Thanks, y'all.

Had it not been for this board, I would have known that there were Crappie in the area, but no clue how to go about catching them unless they were associated with exposed brushpiles. I lurk a lot more than I post, but it's mostly because the knowledge base on this board is so deep that I can't contribute much.

I'm happy to report I started catching my first MS Crappie a few weeks ago and I'm definitely hooked on watching the rods. Well, I like it so much, I can fish eight poles out of the front of the boat, and six off of either side. I keep buying poles. It started with thinking a couple of 12' poles would be fine. Then I realized I needed some 14' poles for shallower water and thanks to y'all I decided on C&Cs over pst. Now I'm thinking some 10' pst would be a good addition, because I'll need a couple of 14' pst anyway for cranks and the off chance that I'll need, NEED to hang 2 oz. of weight in a stiffer wind. And I need a DI unit for the back of the boat, so I might as well install a switch panel and some LEDs for nav lights. Y'all are more expensive that fly fishing, which is pretty much amazing! And, I'm trying to do things right within my budget the first time around. I hate poking holes in my boat and then pulling stuff out.

I guess I can say this- I have some of the 12' Cabelas Whoopin' Stick fiberglass crappie poles and aside from being heavy and having those dumb sliding rings, they're pretty good for $25 poles. They load up a lot better than the graphite poles that I have. From what I understand, they're made by Ugly Stik, so they'll probably hold up forever.

Anyway, thanks for the help and kind words to all of the folks who don't know what they're doing.

If you want to say hello, I'm in a high and wide 16' jon boat with a high front deck and a big Merc tiller. I'll have a dog with me. He'll probably be staring at the water.

Try some of the Ozark Pro Trolling poles. Sounds like you have plenty tho. I like all of mine the same length however.


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

We sell XPRESS, EXCEL, and ALWELD Boats. Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Mud Buddy, and Tohatsu/Nissan Engines.
Pro Staff, Southern Pro Tackle and Ozark Rods.
Member, Tri-State Crappie Anglers

WK, they sure do get expensive on a fella! But great info here and a great bunch of folks.

Glad you're catching some fish WK.