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After camping at Piney Bay with few fish caught, I decided to head up to Greers Ferry and try my luck.
Caught these crappies on Bandit 300's.
Caught them on MONDAY, not Sunday. My bad. I get confused what day it is when I'm off work.
I like catchin 'em on crankbaits.
I didn't have any of them aluminum rulers, so I had to improvise. :D
http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...827Resized.jpg
Now that's what I'm talkin about.
http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/o...828resized.jpg
Way to go . Great post with good pictures.:cool:
way to go when is the fish fry
Were you "long-lining" around timber? I did a little of that this past week-end, using only two rods and not necessarily "long-lining." I had them out about 50-60 feet, with little success. I have had no real success with the bandits on Ouachita this summer. I reckon I have to change something up. But more than two rods is a pain for me and fishin' becomes too much work donchaknow.
Caught about 15 on minnows and jigs, biggest 14.5" w/ several 12-12.5s inchers. The water is still too hot on Ouachita to be optimum. I'll be glad when the transition is over and the serious fall frenzy begins.
Great report and super-great photos. <><
aj
AJ, I hope this helps you some.Quote:
Originally Posted by Arkie John
I am still brand new to trolling crankbaits for crappie. This was my 5th day on the water trying this.
I owe a lot to Creekslick and Krappie KG for sharing info and posting pictures, which really motivated me to want to try this method.
I'm still puzzled why I did not have success with crankin on Brewer Lake (1 day) or Big Piney Creek (2 days).
When I started out, I was marking shad EVERYWHERE from 5 feet and down. I first started running 4 Bandits staggered at 9,10,11,12 ft deep. I caught a couple, but it was slow, so I kept trying deeper until I was catching them more consistently. That happened at 14 feet. Then I set them all to run at 14 ft and the fun really began.
When I caught these fish, I had 76 feet of line out, which put the Bandit 300 at about 14 feet. I was trolling in 25 - 40 feet of water between the main creek channel and the bank.
I had my trolling motor set on 2, which is about 1.8 mph.
I was going by this chart, which seems very accurate.
Bandit 300, 200, and 100 depth chart. - Crappie.com
I have put a piece of tape on my rods 2 feet from my reel. I just strip off 2 feet at a time until I have the correct length of line for the depth I want.
I have 4 rod holders. The two longer rods are 12 ft jig poles. I put them in the front holders. One on each side. The two shorter rods are 7 ft bass rods. I put them in the back holders. One on each side. This keeps 5 feet separation and helps prevent tangle-ups. Plus I am covering about a 28 ft swath of water.
All rods have baitcaster reels. Just my preference.
I can catch them trolling in shallower water, but I get hung a lot more.
At 4-5 bucks a pop, I think I will just stay deeper. :eek:
AJ, Hope you are enjoying your retirement, and some part of this helps.
Some nice crappie, thanks for the report and pictures.
Good catch dog. I am glad I was able to help. What part of the lake were you fishing?
Nice catch! Sounds like you've got cranking down. I tried trolling bandits down south on Lake Chicot this past weekend, didn't have near the luck as on Greers but I still think it could be productive there too.
Gotta love those Bandits! Nice fish!
Good job Dog.....I knew if you stayed after them you'd hook-up......Thanks for the report.
Thanks a bunch. I have that chart and will be trollin' a little deeper. It looks like I'm trollin' way too shallow.
I am like you. I just about have to troll in deeeep water I don't like losin' those puppies.
Greers and Ouachita ought to be actin' a lot alike. I figured I just need to find some submerged timber along or close to the channel and I'd do a lot better.
Retirement: Today was the first day. It was strange. But I DID get some things done, like washing the GMC, rigging about ten tandem hook/drop shot rigs w/ 6lb test, and I even managed to get into the tree stand until dark.
Tomorrow the deer will have to wait. I have a crappie itch that needs scratchin' lol. I think I'm gonna like this retirement stuff. I'm 10 miles souht of Ouachita and will be wearing the road out between here and there donchaknow.
aj
Hey AJ....congrats on you retirement!!!
Creekslick,Quote:
Originally Posted by creekslick
I was trying to copy your success, my friend.
I put in at the Hill Creek COE park and fished the Devils Fork of the Lil Red.
Now that I have verified that I actually can catch crappies using this method, I am going to try to find the place closest to home where I can get it to work.
Without going into a bunch of detail as to why, I will say that my biggest problem at first was not fishing deep enough, which was due to not accurately measuring how much line I had out. :confused:
I figured this out while I was at Piney Bay on Dardanelle. So another trip to Brewer is in order to test the method there again.