Thread: Bandit bite is on

Nice Doug! Thanks for sharing.

Mrdux, I have never pulled cranks. Do you pull them on flats in bays, creek channel ledges in bays, any ledge in bay or main lake, or main lake ledges on the channel? Have you ever pushed cranks?

Originally Posted by callen

Mrdux, I have never pulled cranks. Do you pull them on flats in bays, creek channel ledges in bays, any ledge in bay or main lake, or main lake ledges on the channel? Have you ever pushed cranks?

If the crappie are on the flats or up on the ledges, I'm going to be longlining with curly tail jigs. I'm looking for bait CLOSE to ledges (can be secondary,main, main-lake) where there is 15 feet or more of water. I like to use a mixture of 200 and 300 Bandits. That lets me cover from 10 to 18 or so feet deep. I may be running as many as 10 rods so fishing up on ledges or around cover is a huge, expensive gamble. I think the biggest key to longlining or pulling Bandits is to NEVER stop forward momentum. If you hang up or hook a fish, keep moving. The crappie will pop to the top and you can reel them slowly to the boat. That's what happened Sunday when I had 6 fish hooked at one time. They came to the top and didn't tangle all my lines together.

I've tried pushing Bandits but don't like the heavy poles, weights, and such that it takes to do it right. Longlining and pulling Bandits lets me use the same basic rods and holders. I have 5 pairs of bases for my HiTek rod holders that let me move them all over the boat. Don't tell my wife but over the years I have accumulated enough rods and gear to have a full set of longline/spider-rig poles and a full set of Bandit rods with line-counter reels. WalMart sporting goods depts don't have anything on my garage. If I had to change out my reels or lines every time I wanted to change from one style to another, I would end up choosing one over the other.

Thanks, I may try and push some and see how it goes.

Looks like this cool snap and the north-east wind have shut the bite down somewhat. Quackrstackr and I went out this afternoon and fought it for 6 decent keepers plus one green carp. There was nowhere near the amount of bait in the areas I caught my fish on Sunday.

At least the cool temps made it really nice to stay comfortable while on the water. North-east wind is not conducive to catching fish on KY lake.

The temps and wind didn't affect the bluegill bite yesterday, but I went in the morning. This week has been pretty descent for bluegill.

I went this morning and the bite had slowed a lot from yesterday morning, I fished five hours today and only had ten bluegill. I did catch four nice cats on crickets though.

hey mrdux, just wanted to let you know I am finally going out and give the bandits a try tomorrow. I have decided to try and pull them off my front rod holders and see if that will work. I will take weights to push just in case my setup doesn't work. Thanks for the help.