Crappie Hate This by Brad Wiegmann

There’s a lot of things that crappie hate. Being filleted is one and the other is the noise made from a wave slapping on a hull of a boat. Especially on high pressured reservoirs or rivers where tournament and weekend anglers seem to be everywhere.



Recently in a National Crappie League tournament I observed several boats fishing with Silent Stalkers installed on their boats. At first it looks like a hood bra commonly seen on cars used to protect the front end of the vehicle, however, these were on boats fishing in a crappie tournament. NCL crappie team of J.J. and Tanya Watters were one of the teams that had one on their boat out fishing on Truman Lake in Missouri.


Their ZX200 Skeeter is a beast of a boat. Sleek, fast and built to handle almost any rough water conditions, however, J.J. admitted there was one thing he wanted to reduce or eliminate when fishing out of the Skeeter and that was reduce or elimate loud hull slaps occurring on windy days. “My Skeeter made sounds like a gun shot in rough water,” J.J. continued, “I knew that I was going to have to do something about it if I was going to catch fish especially in crappie tournaments.”

“I visited with several anglers including Hayden Jefferies about it. Hayden said he had Silent Stalkers for both of his boats and they worked,” J.J. went on, “I knew he used them and they would work to reduce or elimate hull on my boat so I got one. I have had one for about 4 months now and love it. It makes a huge difference when we have it on out fishing.”


J.J. noted that he and his wife Tanya can attach it to the boat in about 5 minutes in the water out fishing for fun or in a crappie tournament. “It comes with everything you need to attach it to the boat with hooks that attach to the floor of your boat you won’t even notice,” J.J. continued, “I don’t recommend you driving with it on in rough water, but a guy can do it if he wants to.”


He stores his Silent Stalker in a compartment of the Skeeter boat. Basically just rolling it up after drying out that only takes a short time and putting it back into the compartment. “I never leave home without it,” J.J. continued, “It allows me to get right up on the crappie without them knowing I’m there and that lets me catch more fish.”


J.J. and Tanya are using the Silent Stalker brand of boat bra. While there might be other brands a quick look at Silent Stalker showed it comes in 3 sizes. Small Silent Stalker which retails at $249.99 that fits a number of boats like the Sea Ark 1448MV or 1648MV, War Eagle 436 or Duracraft 236F and 1436. Medium Silent Stalker retailing at $274.99 that fits many of the boats crappie angler fish out of including the G3 Talon 17/19 or 1756, SC Gator Tough Series, Nitro Boats Z7, Z8 or Z9 and a large number in that size class of boats. Large Silent Stalker retailing at $299.99 fits bigger boats like a Duracraft 2170, Express H18/29/22, War Eagle 861 Predator, Sea Ark all FX and VFY models and other larger sized boats.


In the end, crappie continue to get more and more spooky as boats approach them especially in open water. Reducing hull slapping allows anglers to get closer without them getting wise to an approaching angler.