# Trollin' for opinions



## Sabatino925

Hello everyone! I wanted to start another topic related to panfish, particularly crappie as they start to move from the shallow spawn areas into deeper water. What's your favorite/go to/most commonly used trolling technique (if you troll that is)? 

My go to:

Speed: .7mph
Depth: 10 - 15'
Setup: Dual hook slow trolling setup ( https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/mr-...-rig?hvarAID=shopping_googleproductextensions ) With the caveat that I like to replace the bottom with a road runner / twister tail and put a live minnow on top hook. 

That way I have to replace the live bait a little less, and I seem to get just as many hits on the jighead as the live minnow.


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## ristorap

I have caught crappie on crank baits from 1 1/2" - 3" long trolling for saugeye. Depth 5 ft- 15 ft

Strike king and Bandit makes crank baits for crappie and in crappie colors.


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## RMK

glad you brought this topic up. i dont have many tips for you but will look forward to seeing others responses. i mainly fish a shallow lake and the crappie seem to disappear post spawn. i m set up to spider rig but haven't had any luck at it with my limited attempts here at home. it worked in kentucky in the spring. i considered giving long lining a try in the upcoming month. i cant seem to get a definite length of line out/jig weight/ speed from anything i ve read. i m also set up to, and would be interested in, pulling some cranks but haven't tried that yet either.


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## crappiedude

I'm no expert here but I will share some insight as to what I learned over the last 40+ years of chasing crappie year round.
This is a great time of year to fish for crappie. We typically get some of our better batches of fish post spawn. One thing about this time of year is once you find the fish they will now hold there over the next few months.
Catching fish this time of year is more about finding the fish than anything else. Once you find the fish catching them is fairly easy. Depending on the location of the fish some methods will work better than others at catching them.
One thing for certain this time of year is the bulk of the crappie have moved off their shallow spawning grounds and have pulled out into deeper water.
"Deeper water" is a relative term. Deeper could mean 7' in one lake, 12' in another lake or 25' in a different lake. Finding cover in that deeper water is a big, big bonus as the cover will give the fish something to hold too. A few stumps or a downed tree that sank off shore would be good choices to look for. That cover is like a magnet in holding summer fish.
Not every fish in a lake will react the same as every other fish in that lake. Some fish will head to cover, some crappie will head to open water and bottom contour changes (points, road beds, humps ect.)and yet others will roam open water. Depending on the fish, the depth and their location it will dictate as to the best method to catch them. I've fished a variety of waters from Alabama to Ohio and the fish all react to some or all of these conditions.
You really don't need a bunch of fancy anything to catch crappie but I would invest in some decent electronics and LEARN HOW TO USE THEM. By decent I don't mean the most expensive but something of decent quality with GPS. Pick any brand you want but make sure it has GPS and learn how to use it. Back in the day I used to have a little hand held GPS and a flasher and we did just fine.
Oops, got to get the boat hooked up...going fishing.
To be continued.


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## ristorap

Trolling vibes catch crappie to.


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## crappiedude

We had a good time yesterday morning. I don't keep exact counts but we caught maybe 60 fish with 15 of those between 10"-12.5".

Our favorite summertime method of fishing for crappie is casting & swimming jigs. Depth will dictate jig size and we'll try a variety of jig bodies until we find something that works. More often than not we'll find that they will hit a variety of baits styles and colors.
Our favorite jig size used to be a 1/16 oz and we used to "count them down" as we'd get into deeper water. We would generally try to work the jigs several feet off the bottom. Using a seven or eight count in 10-12 fow was pretty standard and served us well. I think now a 3/32 oz jig is quickly taking the lead and we've been playing some with the 1/8 oz heads. We like the faster fall rate in deeper water. We almost always prefer jigs with a #2 sickle hook. Also the heavier heads are helping us maintain our bait depth on the retrieve.
For plastics we normally use a variety of tubes and shad bodies but will also use twister tails.

Now I mentioned our favorite method to catch fish and I think it works well for us if used to target specific cover or specific schools of fish. I also want to mention Chaunc has perfected his own method of fishing specific underwater cover he calls "hand gliding" which you can see in action on Brushpile Fishing on one of their videos. Looks like a great method.

In open water though with scattered fish, trolling may be a better approach.
With trolling you have several options...
*Tight-lining also know as spider rigging, normally using a double bait or double minnow rig with a heavy weight holding the baits down and the line nearly vertical.
*Long-lining is basically trolling jigs out the back of the boat. Done right it can be very effective in covering a lot of water and a variety of depths and can put a lot of fish in the boat. (speed .8-1.5)
*Crank bait trolling is similar to long-lining but since you can move faster with hard baits you can cover water quicker. (speed 1.5-2.5)


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## RMK

great info as always c-dude! thanks for sharing your knowledge


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## RMK

ristorap said:


> I have caught crappie on crank baits from 1 1/2" - 3" long trolling for saugeye. Depth 5 ft- 15 ft
> 
> Strike king and Bandit makes crank baits for crappie and in crappie colors.


dont forget about arkies!


