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Iam sure some of you guys do this for walleye. Wonder if you've caught crappie this way. If so I would like to hear about it. Iam thinking about trying it this summer when Iam pulling cranks. Just something else to try and see if it works. Thanks in advance.
Definitely. Just like slow rolling the little safety pin spinners, speed has always been the key for us. Rather lack of it. Just enough to control the boat and only enough to keep the spinner rotating. Also small and a quiet boat. It also pays to have a number of spinners out at the same time. In line with size 0 spinner blades, trailing a tiny GULP ALIVE leech on a size 6 or 4 hook has saved the day several times for for us when crappies just went close mouthed for us with anything else. This also works when you have just enough breeze to spin the blades on a controlled drift.
For us cranks and spinners never worked very well together, the cranks need more speed than is productive with the spinners. You defintitely need a good swivel up the line from the spinner to avoid line twist, and that may be all the weight you need to add on finer lines as well.
Trolling the Original Rapalas works great too. We taken crappie trolling the stick raps for walleye on a lot of occasions and the crappies have hit on the sticks up to and including the #13 size.
Very true and conversely it is not at all uncommon to take walleyes when fishing for crappies.Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
no1son
Can you tell me more about the spinners? Sounds like you are talking about running multiple blades in line on a rig. Can see where several rods out the back set as a group would make a lot of flash and vibration. Like a AL rig.
Can you explain or point me in the right direction in reference to the way to rig several blades on one line that you know works best? At the end on this setup I could attach a jig tipped with a plastic or something. Am I on the right track or would I have a mess in the making?
Pictures and what brands works best. I have no clue on this subject. Hope to have it figured out by the time spawn is over.
A single spinner trailing a single hook dressed with a small minnow, what we call a panfish leech etc. Plastics would work as will the smallest of the GULP ALIVE minnow baits and leeches. I prefer a metal shaft, which in this case is a short one. The only one I know about is from Lindy/LittleJoe called Little Joe True-Spin Spinner. Google up the name and look at the images. There is nothing complicated about this rig. Plus you can carry it without taking up any kind of space in your tackle box.
I fish these on .006" and .008" diameter copolymer and all it takes to get them down deep enough is a tiny split shot which I normally put up the line a good foot to 16" just ahead of the swivel. This is spinner, so without the swivel you will twist your line badly. I trail a #4 or #6 circle hook, NOT a jig, on the keeper system of the spinner. An octopus hook would work as well. Another variation is to trail a smaller streamer or a hook with just a scant dressing of short bucktail. That is what we used to call a "killer rig". We always added a small minnow to the streamer. I carry both nickel and gold and it is a tossup which I prefer. For me this is a backup technique for when plastics and tiny jigs don't connect. I prefer drifting, casting and vertical jigging, but troll to hunt if nothing else connects.
For that matter you can just as easily troll RoadRunners or BeatleSpins, they will also take crappies on the troll and are much more commonly available. Little Mepps or Panther Martins will also work. IOW the so called trout size.
This is Minnesota so we get one line and one hook per fisherman on open water; so trolling with a couple of other fisherman adds to the effect, but this is not a fast troll; so flash is minimal, just so long as it is there. We want just enough speed to keep the spinners turning. We also fish this pretty shallow; I never weight this with more than 1/32oz. I also troll slower than most people and normally fish smaller waters than a lot of folks so I can target trolling passes pretty closely and still cover the water.
Thx no1, you have the wheels turning and I have time to make up the rigs you have described. Like hotrod1 said about after the fish come off bed and the heat kicks in this could be a "killer rig" down here as well. We can fish multiple rods and I'm now looking to Jann's Netcraft for blades and other items needed for this project.
I understand your description and I'm thinking of adding to this with multiple blades per rig for a larger profile, vibration and flash. These rigs could be made up and attached to a swivel as you spoke of. This way they could be stored to have them on hand when a replacement is needed. Thanks again for the information. I'll post some px of the rig if you could tell me what you think or something you see that may need to be changed with a simpler way of doing it.
When they are hungry, they don't know how big they are - I fished a private farm pond with my friend a couple years back that was supposed to have BIG northerns when they owner last fished it 10 years previous. Needles to say, our minnows never hit the bottom without being crushed, and when I decided to have some fun casting some BIG spoons, I was pleasantly surprised when I had a spectacular crappie on the mammoth thing two cast in a row. After that second cast, I ignored the pike and had a field day with monster crappies hitting things that proportionally didn't make sense.
