Trolling crankbaits

Well that was quite the rabbit hole!

Just finished the Crappie 101 thread. All 1,664 or so posts. Second time through

Fell asleep in the chair and woke up with my credit card in my hand and a confirmation message from Mitch @ Pico on my phone![emoji50]

Seems I have $150 worth of int cranks and a bottle of Garlic Slab sauce heading my way. [emoji848][emoji2957]

I sure hope this trolling for them up here in SW Michigan works!

I come to this with some trolling experience. Crawler harnesses as a kid and cranks for Steelhead in a buddies Clackacraft in the 80's. A few times out on Lake Michigan for salmon.

After being away from fishing for a good chunk (27years) I got back involved about 5 years ago.
Mainly Steelhead and Ice fishing but really like trolling for bluegill's with a 2-hook crawler harness called a Bo's bluegill buster.
They use a neat multiple weights change out system that lets you get them into the zone.
I fish them with a 3" Gulp fry that's like a small crawler with a paddle tail. Watermelon pearl is a good color.
Pick up crappie and a occasional Pike too while targeting the bluegill's.

So bluegill's, crappie, walleye, pike, trout... I'm down for any of that and hope that some of this gear is interchangeable

When I heard about trolling Arkie crankbaits for crappie from a buddy it clicked.
We went once on his compact pontoon and I was off to Walmart and D&R sporting goods.
I grabbed some Arkie 200's, couple 300 bandit's and some #5 flicker shads. And a 0R38 planner board.
Dug out my tackle boxes and found my original warts and tots. etc.

Excited, I reread the posts I could find that were crank related and the Crappie 101 thread and woke up as mentioned with 25 pico cranks coming and a bottle of Garlic Slab sauce.
Want a few more bandit's but waiting on a couple particular colors to be available.

So I'm excited. I have a lot of questions. Got some bugs to work out on my boat.etc.
Thought I would start a thread, say hi, my name is Frank.
Thank you for the information already provided and I'll mention I'm retired and live in Kalamazoo if anyone wants to go fishing.

ps. my crank order just showed upAttachment 378797Attachment 378798Attachment 378800

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It's addicting.....i have over 800 crankbaits now....took 12 years lol

Those will get er done ! Welcome from Northeast Alabama! Mitch is a great guy!

It’s just the beginning lol. You might as well order you a special mate box and start filling it up. Good luck it’s fun and it’s frustrating at the same time.


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welcome :fish

welcome.
wish you lock with the cranks here in mich.
i have had mixed results, never did real well but did get occasional crappie.
works great down south on their lakes and i have done a lot of trolling from ky south and probably have over 300 bandits, shad raps , flicker shads etc, they all work down there.
my guess is because of the shad base that most crappie feed on in the southern lakes.
here it is more of the shiners and mud minnows along with whatever bugs they find.
i do way better long liine trolling weed edges, several from our group do well long lining jigs with plastics.
hopefully you will do better than i have up here with those cranks, i know those pico cranks work great in the south and i have maybe a dz of them myself.
good luck!!!

You've got a good set of lures to test out.

Reminds me, I've gotta order some more slab sauce and arkie cranks.
Gotta replace the old ones that every fish likes to bite.

Those cranks are great. Go slow. Like 1.5 down to the point where the lures barely got action. You'll catch everything. I mean it.
Pike, bass, walleye, and of course, crappie.

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I troll Flicker Shad all summer, usually #5 but occasionally #4 if the crappie are suspended a bit higher. Haven't branched out to other brands since these almost always get the job done. A retired coworker turned me onto using them a couple years back. Been eatin' good since!