Redemption on Guntersville

After the last couple of frustrating trips to G'ville, having only caught a few crappie here and there, I finally caved and got rigged up for pulling crankbaits in deeper water. For whatever reason, I had always poo-poo'd this method, but it struck me this year as the thing I needed to be doing to keep fishing, because I wasn't done fishing after the pre/post spawn this year. Anyhoo, I hit the G this morning and within 3 minutes of getting a crankbait in the water I had a fish on. Turns out it was the smallest crappie I have caught all year, so I was less than enthused. It only got better form there, though. Although, the next couple of hours only produced a couple more random crappie, I did catch a huge blue cat, 2 average channel cats, about 5 bass, countless yellow bass and one huge filthy disgusting drum. I trolled for miles and had several pre-planned areas I wanted to fish whether I was catching fish or not, just to qualify them as areas that were worthwhile or not. I finally moved to an area in 16-21 ft of water and lit up the poles with about 16 crappie in an hour. Not bad, considering I had a LOT of tangles and otherwise wasted time for one reason or another. Nevertheless, it is different fishing, but produced a lot of fish among 8 different species today. Had I hit the hot spot earlier I'm confident I would have doubled my catch of crappie. In any case, I was throwing them back all day; I knew it would be storming this afternoon and I didn't want to clean fish in it. Best colors were Sun Perch and Mad Cow in the 300 Bandit. I guess I may stick with pulling crankbaits in the summer now, in spite of all the birds nest's I had today. Sorry, no pics because I was throwing everything back. Other than the first crappie, the rest were all 12"+ white crappie.

Sounds like you had a fun day, i have never tried pulling cranks but it sounds like I need to try it.

You will buy line counter reels next. Good job on the crappie, cranking is a lot of fun.

Sounds like fun, why so many messes? Fish causing the line tangles?

Were you using 10 lb test? Using hi vis or clear? I need to get on this as well. I've done a little of it, but not much. Seems like the white crappie are the ones that go for this. Have not heard of anyone loading up on the blacks doing this. Scott seems to do this real well too. Did you fish out of the front or back of your boat? Sorry, but I have a lot of questions about this technique. Did you use any line counting reels? Cabelas has them on sale right now for $39.99 I have a few and they are very nice. Do you have a certain type of rod holder or rod cup you prefer?

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Originally Posted by usafret99

Sounds like fun, why so many messes? Fish causing the line tangles?

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Bird's nests were my fault. I used my old bass fishing baitcasting reels, which I haven't used in years, plus you can get a serious amount of whip when casting with a 12' rod vs an 8' rod, so it took several iterations to get the settings dialed in for each rod. Then, it's pretty much a given a catfish or drum will tangle up every line in the water before getting back to the boat. The 5 additional hooks on a crankbait vs a jig doesn't help either.

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Originally Posted by Bob D

Were you using 10 lb test? Using hi vis or clear? I need to get on this as well. I've done a little of it, but not much. Seems like the white crappie are the ones that go for this. Have not heard of anyone loading up on the blacks doing this. Scott seems to do this real well too. Did you fish out of the front or back of your boat? Sorry, but I have a lot of questions about this technique. Did you use any line counting reels? Cabelas has them on sale right now for $39.99 I have a few and they are very nice. Do you have a certain type of rod holder or rod cup you prefer?

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Stren 12lb Hi-vis. I have Hi-Tek Extreme rod holders mounted at the very rear of the front deck of the boat, so I'm fishing off the side with 12', 10' and 8' B'n'M Pro Staff trolling rods. I have the 12' rod straight out and angle the 10' and 8' back so there's about 4'-5' spacing between each line. No line-counting reels yet. That will probably be next if I decide I need them. I was between 1.7 - 2.0 trolling speed throughout the day. Make sure your drag is set right too! A 10-lb blue cat will hit a 2.0 mph crankbait like a freight train..... and 12lb Stren has a good amount of stretch to it, but it still pulled the rod holder around and nearly broke the rod.

great advice thanks!

How did your batteries hold out? I have a couple of 29 series Interstate that are only a year old that are running out of juice after about 3-4 hours. I too try to pull at 1.7-2.0 mph. I've got a 20 foot tin boat so the weight shouldn't be that big of factor.

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Originally Posted by Bridgeholder1

How did your batteries hold out? I have a couple of 29 series Interstate that are only a year old that are running out of juice after about 3-4 hours. I too try to pull at 1.7-2.0 mph. I've got a 20 foot tin boat so the weight shouldn't be that big of factor.

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I have the exact same Interstate Batteries, and had no problems running those speeds for 8 hrs with my Terrova trolling motor. I'm pulling a Bass Tracker 175 Pro.

What kind of charger do you have? I did have a battery problem back in March, but found out my Minn-Kota 315-D battery charger had gone bad. One replaced battery and one warranty replaced charger later and I have been going strong ever since.

Thanks for the reply. I have an old Schumacher charger. The charger tends to get quite hot charging. I have the 29's as an extra set and charger them one at a time with the old charger. I may have to invest in another dual charger. I have a set of 27 series Interstate(in the back of the boat) that started the same thing and eventually got to only one hour of operation when pulling cranks. That is when my buddy and I invested in the second set of 29's. I had the 27's tested completely drained, fully charged and at different stores...all said the batteries were ok. When the 29's were new we would get 8 hours longlining jigs at around 0.8 mph.

http://northwoodsoutlet.net/store/in...roduct_id=1920 These are good reels and cheap.

I got lazy with a similar crankbait today on G and hooked one on the top set of hooks. Blasted fish went nuts and put one of the bottom set of hooks in my ring finger. It shook again and in went the barb. Then, it just laid there silent. I knew it was going to shake again and we just stared at one another. It did and I grabbed it with my free hand and somehow got it off. Then I took the needle nose pliers to my hand as the crappie happily watched. Yeah, he took one for the team, but he finally got the one culling his herd in the process. I opted for the extraction the way it went in. I clamped the pliers onto the hook next to my finger and blasted it out. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but still hurt like the dickens. Okay, it actually was a bad as I thought it would be, it just came out fast because I wasn't messing around, I went for the gold.

I wrapped it with some of my emergency toilet paper and went on about my business. After it stopped bleeding I poured some ice water on it and toughed it out. Later caught my biggest fish of the season. So, I had that going for me, which was nice. Also have a purple finger going for me now, too. So, to recap, crappie on the top hooks, finger on the bottom hooks, and the fish shaking around equals some of the best torture you'll ever endure. I've never been waterboarded, but I wonder how this compares?

I guess the point (pun intented) to this missive is be careful with those cranks and don't get lazy like I did today.

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Originally Posted by Bob D

Seems like the white crappie are the ones that go for this. Have not heard of anyone loading up on the blacks doing this. Scott seems to do this real well too.

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Oh you can catch specks as well. There are a few different things to do to catch the specks, alot of time the area has something to do with it along with bait colors... We catch our fair share of blacks but the whites are easier to catch.