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Hot Summertime Trolling with Crankbaits for Crappie - by Brad
Hot Summertime Trolling with Crankbaits for Crappie by Brad Wiegmann
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How hot is too hot? It’s never too hot for trolling crankbaits according to Beaver Lake crappie fishing guide Lance Hughey and Mitch Glenn the owner of PICO Lures. They’re right as the summer heats up; both of them can be found out trolling crankbaits catching limits of crappie.
“I’ve been trolling this year more than ever,” Beaver Lake crappie guide Lance Hughey continued, “Spider rigging with minnows gets unpredictable. The crappie get scattered and hard to pattern.”
Hughey isn’t new to trolling as he had trolled before, but now guiding has found trolling is better for larger groups he is taking out. “It’s a fun, relaxing change that’s not so physically and mentally demanding as spider rigging is,” Hughey continued, “Plus you’re not just staring at livescope. Plus you catch fish trolling from the time you put out the first crankbait till you reel in the last rods at the end of the day.”
When trolling Hughey puts out 8 B’n’M Poles PST. Each side of the boat mirrors the other with 4 rods on the port side and 4 rods on the starboard side that are located mid-boat to the back stern deck. The back rod is 8 foot, next is a longer 12 foot, next is the 16 footer and last rod is 20 foot that’s mid-boat. So the shortest in the back working up to the longest in near the boat console. This set up allows Hughey to cover lots of water effectively with the fewest tangles. “I control the boat in the front bow while I have the customers set up the rods and it works for me,” said Hughey.
“The back 8 foot rods have out 75 feet of line, the 12 foot rods have 65 feet out, the 16 foot rods have 55 feet out and the 20 foot rods have 45 feet of line out,” Hughey went on, “Each one is rigged up with a line counter reel which makes it simple to know how much line is out on each rod. Every reel is lined with PICO Lures Vanguard Tackle ForceFlex 10 pound monofilament line.”
As for crankbaits Hughey fishes with PICO Lures deep diving crankbaits. “As for what color PICO Lures Crankbaits it changes daily, but I do have some that always produce on Beaver Lake,” Hughey continued, “White splatterback, bone orange, paycheck, zombie, Christmas tree, wonder bread and blue boogie I use a lot.” With 42 color patterns of PICO Lures crankbait Hughey has a wide selection to choose from which he noted changes throughout the day sometimes.
Normally, Hughey fishes up the river arms of Beaver Lake. When trolling he stays in the channel side more and will make circles like a race track once he has found the areas that have biting crappie.
“It’s crazy the popularity of PICO Lures Crankbaits and it’s growing everyday as more and more anglers are fishing and catching fish on them,” PICO Lures owner Mitch Glenn continued, “I think the biggest thing is while we do have 42 color patterns in the deep diving model all of them are either traditional popular color patterns or designed with assistant from anglers, pro staff and guides. We have color patterns for any lake or river you are fishing that will catch crappie.”
When selecting what color PICO crankbait to fish Glenn recommended to experiment with different colors during the day, but to start with shad’s, green, blue and orange patterns to see which one the crappie are biting that day. “I will have one of each pattern on each side of my boat and once the crappie start biting I can tell which color they are wanting,” said Glenn.
Similar to Hughey, Glenn will let out different lengths of line out on his poles. He starts with 55 than 65, 75 and finally 100 feet behind the boat on each side of the boat. “By staggering the line it covers more of the water column where crappie may be or move to while you are out fishing,” said Glenn.
