| I grew up fishing for crappie with a bobber, gold | | | | can use your trolling motor to troll at these |
| hook and a tuffy minnow. Brush piles in the spring | | | | speeds I just prefer to run the kicker to save |
| and then throughout the rest of the summer with | | | | the expensive batteries. |
| a little drifting which helped get those suspended | | | | I start by locating schools of baitfish on the fish |
| crappie that were scattered throughout the lake. | | | | finder. They can be along the shore but most of |
| Recently, since relocating to the mid-west, I have | | | | the year on these lake you will find them |
| found that many of the small lakes are often | | | | suspended in open water. The depth can be 40 |
| structureless. I found myself searching for | | | | feet and the Crappie may be at 6 feet. I have |
| structure in the open water. Crappie are structure | | | | actually found the Crappie so shallow that the |
| oriented and that structure can be many things. | | | | kicker motor was spooking them and I had to let |
| Points, drop-offs and ledges often hold piles of | | | | out a lot of line to get the crankbait back far |
| Crappie. | | | | enough that the fish had recovered before it got |
| In my search for hidden structures I was noticing | | | | to them. I have yet to do it but I plan to utilize |
| large schools of baitfish suspended in the deepest | | | | side planers in the future to help with this problem. |
| part of the lake. With these suspended baitfish, | | | | Do not think that Crappie aren't shallow in the |
| shad in particular, was following packs of fish. I | | | | winter. I just went out a few weeks ago, |
| finally decided to try to catch some of these fish | | | | mid-November, and found the Crappie were |
| and hopefully have fresh Crappie for dinner. I got | | | | running at 4 feet. It can be difficult to figure this |
| my gold hooks out and bought some Crappie | | | | out when you are marking fish at 10 feet and |
| minnows and quickly found that most of the fish I | | | | nothing shallower. What happens is the boat |
| was seeing on the depth finder were indeed | | | | spooks these shallow Crappie and you will not see |
| Crappie with a few White Bass thrown in. The | | | | them on the fish finder. If you are dragging 8 and |
| trouble was I was catching lots of small Crappie | | | | 10 foot running crankbaits through those fish but |
| and many of them were stealing my minnows | | | | are not getting bites then on the one rod with a |
| which get expensive when none of the Crappie | | | | 4 foot running crankbait begins to get bites the |
| are big enough for the box. | | | | deeper fish may not be feeding and you need to |
| The other problem was staying with the | | | | change all your baits to a little shallower. I usually |
| constantly darting baitfish. I had observed that | | | | leave one rod with a deep running bait because |
| there were several balls of bait in the area but to | | | | those deep fish might turn on and besides that I |
| try to stay with one was aggravating. There had | | | | like to have a chance at a nice Walleye while I am |
| to be a better way. I finally decided I would try | | | | at it. |
| to troll through the area with the baitfish with | | | | Rod holders are a must. With trolling crankbaits an |
| Crappie in them. Most Crappie anglers have heard | | | | ultra light rod just isn't enough. You need to go |
| of or did some sort of "trolling" for Crappie which | | | | with a medium light at least and maybe even a |
| usually means spider-rigging or just slowly moving | | | | medium weight rod with at least 8lb test. I have |
| around with the electric trolling motor. This is | | | | landed many types of fish with this method to |
| essentially what I was doing when I was chasing | | | | include some pretty big Catfish so you want to |
| the bait. I remember trolling with my dad in the | | | | be prepared for anything. This method has |
| summer when fish was suspended and catching | | | | drastically reduced the small fish that was always |
| Bass, Walleye and Rockfish with an occasional | | | | stealing my bait or just too small to keep which |
| Crappie thrown into the mix. I also remember well | | | | to me is a waste of my time when I could be |
| the size of the Crappie we caught on those | | | | catching keeper Crappie instead and this method |
| Hellbender plugs, Always a giant slab Crappie. I | | | | has allowed me to do that. |
| decided to downsize the bait a bit fro those old | | | | Experiment with colors and depths as well as |
| days and today you have many choices in sizes, | | | | speed and amount of line behind the boat, all of |
| depths and colors to choose from in a crankbait. | | | | these factors can play a part in your success. |
| My set-up starts with an 8hp kicker motor and | | | | When a combination maintain it and when a color |
| GPS for keeping the correct speed. I have found | | | | and/or depth is continuously getting more bites |
| that speed is a factor and you need a way to | | | | set up the other rods to match and have fun |
| regulate it as current and winds will effect that | | | | filling the live well with nice Crappie and remember |
| speed more than you think a GPS is the only | | | | the location as it more than likely will produce |
| accurate way to monitor your speed since it is | | | | over and over again. Good luck my fellow Crappie |
| not effected by those things. I have had Crappie | | | | angler. |
| bite best at 1.5mph all the way up to 2.2mph. You | | | | |