservoir gets so hot it develops a thermocline and will keep trolling till it dissipates in the fall. “My setup for the front 4 rods is a main line tied to a 3-ounce PICO Trolling Weight then a leader line of Vanguard Tackle (by PICO Lures) 12 pound clear monofilament leader line 3 feet long to a size 2 Vanguard Tackle Snap Dual Lock attaching a PICO squarebill crankbait,” Glenn went on, “I use a snap lock so I can quickly change out to put on more of what color pattern PICO crankbait they are biting or not biting. Every day is different and you never know what might be the hot color pattern that day.”


For rods in the front deck, Glenn uses 16 foot B’n’M Poles Pow-R-Troller rods that are design for the heavy 3-ounce trolling weight. The longer rods keep his crankbaits and fishing line from getting tangled in the trolling motor. Plus these rods are long enough to reach out far enough to catch crappie before spooking them off.


In the back of the boat, Glenn will run 8 B’n’M Poles Pro Staff Trolling rods with two 10-foot rods and six 8-foot rods. The rods are all rigged up with 30 pound test-8lbs diameter braid Vanguard Tackle Forcefiber Braid fishing line to a size 2 Vanguard Tackle snap lock that has a PICO INT deep diving crankbait attached. “

His secret to running so many rods off the back of the boat at once is utilizing planer boards. “I will have two port side and two starboard side Offshore Tackle Planer Boards along with two rods out on each side without a weight or board that being pulled behind the boat,” Glenn continued, “It’s a lot of rods once you get them all out, but it doesn’t take long to find out what color pattern the crappie are biting.”



Smith’s setup is similar to Glenn’s, but he is power trolling with jigs in the front. Another obvious difference is Smith’s boat or should I say ship is bigger, a lot bigger than Mitch’s. It’s a fiberglass center console bay boat so it has more room than most boats out crappie fishing. However, it also allowed Smith to put rod holders on the side of the boat making for more room between rod holders.


Typically, Smith will start out with a 20 foot B’n’M Poles Pro Staff Trolling Rod than a 16 footer, 12 footer and finally a 8 footer working from the longest towards the front and shorter towards the outboard engine.


So with three or more anglers in the boat, Smith will start increasing the number of rods up to eight more or four per side. He rigs up the spinning rods with 8 pound test Gama yellow high vis monofilament line to make seeing bites easier. His leader is 8 pound test Gama clear monofilament line that starts with a crane swivel on the top then comes down two foot and ties a 3-foot looped overhand knot and cuts it in the center which gives him a 6-inch leader that he ties a Trout Magnet Fin Spin to and attaches a Trout Magnet Slab Curly to the Fin Spin. He will cut the other line off since it’s not needed. Then he ties a snap on the bottom of the lead to attach a PICO crankbait too.

Glenn and Smith troll with their trolling motors with Glenn at 1.7mph up to 2.2mph during the hottest part of summer compared to Smith who usually goes around 1.5- to 1.7-mph.




As for best color patterns Glenn and Smith have 40 PICO Lures INT deep diving crankbaits to pick from and another 14 PICO squarebills. Glenn likes to put out a mix of color patterns from shad to purple to chrome and oranges while Smith prefers the brighter colors like orange/black, orange and pink color patterns.