Why do you like the rod you use to crappie fish?





I’m asking mostly to understand why someone chooses an ultralight while another chooses a light or medium light. I want to finally get into crappie fishing seriously this year, after harboring a hidden interest in it for the past 6 years, ever since seeing a friend catch two nice crappie back to back while we were bass fishing. He was unimpressed because it wasn’t a bass, but I was mesmerized by those fish and how beautiful they were. Ever since then I’ve wanted to get into targeting them specifically instead of just accidentally catching one every now and again. I’d have started crappie fishing sooner, but bass fishing just kept getting in the way, LOL!

As it turns out, I ended up buying a 6’6” medium light rod with a fast action for throwing light crankbaits for bass. It currently has 8 pound mono on it, and from what I’ve read on here so far that seems to be on the heavier end of the crappie rig spectrum, but could still work, and I could go as light as 4 pound on that rod. But I’m also thinking of just getting a dedicated crappie rod, a light powered one that I could even use with 2 pound line. What kind of rods do I need to become proficient at crappie fishing? I tend to think of using certain rods with certain baits. My understanding of crappie baits is that there are jigs of varying sizes, crappie crankbaits, inline spinners, actual wire frame spinnerbaits, and beyond that I don’t know. Do you use plastic rigs for crappie? Drop shot? Weightless flukes? Tubes?

By the way, here’s a pic of the SMALLER of the two crappie my buddy caught. This one was 13” long. He tossed a second one that I know would have been 14” if he’d have let me see it. He was completely put off by the fact that that fish had taken his bait. If it were me I would have loved it! If I remember right, I think he was using a Bandit 200 crankbait, probably the black color. That’s his cranking rod in his hand and that bait is about all he uses.