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Ok it’s winter, prespawn, but after seeing a post from Jigpuller and seeing 3” inch Shad in my live well that Crappie had been feeding on, I had a thought.
Are we really stuck with moving really slowly and dragging minnows in the winter or is using a enough weight to keep a Road Runner at 30’ or 40’ a viable option? Moving at 1 mph? Covering 2 or 3 times the area.
Anyone doing this?
Thanks
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Going to make this
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The biggest issue will be staying at that depth to avoid snags and getting the right weight with speed. I get enough snags tightlining. other issue is it will take a lot of weight and better have some heavy rods. In TN walleye fishing, it took at least 2 oz at 1-1.5 mph to get to 30fow on planer boards.
I don't think Shad will be moving at 1mph in cold water :dono
Maybe run the boat around until you spot a school, mark it, then go back over it several times with your baits at the appropriate depth.
I'm not even sure you can keep a bait at 30-40' @1mph ... without a whole heck of a lot of weight.
Good luck Brett! Maybe you should try trolling shallower water. I saw a guy the other day trolling in Torrance moving pretty fast. I didn't observe him catching anything but he may be on to something. I would think in Crowder's Creek and Catawba Creek being live fed streams bait would be there along with crappie moving in and out as the temps warm up in shallower water. Just a thought! :dono
Ed Dukes has a video of him catching crappie in cold water at 6 foot deep spider rigging.:cheers2
Another?
I keep reading to use small baits. What’s that about?
Twice I had 14&15 in fish with big minnows in their mouths. 3 or 4 inch minnows
Thanks
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Depends, sometimes minnow size doesn't seem to matter sometimes it does. I do however make notes which lines have smaller and which have larger minnows looking for a pattern. All depends. My last video, I noticed even the small throw backs were taking the large minnows, but didn't catch numbers. Ive had days I caught the numbers using small minnows.
In the summer when I push and pull crank baits i use 2oz weights that way they stay down deep where the fish are at. That's why I went and bought 9 of the crappie maxx rods cause they have the back bone to handle the heave weights
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I always use a 1/2 oz sinker. I've tried 3/4 but some of my rods will bow too much to my liking. I do move very slow because much faster and I'll risk lines crossing. I personally like smaller minnows and if there is one that is much bigger than the others I let it go. It's not easy finding small minnows anymore.
If you pulled heavier weights like a 1 oz Kentucky rig with double jigs or roadrunners then maybe you could control things. It still depends on how fast the fish want it and being in a snag free area I imagine. Would basically be spider rigging out the back.