We've been doing it now for 4 years. I can't even begin to tell you the number of crappie we've caught over the years. We troll mainly Bandit 300s sometimes the 200s. We troll around 1.2-2.2mph. We troll using our big motor with a trolling plate to maintain the slow speeds. I have a 90hp.
The best time to push cranks are after the spawn when the crappie move back to the deep water.
We're set up with trolling racks out of the back of the boat, and also on the sides. We use bass poles to troll out the back. Some folks use line counters, we've tried using them, but I think there more work than they're good. The poles that we troll out of the sides, we use 2oz egg sinkers to get them deeper with little line out. We don't use any weights out the back we just long line them.
-The line that we use is high vis p-line 8lb.
-Color of cranks: they vary with all the lakes that we fish.