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Reply With QuoteThx for the link and all the info. Good read
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Indiana and Colorado spinners each have their place in this in-line systems. A good way to stay versatile is to use the quick change clevises and to carry several colors in both the Indiana and Colorado blades and in sizes 2, 3, and 4. The beads used in rigging these set-ups should also be carried in several colors. Most of the rigging I see if for walleye and generally has only one spinner. Certainly more could be added but the amount of drag created is proportional to the added spinners.
Colorado blades give more "thump" as they rotate and work better when the water is stained or dirty. Colorado blade are easier to get started turning at slow speeds. Personally I'd start out with a Colorado blade of about a size 2, maybe a 3, color based on water conditions. If the trolling speed gets higher than about 1.5 mph I'd switch to the Indiana blade as they spin nicer at higher speeds. Clear water blades in silver is dandy. Gold works in low light and when the water has some color. Your fluorescents have a wide spread of use and work well in many water and light conditions. Something I don't fall prey to is the use of blades with nice little fishy pictures on them or scale patterns....you get the idea, Color and or flash. Period. The fish can't see the decals on those blades even if they do look good to you. In blades, basic is best.
The beads that I mentioned. Go with gold, silver, chartreuse in both opaque and transparent, fluorescent red in transparent and opaque, fluorescent orange in opaque and transparent. 3/16" is a good all-around size to carry.
Tie a GOOD ball bearing swivel to your main line. To it tie on an adequate length of 10 or 12 pound fluorocarbon line to carry the spinner and beads finishing with hook or bait of choice. To stop the sinner from falling all the way back to the hook, simply run the line thru the last bead then up and back thru the bead again. If you use more than one spinner, do this at the end of each run of beads behind each spinner/bead cluster. This also allows you to quickly adjust the distance from the spinner to the bait, something that at times becomes a part of the over-all equation. DO NOT use braid as the rigging line for the spinners. Braid will wear quickly where the clevises run. The fluoro is crystal clear and allows only the beads and spinners to show....very effective.
As a rule, the crappies I find hitting spinner rigs when I am trolling walleyes are larger fish and are aggressive. If crappies are neutral or negative, I wouldn't waste time on trolling as a means to catch them. In states or waters where multiple lines can be used spinners can be run at various depths using various color combinations to search for active fish. While I am a proponent for artificial baits, don't hesitate to run a couple of minnows on spinners. The "Gulp" line of minnow baits in 2-1/2" size is an excellent alternative to live bait while running spinners.
Spinners take some getting used to. Almost always it will come down to trolling speed, or color combinations, or spinner size, or a mix between some or all of these. Make no bones about it though, spinners can catch some ungainly hogs when other styles of fishing are handing you the skunk and those spinners can put some bonus fish in the basket too.
Look up www.JBLures.com on the internet and look thru the selection of blades and beads and clevises found there. They offer a whole new world of everything a spinner guy could want including pre-ties so all that's needed is to snap the rig on the swivel, bait and go.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Thx for the link and all the info. Good read
Crappie.com 1K Star General
We're not in mid spawn that's first week April. Thanks for all the info on spinners. I started trolling road runners tipped with minnows red and chart colors no body's. They get expensive so I tried a bar hook tipped with minnow and bam no difference and a lot cheaper. I was thinking walleye spinner tipped with minnow we can run 3 rods with two hooks each rod. Your one line one hook is mind blowing. Why is the reason for the single deal. We used to run 5 each they dropped it to 3 poles last year due to over fishing. I don't see them stoping at 3 because trolling down here is all the talk.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Our wild fish do not grow as fast or reproduce as abundantly as those farther south. In some cases as with crappies they live longer than farther south, but we need to wait that out. We can and have still over harvested the resource far too often. And there are a lot of us who fish here in Minnesota. IMO we are getting larger fish with the restrictions.
Mostly I only fish one rod anyway mostly by casting and release everything anyhow. I have no problem with a single rod and a single hook, but for somethings like catfish and carp I would like to be able to purchase a quarry limited second rod license. I am quite comfortable with a single rod and hook for pretty much everything else. We still average between 4 and 5 crappies an hour day in day out even deep in the Metro with just the single offering apiece, which isn't bad, with size to a maximum of about 14". One offering at a time is normally all that I have attention for anyway. There is definitely a size difference in favor of lakes with more limitations even here in the Metro where fishing pressure is very heavy; so the approach really seems to be working for us.
We are 45 degrees north and it gets very cold up here with relatively short summers which limits our fish stocks. So our government has had to limit our harvest; since not everybody around here is naturally self-limiting, at least not enough so. Single rod and hook rule has been in place here for a long time and it was not enough by itself; so bag limits were decreased and size slots and minimum sizes were added to quite a number of games fish rules. There has been quite an increase in fishing quality since then on a whole lot of Minnesota waters.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
Every body and there momma from all over come down here to troll it's going to have an effect for sure our lake had a ton of 11" - 12" crappie these last few years since they changed the size from over 10" to over 12" to keep. Last year they went to 11" over to keep. It was a slaughter. They changed keeping 20 to 15 per day or it would have been bad. Bumping up the size definitely helps. They should have left it at 12" I only caught maybe a dozen last year that were under 12". People down here would have a stroke with a one pole rule.
Crappie.com 1K Star General
What type of speed is everyone pulling spinners?
Crappie.com 1K Star General
For me dead slow, just fast enough to keep the spinners going. That will mean different motor speeds for with the wind than for against it.Originally Posted by bfish
Crappie.com Legend and Arkansas Moderator
I pull at 1.7 and have had good success.
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How far back behind the boat are you guys normally pulling these or prefer too?
Crappie.com 1K Star General
You need to play with line size, amount of weight used, boat speed and the depth that the fish are holding to determine how far back or how much line to run out. For crappies the heaviest line I use is 6 pound mono and the largest jig I use is a 1/8th. I can stay fairly deep on a slow troll. With a spinner rig you can weight up and keep things fairly close to the boat. Boat noise and shadow don't seem to bother crappies unless the water is super clear, in which case you'll want the baits well back from the boat.
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