# Central Ohio crappie Trolling



## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

GF and I hit the water around 10:45 this morning. I know kinda late but had a late night also. Trolled flickers in 10-15fow. #7’s down 6-8’ on the inside and #5’s down 6-9’ on the outside with little boards. I would say 5’s out produced but the 7’s caught the biggest. Basically running creek channels. Speed was 1.6-1.9mph. With the wind seemed to be more productive for whatever it’s worth. Blue/chrome, HD threadfin shad and table rock jointed were best colors. Everything caught fish but those outperformed everything else. Saw lots of others fishing but few catching from our vantage point.


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Probably threw back 25+ between 9-9 1/2”.


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## Snookhunter52 (Apr 1, 2019)

I noticed this spring it was more difficult finding a school that consistently produced bigger fish than the last couple years. Are you experiencing the same while trolling? From what I have read it seems that Alum has done better than Hoover this year in both quantity and quality


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## M R DUCKS (Feb 20, 2010)




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## jdl447 (May 16, 2018)

What kind of boards are used for crappie? I have some OR 12s but I don’t know how well they would work without the tattle flag.


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Sounds like a fun relaxing day mike! 
I'm hoping to do some fishing under lights for them before it cools off. 
Great way to kill a summer night....


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

jdl447 said:


> What kind of boards are used for crappie? I have some OR 12s but I don’t know how well they would work without the tattle flag.


I mainly use Offshore 038 boards for crappie and saugeye. No need to get complicated with tattle flags or any of that. Only reason I use the boards is for line separation. Plus they are cheap compared to the others. My little boat I can basically run 2 people so really only need 2 boards. The others are ran straight out the back.


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Saugeyefisher said:


> Sounds like a fun relaxing day mike!
> I'm hoping to do some fishing under lights for them before it cools off.
> Great way to kill a summer night....


We used the green lights Saturday night.


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## jdl447 (May 16, 2018)

Morrowtucky Mike said:


> I mainly use Offshore 038 boards for crappie and saugeye. No need to get complicated with tattle flags or any of that. Only reason I use the boards is for line separation. Plus they are cheap compared to the others. My little boat I can basically run 2 people so really only need 2 boards. The others are ran straight out the back.


Thanks, I’ll look into this.


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Snookhunter52 said:


> I noticed this spring it was more difficult finding a school that consistently produced bigger fish than the last couple years. Are you experiencing the same while trolling? From what I have read it seems that Alum has done better than Hoover this year in both quantity and quality


I had no problem finding big fish this spring on any central Ohio lakes I fished . Summer time is a completely different story for me. Hit schools with littles and 13”+ fish. But I’d say my average in summer is around 9 1/2” crappie. Definitely more throwbacks in the summer. I only keep crappie over 10” and this spring was probably 9 keepers to every throwback. Not so much in the summer no matter which lake I fish. Not sure if I answered your question just giving my observations. Fwiw, I caught my best fish this year in early March. Fewer numbers but the best quality crappie.


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Awesome Job Mike - I haven't been out on the boat for a couple months due to my sons baseball but if everything goes right we will be out tomorrow on my new boat.


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Snyd said:


> Awesome Job Mike - I haven't out on the boat for a couple months due to my sons baseball but if everything goes right we will be out tomorrow on my new boat.


I’ve thrown in the towel till the water cools down. Last 3-4 times out haven’t produced much. One of those times was a complete skunk and those days makes me angry lol. You’ll have to post pics of the new boat so I’ll know who’s in my spots this spring!


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Keep at Mike - Those Water Temps have to be coming down now. We was out a week ago but I devoted the morning bass fishing with my son. However, I did catch a real nice 14 inch slab while bass fishing.


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

Mike - I was out over the weekend and flat out hammered the crappie at Alum!


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## Snyd (May 5, 2004)

I was out again this past weekend and hit the slabs pretty good again - Most were on the bottom around 15ft and 75% of then caught were blacks full of shad!


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Planning on hitting the lake Friday evening Snyd. Cold front will probably not help after this warmup but gotta fish when you can. Plastics or minnows if you don’t mind sharing?


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## Morrowtucky Mike (May 2, 2018)

Hit Alum for a couple hours yesterday afternoon. Total bust! Found some good marks in 10-17 fow but couldn’t get them to go. Wind was brutal without spot lock. Only used plastics so maybe minnows mighta been better, idk. Didn’t really give any one area much time. Had 61 on main lake and 62.5 in coves.


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## codger (Aug 16, 2020)

I went to Alum Thursday afternoon and fished til about 9P. I'm still looking for saugeye, so I started out trolling Wally Divers and various shad type crankbaits around the humps and across the mouth of the bay on the east side across from Big Run Bay (north of the Cheshire bridge). I thought about trying a jig and minnow but there was no way to keep the canoe still enough with the wind and waves. I did pick up a nice crappie though, so I decided to hit a cove out of the wind to try and find more. Decided to go to the other side of Africa Rd, where the only thing I've ever caught was little things and got a few more there ( 10 1/2" - 12") on minnows under a float. Also caught maybe half a dozen in the 9-10 inch range which I returned for the future. Surprisingly, nothing under 9". After dark the lake was like a mirror, so I tried trolling around the Cheshire ramp but had no luck there.


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## 614fisher (4 mo ago)

Keep at it Codger you will get into them eventually. In my limited experience I never seem to do well trolling if there is no wind. Also try to make sure your baits are banging bottom every once in a while. If you're not ticking bottom, then you're not trolling for eyes. Fished in mini white caps yesterday from 3pm-9pm spent most my time dragging minnows around caught several nice crappies for the freezer but no eyes. majority of fish seem to be in 18-10 fow water temps between 61-64. Also caught a nice bonus 18" smallie while casting some cranks around flats looking for eyes in the shallows. should be good fishing for the next month go get em!


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## codger (Aug 16, 2020)

No intention of giving up here, not in my DNA. Now that the weather is cooling down and not as many pleasure boaters out, I'm starting to feel safer taking the canoe out onto the center pool at Alum. At least when the wind is below 10MPH, which hasn't been often lately. So, I'll stick to bank fishing for now. This spring I got a flotation/dry suit (actually, an arctic survival suit), so I'll be able to go out on the water later in the year than I have before. I'm holding out hope.


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