Hotrod is killing me talking about being mid spawn - I just waded in 2' of snow to get to a flag pole for some raising/lowering practice for my cub scouts...well, we have the Fly Fishing expo is coming up next month, then the Sportsman show to get us warmed up in March for "wet" water.
Years ago all we did was troll spinners. I tried multiple spinner blades and it didn't work very well. When I troll spinners I do not look for maximum flash, rather more of a flop at as slow as possible. I want a well polished blade, but not much of one.Quote:
Originally Posted by slabbacks
As for making them up ahead, check out how the walleye trollers carry theirs. They use the same sort of rig, but only in a larger size with the spinner clevis threaded onto the actual mono leaders that are often 3-6 feet long or more. (Check out walleye spinner rigs and nightcrawler harnesses on Google images) One way to carry them is to use a chunk of swimming pool styrofoam noodle. Hook the hook into the styrofoam, then wrap the leader and pin the swivel down with a thumb tack. There are commercially made spools for that sort of thing, but the price is a whole lot bigger for them, too.
Just a small snap at the end of the running line and you can switch out very quickly. There are also plastic clevises that allow one to switch out just the blades, but they do not spin as easily as does a clean metal clevis on a smooth, unrusted metal shaft.
When I fish these for crappies I want the slowest possible speed that will get any kind of spin; so I am not talking about maximum flash, rather minimum clean flash. I think too much may scare crappies off. They can be exasperatingly timid even when feeding heavily. Personally
I would go with size 0 and/or size 1 blades. And I would go with Indianas rather than Colorados. Make sure the clevis matches the blade size. Smooth or hammered it makes me no real difference, but I would have both gold (or polished brass) and nickel.
I want something to wave at the crappies not startle them.
Indiana and Colorado spinners each have their place in this in-line systems. A good way to stay versatile is to use the quick change clevises and to carry several colors in both the Indiana and Colorado blades and in sizes 2, 3, and 4. The beads used in rigging these set-ups should also be carried in several colors. Most of the rigging I see if for walleye and generally has only one spinner. Certainly more could be added but the amount of drag created is proportional to the added spinners.
Colorado blades give more "thump" as they rotate and work better when the water is stained or dirty. Colorado blade are easier to get started turning at slow speeds. Personally I'd start out with a Colorado blade of about a size 2, maybe a 3, color based on water conditions. If the trolling speed gets higher than about 1.5 mph I'd switch to the Indiana blade as they spin nicer at higher speeds. Clear water blades in silver is dandy. Gold works in low light and when the water has some color. Your fluorescents have a wide spread of use and work well in many water and light conditions. Something I don't fall prey to is the use of blades with nice little fishy pictures on them or scale patterns....you get the idea, Color and or flash. Period. The fish can't see the decals on those blades even if they do look good to you. In blades, basic is best.
The beads that I mentioned. Go with gold, silver, chartreuse in both opaque and transparent, fluorescent red in transparent and opaque, fluorescent orange in opaque and transparent. 3/16" is a good all-around size to carry.
Tie a GOOD ball bearing swivel to your main line. To it tie on an adequate length of 10 or 12 pound fluorocarbon line to carry the spinner and beads finishing with hook or bait of choice. To stop the sinner from falling all the way back to the hook, simply run the line thru the last bead then up and back thru the bead again. If you use more than one spinner, do this at the end of each run of beads behind each spinner/bead cluster. This also allows you to quickly adjust the distance from the spinner to the bait, something that at times becomes a part of the over-all equation. DO NOT use braid as the rigging line for the spinners. Braid will wear quickly where the clevises run. The fluoro is crystal clear and allows only the beads and spinners to show....very effective.
As a rule, the crappies I find hitting spinner rigs when I am trolling walleyes are larger fish and are aggressive. If crappies are neutral or negative, I wouldn't waste time on trolling as a means to catch them. In states or waters where multiple lines can be used spinners can be run at various depths using various color combinations to search for active fish. While I am a proponent for artificial baits, don't hesitate to run a couple of minnows on spinners. The "Gulp" line of minnow baits in 2-1/2" size is an excellent alternative to live bait while running spinners.
Spinners take some getting used to. Almost always it will come down to trolling speed, or color combinations, or spinner size, or a mix between some or all of these. Make no bones about it though, spinners can catch some ungainly hogs when other styles of fishing are handing you the skunk and those spinners can put some bonus fish in the basket too.
Look up www.JBLures.com on the internet and look thru the selection of blades and beads and clevises found there. They offer a whole new world of everything a spinner guy could want including pre-ties so all that's needed is to snap the rig on the swivel, bait and go.
