Thread: Smokin’ Hot by Brad Wiegmann

Smokin’, smokin’ hot and I’m not talking about the weather. ICAST released two fishing poles that are in high demand right now. Actually, one is available, but the other one can only be pre-ordered and available in October. Before we tell you what the fishing poles are, it’s important to know why and how these poles were designed to fit the need of crappie anglers.


Of course livescoping is the driving force in the world of crappie fishing. Amateurs to guides to pros are using the forward facing technology for catching more and bigger fish. Along with this technology fishing poles are changing and being redesigned to let them reach out farther or casting to suspend crappie away from the boat.



Two well-known crappie anglers that influenced the new smokin’ hot poles are Steven Coleman and John Godwin. The angling team of Capps and Coleman are renowned spider riggers and Godwin from Duck Dynasty, but a fanatic crappie angler and pro have teamed up with B’n’M Poles to design and build two new poles.


Last year at the Sore Lip Them All event at the Mississippi Crappie Compound I interviewed the eight time national tournament champion Steve Coleman about B’n’M Pole The Little Mighty. He had been out catching crappie preparing to take out some anglers. Needless to say 20 foot long The Little Mighty was albatross when extended out among the shorter 14 foot or shooter rods. Keep in mind the longer diamond series rods had not been released to the public to fish.


The Little Mighty is a Japanese style telescoping pole that comes in several sizes including Coleman’s favorite length of 20 foot. Unlike other telescoping poles it comes with a Japanese Tenkara style tip that the leader gets tied to while the tag end gets a hook or jighead tied on. When an angler is done they simply just collapse it down to a smaller, compact size.


Coleman loved the concept of The Little Mighty, but wanted it to have a couple changes to make it more like the specifications he desired. First a stiffer tip, but he still wanted the backbone of the original The Little Mighty; in addition to changing the outside surface of The Little Mighty so it would slide in easier and not be so sticky. This year at ICAST with the input from Coleman the B’n’M Poles released the new Ambush Pole by Capps and Coleman. It features changes Coleman recommended with a new solid, stiffer tip and a checkered style textured design that reduces the tendency to stick when wet.


Not surprising, Coleman has been putting the new Ambush by Capps and Coleman through some extensive testing since getting them. Of course, I mean fishing and guiding with the new Ambush pole. “I love fishing with the new Ambush pole,” Coleman continued, “The best days to fish with it is when there is not much wind. I will just rest it on my knee with 10- to 12-feet extended and pull it out to 20 feet when I see a crappie on the graph to drop a lure or minnow to them.”


Coleman noted that having the longer length was great for reaching crappie hiding behind stumps or in areas you can’t get to otherwise. “On Reel Foot Lake the crappie can be behind stumps you can’t get around to get to them,” Coleman went on, “I normally just have around 12 feet of monofilament fishing line tied from the Tenkara style tip to either a #2 light wire Eagle Claw hook with a size 1/4-ounce sinker and bobber stopper below to keep it from sliding or a 1/32- to 1/8-ounce Crappie Magnet Eye Hole Jighead rigged with a one of the Crappie Magnet soft plastic lure. I might change to a 1/4-ounce weight when fishing muddy water conditions like Grenada in Mississippi.”
Instead of casting the Ambush telescoping Coleman just drops it down to the crappie. When guiding clients, Coleman will start them out fishing with 20 foot The Little Mighty to get use of fishing a long, telescoping pole and switch them to the 24.5 foot rod. Coleman did give a tip when storing The Little Mighty or Ambush and that was to collapse the pole down and insert it into a pool noodle then hook the jighead into the pool noodle for storage.


Sometimes the stars align and magic happens; sometimes you just go fishing and someone says how about you design a rod that you want for livescope casting. That’s how the new B’n’M Poles Godwin Crappie Cast came about. Godwin took Jack Well’s challenge and started designing different blanks actions until Godwin had the perfect blank. Godwin Crappie Cast has just about the right fast tip action to cast lightweight jigs only weighing 1/32-ounce up to 1/4-ounce heavier jig, but with a stiff bottom section blank an angler could boat flip a 2 pound crappie. While Godwin loves to cast to crappie, he noted that it’s easy to pitch a jig 30 feet away with it.



Godwin’s Crappie Cast rod features a 7.5 foot 1 piece spinning high modulus graphite blank with silicon carbide guides designed for smoother line flow and more accurate casting

I've thought hard about a tenkara style rod to be able to stay back &n just ease the bait into the water beside standing timber when the fish are spooky