Thread: Trolling Cranks for Crappie - what exactly are you targeting?

I trolled one bay for a few hours on Friday and then again on Monday. I'm still learning what to look for when it comes to trolling for crappie.

I trolled around the main creek channel that went from the back of the bay to the mouth. I stayed in the 18 to 20 ft range, and ran the cranks at various depths throughout the day from 8 to 14 ft. I'd make laps in the bay from the back to the mouth.

I would mostly stay along the creek channel edges, and sometimes try up on the adjacent flats that were about 12 to 14 ft deep, and then sometimes go over some humps that came up to about 10 to 12 ft.

What puzzled me was that the crappie I caught were just random catches. When I'd go over a hump, there would be bait, fish on the screen, and I just knew I was going to get bit, but nothing....it's like the crappie I caught were just scattered in random places out in the creek channel, no schools or multiple hookups. Is this normal? The ones I did catch were pretty dang nice, like 13" or 14" in size.

The best colors were the PICO Grenada Green, PICO Mr. Goodtime, and all three of the Jenko Midnight colors.

I will say that the humps I came across with bait on them had a lot of bass on them as well, I did stop trolling and hit those with a jig and caught some nice 3, 4, and 5 lb bass.

Fishing was good this weekend, just trying to figure out how to be more productive on my trolling routes and what I should be looking for. Is getting into a school of crappie with multiple hookups rare with this method?

The thing that helped me be more productive was when I went to the LakeMaster SD card on my Humminbird Helix and learned how to use the Depth Highlight option. I set my depth highlight to a depth I think the crappie are hanging out or to the depth I plan on running my cranks. Typically I'll highlight 15 feet +/- 1 foot.

Right now baitballs are very scattered as well as the crappie. As the crappie get over the funk of spawning and start to school up near the bait, you'll start to see multiple catches in certain areas.

Originally Posted by M R Dux

Right now baitballs are very scattered as well as the crappie. As the crappie get over the funk of spawning and start to school up near the bait, you'll start to see multiple catches in certain areas.

That's exactly the kind of info I was hoping someone would post. Definitely helps me out with my approach and explains the randomness I was experiencing.

As for the depth highlight, I'll give that a try too.

Is it true that the crankbait needs to be running above the crappie? Like if I'm seeing schools of crappie at 12 ft deep, does my crank need to be at about 8 to 10 ft deep? I've always heard that crappie won't go down to hit a bait, only up....does this apply to trolling cranks too?

Yep. Run your cranks above the crappie. I use a Bomber 6A for that until PICO comes out with a squarebill.


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Originally Posted by M R Dux

Yep. Run your cranks above the crappie. I use a Bomber 6A for that until PICO comes out with a squarebill.

I've yet to catch a crappie on a 6A, only catfish and a couple of white bass, but I'm going to stick with it until it finally works. I know you swear by them! Maybe it's just the Foxy Shad and Citruse colors I'm using that's attracting those cats?

Originally Posted by artcarney_agr

I've yet to catch a crappie on a 6A, only catfish and a couple of white bass, but I'm going to stick with it until it finally works. I know you swear by them! Maybe it's just the Foxy Shad and Citruse colors I'm using that's attracting those cats?

Try the Tn Shad (silver w/black back) and Red Craw. Before PICOs and c55s came along, they were 50/50 with Bandits andArkies.


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Originally Posted by M R Dux

Try the Tn Shad (silver w/black back) and Red Craw. Before PICOs and c55s came along, they were 50/50 with Bandits andArkies.

Thanks for the tip! I'll give those a try.

Originally Posted by M R Dux

Yep. Run your cranks above the crappie. I use a Bomber 6A for that until PICO comes out with a squarebill.


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Pico has squarebill crankbaits now....they are on the website.

Originally Posted by "G"

Pico has squarebill crankbaits now....they are on the website.

how deep do the square bills run?

Originally Posted by cevans

how deep do the square bills run?

They run about like a bandit 100 pulling. Of course pushing with a weight you can go as deep as you want. Whats good about the square bills is ....if they hit cover such as grass, brush, limbs, etc. most of the the time when the bill hits cover it will deflect the lure and keep from getting hung up,