Thread: Advice for Trolling Cranks

Richard,

Im sure you will get several opinions but here is what I do.

Bandit 200 & 300 trolling at 1.6 to 2.0 mph. Line counting reels work best or I just measure out 100 yds. and wrap a rubber band around my line on my spinning reels. I use medium/heavy rods. I ussually run 2 rods off the front and 4 out the back.

I like colors in Pink, blue/silver, one called the "Mistake", Chartruse and Mad Cow. I also often change out the factory hooks to red hooks. Can prove it helps but in my mind it does.

Chart below gives you some idea of the depths.

Super! Those charts are great... very helpful. You said "100 yards." Did you mean 100 feet?

same charts work for Arkie 350,s.......better colors, better wiggler, better bait........lower price too Arkie 350 Series Crankbait

Yes feet.

Richard
Fishing crankbaits are a lot like any other style of crappie fishing...everybody has there on way of doing it that works best for them...and it can change from day to day depending on the mood of the fish. TNfisher gave a great explanation in his post. Things that I might add that may help...
1) Be patient with it and stick with it. you may not load the boat down with fish, but what you catch will be good ones.
2) 1.5-2mph is the standard...but don't be scared to go faster. sometimes faster is all it takes to trigger the bite...most of the time a reaction bite.
3) wiggle the boat while trolling. the stop and start of the crank will trigger the trailing fish to bite.
4) color matters. somedays they que in on a specific color and that is all they want. other days it doesn't matter about color. yesterday on Loudoun, they would only hit one color of bandit for us. I had three of that color and those three rods were the only rods that caught fish all morning. I am changing colors constantly. treat it just like you do pulling jigs in the spring. change colors and styles of cranks often.
5) don't be scared to troll where there is brush or stumps. if you hang, break it off and watch for your crank to float to the surface. 8 out of 10 times it will float up and I will circle around and pick it up.
6) location, location, location. keep looking until the depth finder is showing fish. creek channels, mouths of creeks, main river channel breaks, main river flats, just keep looking and searching until you find em.
7) sharp hooks are a must. without sharp hooks you will get bites and not hook up. or the fish will surface way behind he boat and shake his head one time and out will come the crank. I use gamagatsu and they do well.
8) I mostly use bandits, arkie 350's, wiggle warts, walley marshall crappie cranks, and shad raps....each has it better day...it just depends.
9) smaller line will get you deeper if necessary.
10) line counter reels will keep you at the same depth on every rod.
hope this helps.

Around here we use 2oz weights to keep from having to have so much line out, and drag a fish in over so much distance.

A long handled dip net is good to have, too, since some use rods up to 20ft long for pushing cranks.

Many use line counter reels with braid, then a swivel, the trolling weight, then 5ft of 6lb test mono, a swivel or clip & then the crank. Since you can't "stop" when a crank gets snagged, you just sacrifice the crank to the timber troll and keep on going. Speed is generally ~1.8mph, but sometimes in the turns you may get hits on the outside crank (going faster) or the inside crank (going slower).

I'm not equipped or set up for cranks, so I mostly cast, spider rig, or push jigs ... so all the above info is what I've seen & heard of being done by my crank pushing/pulling buddies.

... cp

Great post.... Mr. Simms is not the only one eager to learn this. Just part of what makes this site great!

All great advice. However, they haven't told you the dark side to cranking. You will need to buy extra tackle boxes for storing all the different colors/types of cranks. It's an obsession but I'm getting better, oh, I like that color, give me 6 please.