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## ristorap

The strike king are smaller and run shallower. The bandits are bigger and run deeper.
Strike king crappie mini 3 - 1 3/4" 3/16 oz dives 4-6 ft
Bandit crappie 300 - 2" 3/8 oz dives 8-12 ft trolls 18 ft

I am not sure how deep the crappie mini 3 would dive trolling. I also don't know any thing on the arkies.


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## RMK

heres some dive charts for the arkie cranks


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## Sabatino925

So I've been wondering about this, how do you guys track how much line you let out? I know there are line counters out there, but is that excessive for crappie fishing? Or do you just 'eyeball' it?


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## RMK

i would love to have the small okuma line counters on all of my trolling rods (spider rigging, long lining, and pulling cranks). but money hasnt aloud for that yet. i ve done a couple different things to guess my length of line out-
1-i put a piece of masking tape on my poles 2 feet out from the reel. i pull line off from the reel to that 2 foot mark counting how many times and measuring line that way.
2- more for spider rigging but hold your pole straight up in the air- sinker hangs down to rod handle on a 14 foot rod the sinker will be roughly 13 feet deep when pushing with your rod tips 1 foot above the water. sinker 2 feet from the rod handle on 14 foot rod=12 feet= sinker at 11 feet deep when trolling with your rod tip 1 foot above the water.
3- possibly the least acuratue, but for long lining, open your bail and put your jig in the water. each time you raise your rod tip from the water to the 10'oclock position you are letting roughly 10 feet of line out. bail open, jig in water, raise rod tip, lower down, raise rod tip, lower down, raise rod tip, lower down, raise rod tip lower down=40 feet of line out.


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## crappiedude

Sabatino925 said:


> how do you guys track how much line you let out?


stay tuned...more to follow later


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## ristorap

Sabatino925 said:


> So I've been wondering about this, how do you guys track how much line you let out? I know there are line counters out there, but is that excessive for crappie fishing? Or do you just 'eyeball' it?



I use the clamp on line counter it will clamp on any rod. I have the rapala line counters they have a battery so you can use the light inside of them for use in the dark. I like these so I can take them off and use the rod for something else not just trolling.


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## crappiedude

Sabatino925 said:


> how do you guys track how much line you let out?


Sorry it got a little long.
Many years ago there used to be a guide from Wiess Lake who would post on the internet about long line trolling. This guide and his postings is where I learned how to troll jigs. He had to develop a system that was fairly simple to teach his clients and could keep them on fish. Since this system was developed before anyone used GPS on their boats people would use "speed indicators" attached to their boats. Without going into all that we now have GPS to track our speeds and make life simpler. Back then I was too broke to buy much of anything with my wife and 2 kids all in college at the same time but my 30# 5 speed TM worked out so that's what I used, going from 1 speed to the next as more or less speed was needed. I didn't buy anything new, I just used what I had.

Hopefully I can explain this without messing it up too bad. It's a simple method but it works.
So on to the set up, everything is about consistency.
Let's say we are using a 6' rod with whatever your favorite reel is. For this to work all your rods and reels should be the same. All the rods should be spooled the same with the same 6# test line. Now we'll start with a 1/16 oz jig head.
With the boat moving at let's say 1 mph make a long cast out the back of the boat and point your rod back to where the jig hit the water (bail open). When your slack starts to tighten lift your rod to pull out some more line. If needed repeat, repeat...
Since all your rods are the same length, all your reels are the same, your line and your jig size is the same then the distance behind you cast behind the boat will be the same. With all the rods the same length each "pull" you give will be the same.