Thx for the link and all the info. Good read
We're not in mid spawn that's first week April. Thanks for all the info on spinners. I started trolling road runners tipped with minnows red and chart colors no body's. They get expensive so I tried a bar hook tipped with minnow and bam no difference and a lot cheaper. I was thinking walleye spinner tipped with minnow we can run 3 rods with two hooks each rod. Your one line one hook is mind blowing. Why is the reason for the single deal. We used to run 5 each they dropped it to 3 poles last year due to over fishing. I don't see them stoping at 3 because trolling down here is all the talk.
Our wild fish do not grow as fast or reproduce as abundantly as those farther south. In some cases as with crappies they live longer than farther south, but we need to wait that out. We can and have still over harvested the resource far too often. And there are a lot of us who fish here in Minnesota. IMO we are getting larger fish with the restrictions.
Mostly I only fish one rod anyway mostly by casting and release everything anyhow. I have no problem with a single rod and a single hook, but for somethings like catfish and carp I would like to be able to purchase a quarry limited second rod license. I am quite comfortable with a single rod and hook for pretty much everything else. We still average between 4 and 5 crappies an hour day in day out even deep in the Metro with just the single offering apiece, which isn't bad, with size to a maximum of about 14". One offering at a time is normally all that I have attention for anyway. There is definitely a size difference in favor of lakes with more limitations even here in the Metro where fishing pressure is very heavy; so the approach really seems to be working for us.
We are 45 degrees north and it gets very cold up here with relatively short summers which limits our fish stocks. So our government has had to limit our harvest; since not everybody around here is naturally self-limiting, at least not enough so. Single rod and hook rule has been in place here for a long time and it was not enough by itself; so bag limits were decreased and size slots and minimum sizes were added to quite a number of games fish rules. There has been quite an increase in fishing quality since then on a whole lot of Minnesota waters.
Every body and there momma from all over come down here to troll it's going to have an effect for sure our lake had a ton of 11" - 12" crappie these last few years since they changed the size from over 10" to over 12" to keep. Last year they went to 11" over to keep. It was a slaughter. They changed keeping 20 to 15 per day or it would have been bad. Bumping up the size definitely helps. They should have left it at 12" I only caught maybe a dozen last year that were under 12". People down here would have a stroke with a one pole rule.
What type of speed is everyone pulling spinners?
For me dead slow, just fast enough to keep the spinners going. That will mean different motor speeds for with the wind than for against it.Quote:
Originally Posted by bfish
I pull at 1.7 and have had good success.
How far back behind the boat are you guys normally pulling these or prefer too?
You need to play with line size, amount of weight used, boat speed and the depth that the fish are holding to determine how far back or how much line to run out. For crappies the heaviest line I use is 6 pound mono and the largest jig I use is a 1/8th. I can stay fairly deep on a slow troll. With a spinner rig you can weight up and keep things fairly close to the boat. Boat noise and shadow don't seem to bother crappies unless the water is super clear, in which case you'll want the baits well back from the boat.
Thanks didnt figure it would be a hard fast rule for distance am sure it varies with conditions water depth and how deep fish are suspending also. Will be trying this with a kayak in the near future!
BTW when I find an active crappie bite when trolling, I stop trolling and attempt backtracking; so I can hover over the bite spot. Alone I will then vertically jig, setting aside the spinner, if I am using one. More than one in the boat and if we can all jig up fish, the better. Other wise at least one of us will be casting to better pin point the school. For me trolling is to find the fish, then you drop candy bits right in their faces to fill the bag. I cannot think of any better tool to hold position in a hover than having spot lock on your electric.
Troll to find - hover to harvest.
Something else to try. Using a rod with lighter braid as the main line, tie on a foot long length of 4 pound mono using a loop know so that the mono can slide up and down the braid. Tie a very small clip to the mono for lure changes. Tie a simple knot in the end of the braid to stop a dropshot weight. Now clip on a smaller crankbait and clip on a weight heavy enough to keep line bow to a minimum during a slowwwww troll. Watch the locator and adjust your depth according to marks you see.
Crappies will hit cranks pretty aggressively when they are feeding. Locate the fish by trolling as mentioned and then stop and pick them apart with jigs.
Back to spinners for a minute. If one is not very careful to take steps to avoid it, spinners will twist your line into a real mess. Sometimes even swivels are not enough, cheap ones definitely aren't. Using keeled sinkers or drop shot type rigs like CTom mentions for the little plugs are both effective counters to line twist. In states where one can rig more than one hook or lure per line (which is illegal here in Minnesota), dropping a jig and tube or plastic shad as a second rig below the spinner will also work, especially if the spinner is dropped behind its own swivel.