Thread: Anybody catching any on crank baits yet?

Small crank baits that have good action at slow speeds will catch Black Crappie on Jordan. I use a 2 oz trolling weight with lead molded on a 12 inch wire and a 24 to 30 inch leader and push off the front at .5 to .6MPH.

Monk

Did ok on Saturday. Ended up with maybe 5 big crappie and about 4 big perch. Also caught 3 big cats. Kept one about 8 lbs and lost one flathead about 15 lbs right at the boat. Never had that many cats hit crankbaits. Pulled over one point and began catching the cats when it went form 40 foot to about 10 foot. Caught the crappie and perch in shallow water about 10 to 12 foot or so. Rough on my crank baits. lost about 4.

cwright, what is the best trolling speed from your experiments? will Rapala countdown crankbait work too?

Originally Posted by cwright

Did ok on Saturday. Ended up with maybe 5 big crappie and about 4 big perch. Also caught 3 big cats. Kept one about 8 lbs and lost one flathead about 15 lbs right at the boat. Never had that many cats hit crankbaits. Pulled over one point and began catching the cats when it went form 40 foot to about 10 foot. Caught the crappie and perch in shallow water about 10 to 12 foot or so. Rough on my crank baits. lost about 4.

I have been trying to go about 1.5 mph. Much slower and the rod tips don't show a lot of vibration from the baits. Have not tried anything except little bandits. They are fairly cheap and supposed to have great action at the slow speed. After looking at the other state boards, the guys that troll crank baits a lot use the bandits. Still expensive when you loose 4 or 5 a weekend, but we all know crappie love structure. If I pull across a sunken tree, I may get hung on one bait, but good chance I will catch a crappie as well. Grizzly jig is the cheapest place I have found the little bandits. If you buy I think 5 or 6, you can get them for $4.99 I think. Must have colors are pink and black. I would have never thought it, but both great colors for crappie. I have also done well on the cats and perch with the natural silver colors.

I pulled them at Jordan yesterday 5/16 did pretty good lil pond minnows I got from monk think I'm goin next week and get 8 more stiffer rods so I can pull them a lil faster

I may have to try those. Only tried the little bandits so far. I ordered 12 more of them yesterday. This gets expensive when you loose 4 or 5 a weekend. lol.

Originally Posted by mac crappie

I pulled them at Jordan yesterday 5/16 did pretty good lil pond minnows I got from monk think I'm goin next week and get 8 more stiffer rods so I can pull them a lil faster

Be careful pulling those too fast if you're talking about Strike King Bitsy Pond Minnows. They'll roll on you and twist your line to the point of replacing.

Originally Posted by cwright

I may have to try those. Only tried the little bandits so far. I ordered 12 more of them yesterday. This gets expensive when you loose 4 or 5 a weekend. lol.

With the Bandits, most of the time you can give some slack line or slightly back up when they hang and they'll float free.