Another Saturday Wylie Post. Flatline- Crappie. Thanks All

[CrappieKidd]

Well finally am setup thanks for all your help here. Here is my setup. I have two 14 foot , two 11 foot and two 9 foot poles. I use high vis yellow pro slick braid with a fluorocarbon leader. 1/16th ounce jigs. I took my braid on each pole and marked them with a sharpie at 60 feet, this way the lines are out the same distance each time. First attempt was week ago Saturday and all I caught was 13 cats from 4 pounds to 8 pounds. Ok I said I guess I have the cats figured out.. Friday took my grandson out and again only caught cats.He caught a 11 pounder cat. Not to give up because I want to conquer this flat-line I took out on the lake yesterday. Here is how it went.

Set out in Big Allison did not see much bait but said they have to be here so I trolled for 4 hours and nothing. I never learn I thought lets go back where we saw lots of bait past two times and try again. Maybe the kitties will leave me alone. Got there about 2:00 afternoon. Got setup and noticed bait was down. Tried to catch no luck. 3:30 the bait moved up and I said maybe its playtime. So I moved my speed up to 1.1 MPH to get jigs up in the water and it hit. Boy was I having fun doing something different. Got 13 nice fish up near the surface. one 2 pounder 16 inch long, a bunch of 14 and 13 inch crappie. One small flat area and two points were productive.

I know this is nothing like you pro's on flatlinning but for me I climbed that mountain on the third attempt. I now have a positive experience to work on and improve some more. One more footnote My first three bites I pulled too hard and lost the crappie. I had to ease off that initial urge to wrench into boat. I saw a couple of times the pole did not move much it just looked like it was loading up and not a frantic movement of tip of a fighting fish.

Thanks all again for all those that shared with me this fun art of Flat-line.

[ofishlbizzness]

You Da Man CK. Now you got to teach me that stuff. Way to stay at it and figure out the tricks of the trade. Nice kitty the youngman has. Thanks for the pics.

[sinkermaker]

Nice going CK keep at it and you will get the hang of it. If one place is one working don't be afraid to change location and also keep varying speed, length of cast, and weight of jigs by adding split shot.

[boots]

C K in my world you had some great trips.

[MThook]

Any time you put fish on theta is a good trip! Congrats!

[gabowman]

Good job CK. Persistance pays off sometimes and you proved that. Just remember, if you aint seeing 'em on the graph then just putting out lines dont make 'em come. (Disregard that comment if youre fishing in real shallow water though.) Again....Congrats.

[Inkdabber]

There's a sense of pride and accomplishment when, with a little advice you're able to make it happen. Putting some fish in the boat lets you know your doing something right. It's just a starting point though, for the next two months the troll bite will be good. Stay after them, follow the fish all the way to the shallows and then back out again. Trolling in shallow water is not the same animal as trolling in mid depth ranges. Same goes for deep water, varying speeds, jig weights, added split shots, multiple jig set ups, using jigs under floats all are valuable tools to help you get the job done. Congrats, looking forward to many more good reports in the future.

[BigDawgg]

Congrats. I was thinking it was a little early to try it. I had a guy tell he was casting to the bank with Jig and cork and catching some nice fish. I ask if there were male or female and he said males about a pound. So you may be on to something. I like trolling long lines off the back also. I usually start late end of March on after April then it's night fishing.
You sure had a nice mess of fish. We still need to get up with one another and see if we can put a whooping on them.

[uncle remus]

good job CK == I'm going to try um mon. == gonna try a couple drop shot spots first and if nothing
going on- gonna troll some == thanks for report and pics.

[brettw]

As Darth Vader said to Obiewon, "now I am the master"