Now here's where your work comes in.
Let's say we're fishing a flat in 10 fow, we're fishing 4 rods and the boat is moving 1 mph. Use a variety of colors of baits on all the rods.
Rod#1 we make a cast and we give it 1 pull. Close bail, put in rod holder.
Rod #2 we make a cast and we give it 2 pulls.
Rod #3 we'll give it 3 pulls.
Rod #4 we're not giving it any pulls, in fact we're going to take in 1 crank of line.
At 1st it's good to keep a few notes but remember it's fishing and not a job so let's keep it fun.
In pretty quick order you'll get the hang of this and you won't pay any attention to the notes anyway.
Now as we're moving along let's say rod#3 is dragging bottom. Now we know either 3 pulls of line is too much or our speed is to slow. At the same time we get a hit on rod#1 so now we know the speed is good. Bring in rod#3 and recast giving it 1 pull of line.
In essence this is a basic long lining set-up. Making slight adjustment to the amount of pulls or the speed is all that's needed to fine tune your presentation to the depth your lures are tracking. Now is 1 color out producing?
Using a basic set up of a 1/16 oz jig, a long cast and 2 pulls of line at what depth does your lures run? Play with varying speeds in 6', 8', 10' ect until you jigs start making bottom contact then make a note. For shallow water fish do the same with a 1/32 oz jig. Once you play with jig size and number of pulls you will pretty quickly be able to target the fish you see on your electronics.
I used to long line all the time and we caught tons of fish doing this. Of course the more we did it, the more we refined our methods.
The basic set up was a 1/16 oz jig but we'd make adjustments if needed. Let's say we're fishing 4 rods and we're working a steep bank. We're trying to work the boat along the depth of the shore at 10 fow. On the inside rod (closest to shore) we'd use 1/32 oz jig, the middle 2 rods would be 1/16 oz and the outside rod (over the deepest water) may have both a 1/16 & 1/32 oz jigs try to work that a little deeper.
IMO I really didn't care if my line was exactly 48' or 63' behind the boat, I knew I was catching fish and having fun.

If you're tight lining or spider rigging using a simple "bobber stop" at the water line is a good way mark or track your depth.


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## Investigator Bass

First post here! Me and my fiance spent the evening trolling last night for crappie. Got my personal best at 11 1/4 in. We ended the night with 17 total keepers. She was skeptical of the trolling method at first, but later said she just had never fished that way before. Now she is hooked!

We found the hot spot and every time we moved through that specific area the bite was on instantly. I'm taking crappiedudes advice and will spend some more time right in there. Thanks for all the tips you guys give us newbs, ive learned alot about fishing from this site!


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## RMK

Investigator Bass said:


> First post here! Me and my fiance spent the evening trolling last night for crappie. Got my personal best at 11 1/4 in. We ended the night with 17 total keepers. She was skeptical of the trolling method at first, but later said she just had never fished that way before. Now she is hooked!
> 
> We found the hot spot and every time we moved through that specific area the bite was on instantly. I'm taking crappiedudes advice and will spend some more time right in there. Thanks for all the tips you guys give us newbs, ive learned alot about fishing from this site!


good job!
long lining? spider rigging? depth of bait? depth of water? how fast? jigs? color?


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## crappiedude

Investigator Bass said:


> First post here!


Welcome to the site.


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## Investigator Bass

Long lining a jig with yellow grub. About 7 ft deep. My trolling motor was set on 1. Went back to the same area hooked 4 in about a 50 ft. run. It was awesome till a storm blew in on us


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## Sabatino925

Bumping this to the top as we're well into summer crappie time, I forgot how much good info crappiedude shared and want to make sure it gets eyeballs!

BTW: Anyone change their approach? On the pontoon I switch to only tight lining minnows at alum and seneca and I just picked up a pedal kayak for those days I can't find anyone to fish with, and long line roadrunners/curly tails/crappie nibbles off of that sucker at hoover.


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## crappiedude

No changes to my approach but even though I can troll for crappie and have some great areas that it works well on, my go to method is to cast to the fish using jigs tipped with minnows. While casting with one rod we're apt to use a 2nd rod to tightline baits vertically off the side of the boat. The last few trips out we opted to not buy minnows and we just used jig bodies tipped with nibbles. I think we've caught darn near as many fish tight lining jigs as we used to catch using minnows, it was just less hassle. Not listening to an aerator run was a bonus. Bring lots of nibbles cause if they're hitting well you can really blow though them. I think we used a whole jar last night in 4 hours of fishing.
We do fish jigs without nibbles and we still will catch fish but it seems the amount of fish we catch drops off without the nibbles. We also noticed that if we are fishing without nibbles and we're getting lots of hits but not many hooked fish, adding nibbles seems to up our hooked fish percentage.
I've also been fishing from my kayak some this year. The kayak isn't anything special and I keep things really simple, 1 light action rod a small pack with a handful of various weigh jig heads (1/32, 1/16 and 3/32 oz) and 3 or 4 packs of various jigs bodies. My approach is to look for any surface activity in open water and fan cast jigs through the area. I generally will find some fish feeding out in open water following shad schools. If that fail I switch to weedless jigs and fish any cover we come across. I've found it to be a very relaxing way to fish and we catch enough fish to keep us interested.
Summer time is a fun time to crappie fishing if you can stand the heat.


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