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The black crappie at Western Branch are just not interested in my cool selection of crank baits so I thought I'd take a trip to Kerr to see if the white crappie there would be more receptive. I will be in my 14' jon boat with my massive 9.9hp outboard and was curious as to where would be the best place to pull cranks given the boat I will be in. Can anyone recommend an area I can safely troll?
Buffalo Creek or Sandy Creek.
Buffalo is a little larger and you can fish in the upper part of the main lake easily. You should be be fine there in your boat.
Sandy is a little closer to home.
Not sure what's happening there this time of year though. Maybe Fishdoc or Dave will chime in on where the action is.
Tap, I suggest Rudds creek, also Butchers. You should have boat
control in these creeks and your chances are @ least average of
catching something.
I just got back from Kerr. My wife and I had our 20th anniversary this week and went to Kerr to get away from the kids this weekend and reflect on how things were before children. We golfed at Kinderton on Friday and did some boating Saturday and Sunday. The back nine at Kinderton does not appeal to me much at all.
Saturday, we trolled crank baits out in the main lake between Buffalo and the bridges. We caught several small cat fish, white perch, white bass, bass, and something that broke off my road runner I had on a three way above the crank bait. The largest bass was 3 pounds 14 ounces and was caught on the hump between the two channels. We stopped by the big brush pile in Grassy and got many hits casting jigs, but were not able to get any fish to the boat.
Sunday, we went to Powerline and I found the brush pile as well as a beaver hut there. We did not stay long since there were other creeks in the area to explore. While we were there, we caught a white perch and a 3 pound bass off the brush pile tight lining jigs.
I would add Bluestone to the list of places you can take your boat and troll crank baits. I was crossing over a point near the bridge when I got the fish that broke my line and got several small cats and perch as well.
You will also be fine out on the main lake when the wind is not blowing a gale.
wrong time of the year,if you are going to pull cranks you need to do that in the spring in buffalo and the river.
I'm a total novice when it comes to crank baits. Watching two episodes of Midwest Crappie and one book on pulling cranks for crappie is what I'm going on. I'm guessing your response is based on experience, would you mind sharing your thoughts on pulling cranks and when and why's the best time?Quote:
Originally Posted by dave
trolling cranks in the spring for slabs is awesome,thats when you catch nothing but big white`s mainly in the spawn 5 to 12 ft deep using white and pink mainly,stump feilds and sandy areas are what we look for.this time of the year the crappie are in deeper water and not as active on points and in the middle of the lake,you are more likely to catch catfish and bass 95 percent of the time,you may get lucky and catch one here and there,but you are better off to use bucktails and curlytails arround brush and bridges.just my to cents.
Very interesting. Good thread.
let me give alittle more info,the first thing you need to do is check out the creek you are going to pull in,make sure you know where the stumps are and the channel of the creek is,look for brush, long points and rockpiles,then go to the mouth of the creek and work your way to the back going down one side then back up the other,then do a s troll from side to side from the front to the back and up again,then down the middle and back up,so in 6 runs you have covered the hole creek.now the best way that i have found to troll cranks is 6 poles,the ones to the bank would be 3ft 6ft 8ft and the ones out side 10ft 12ft and 16ft depending on the lay of the creek.i use strike king pro series,some people like the bandit 200 and 300 series.you just have to go out and try it for your self so you can get the hang of it,just remeber the line size and speed control the depth of your lure and also how far you have it out of the boat.
Great info, thanks for the reply. I'll wait for the spring, I won't have to worry about waverunners and water skiers then. So Keith (Panman) has me wanting to spider rig in the winter out there, now I'm looking forward to pulling cranks in the spring, should be fun.
been trollin cranks (spoonplugs) on 3 way rig with a roostertail spinners for whitebass bout 25 yrs at buggs. we catch whitebass, channel, flathead an blue cats, whiteperch, stripers, an LMB...very few crappie. we troll main lake points, channels an humps in the summer season. we use the outboard @ 2.2 to 2.8MPH(GPS). prolly catch more crappie usin troll motor @ 1.5 to 2MPH. caught all the above on several trips to buggs in recent wks. hope this helps ya.
Great posting guys. Lots of good information. That's what this site is all about. Thanks for sharing.
Never drug crank baits for crappie. Will try it next spring. . Just got to remember it for six months.
in the winter we use canepoles 16ft long to catch crappie with a marbou jig red/blk/chart and only one pole,our crappie usually run arround 2 to 2.6 lbs the pictures are at the bait shop.