Thread: Rod stiffness for you crankers....

Forgot to mention I use 4-6 lb test line run about 1.5-1.9 mph 60 -70 feet of line .

Rickie, I use some cheap 6.6 medium heavy bait casters out the back. 12 ft PST out the sides and bought 2 of the Pinnacal limit rods in 8 ft. They all work. The Pinnacal is pretty soft and has a parabolic bend almost to the handle but haven't had any problem landing fish. They all show the wobble good so you can tell what it is doing. I think the Uglystick would be really good if having to buy new starting out.

I'm still trying to decide...

I can get the Ugly Stick medium 7' one piece for right at $30 ...

I would really like about 8' to 10' for the four out the back...(I think I'm gonna need as space between lines as I can get being a newbie at this) ...

I've been kinda busy makin da cover holdits ...and trying to design and build my own personal rod rack to carry these trolling rods on the boat...in a way that is handy but out of the way when spider riggin...

Rickie

I pull with 4 rods out of each side of my boat and I use Wally Marshall Troll Tech rods 2-18's 2-14's 2-10's the 2- 6' ugly sticks. I have landed 10 lbs cats and hybrids on them and never slow down and have never broke one on a fish.

I like a pole with a good backbone but a softer tip so it loads up slower. I have rods specific to trolling, medium spinning rods, medium baitcasting rods and they all work fine. but once I was on a catfishing trip at Truman lake in Missouri but the cats weren't biting. I hadn't planned to crappie fish but I had left my crankbaits in the boat and since the cats weren't biting we tied some cranks on our heavy action E glass catfish poles, spooled with 50lb power pro, Lol! not expecting much, we began trolling and to my surprise we caught a ton of nice crappies and the catfish poles worked so good I now use E glass poles for my cranking duties... don't knock it till ya try it!

2 of my push poles are my catfish poles,run 4oz weights on them when pushing cranks

Originally Posted by south point

I like a pole with a good backbone but a softer tip so it loads up slower. I have rods specific to trolling, medium spinning rods, medium baitcasting rods and they all work fine. but once I was on a catfishing trip at Truman lake in Missouri but the cats weren't biting. I hadn't planned to crappie fish but I had left my crankbaits in the boat and since the cats weren't biting we tied some cranks on our heavy action E glass catfish poles, spooled with 50lb power pro, Lol! not expecting much, we began trolling and to my surprise we caught a ton of nice crappies and the catfish poles worked so good I now use E glass poles for my cranking duties... don't knock it till ya try it!

I went to a couple walleye fishing seminars this winter and all the captains and tournement guys say, 7'6" to 10' rods with med. or med. light tips. reason 1. you can read the rod better and 2. they load up better to set the hook without pulling the lure free.


So I figure if those guys are using med/med-light for 4 to 10lb lunkers I should be able to do the same for the paper lipped crappies. let the rod do the work and you just have to have a nice steady retreive. No hook set required.

Some of the crappie rods will work for trolling. However if youre truly looking to set up a true trolling spread, buy rods designed for that application.Glass rods are ok for throwing cranks but alil to soft to really get a read on what your cranks are doing.There are a lot of good rod companies out there building trolling rods. fenwick has some awesome rods I own several from 8 to 12 feet to help spread lines.Also the BPS walleye rods are great for the money.I also have and use two 4 foot shorty rods made by scheels these are my inside rods in a four rod set up. Anything more than four rods well run boards to spread out the lines. Speed doesn't have any bearing on the depth of the crank. With the exception you pull a bait too fast and it causes it to spin out.Line diameter play more into the dive curve than speed. Also a line counter is almost a must as well as keeping all you reels with the same amount of line on them so you can duplicate the same depths. A foot or two difference can be a huge factor.