# PUSHING CRANKBAITS NEWBE HAS QUESTIONS?



## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

I have always found that summer and fall were the best seasons to catch respectible-sized crappie. For that reason I started to use spider rigs many years ago to avoid going broke feeding minnows just to catch 8 3/4 inch male crappies all day long. I'm now exploring a new evolution in my effort to catch that 15 inch + slab I hope to mount on next to my WALL of SHAME trophys.

The Black crappie is my primary target of choice as the weight of the fillets appear to outyield same-length white crappie. My primary rig of choice is a Capps/Co!eman type outfit with a 3/4 oz egg sinker and two road runners tipped with minnows or twister-tails. I have been reading that post-spawn southern crappie can be caught using small crankbaits that are "pushed" by spider-rig rods mounted on the bow which makes perfect sense to me since my sonar transducer is already mounted on my trolling motor on the front of the boat.

From what I can gather, my next step appears to be to try pushing arkie or small bandit crankbaits in the flats that are 12 to 15 feet deep at .8 to 1.5 mph where I find schools on my sonar.

My questions are: Does time of day matter? I love to sleep-in in the mornings and doe not favor cleaning fish in the dark. Are bright sunny days to be avoided in favor of cloudy ones where the fish are general found in shallow water? During sunny days, are crappie generally found in areas that trees shadows provide shade. Are shad imitation crankbaits favored over bright-colored baits typically used in stained or muddy water?

I like that fact that arkie 220 cranks have built-in rattles for vibration. I gotta believe that 4 arkies banging around off the bow of a boat will attact more crappie than non-rattle baits. How do others feel about that? Also, does the slightly smaller size of the arkie result in more strikes when fish are not aggressive?

For those that have fished for crappie using both "PUSHIN' AND PULLIN" technics, which method do you favor? I gotta believe that I would expect to lose more crankbaits by PULLING but I can tolerate the costs if the number and size of the harvest is increased. PUSHING, on the other, appears to have the advantage of being able to stay on the school a lot easier once active fish are found.

Your comments on these questions will be certainly be appeciated.

Crappie/Eyes


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## ristorap (Mar 6, 2013)

Crankbaits there is the strike king slab hammer crankbaits they are in crappie colors.


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## firemanmike2127 (Mar 17, 2013)

You might try cross posting this in the panfish section for some more replies. You've asked some good questions & I'd also like to see the input from some of the more experienced guys on here. Mike


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## Tastefishy (Jan 5, 2016)

Check out the Crappie Forum at crappie.com.
It is a wonderful site to answer those questions.

tight lines!


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## skywayvett (Jan 13, 2010)

flicker shads work well got


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## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

ristorap said:


> Crankbaits there is the strike king slab hammer crankbaits they are in crappie colors.


Thank you for your comment about the Slab hammers. I have a few and the only difference between the arkie 220 and medium diving slabhammer appears to be the size of the hooks andthe price. The SH cost about $4.79 each with bigger hooks but the arkies cost $2.79 each if ordered from Arkie lures plus shipping . The Snare Shop offers arkie220s for approximately $2.39. Arkie lures has the comp!ete offering but The Snare Shop has a large se!ection. Shipping costs are similar.


ristorap said:


> Crankbaits there is the strike king slab hammer crankbaits they are in crappie colors.


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## rutty (Feb 5, 2007)

Lets try to answer some of these questions for you if I can. I love pushing cranks, but I will first mention I am no pro at doing it. First of all, if you use the Arkie cranks, change out the hooks to a larger size and it will make all the difference in hook up rates. Time of day doesn't matter near as much for this presentation because you are targeting schools of suspended fish. You are going after the reaction bite and not necessarily the feeding bite, so time of day isn't that important. You are also generally fishing deeper so where the crappies are located in the water column usually aren't as affected by the sun as if they were in the shallows. As far as color goes, I generally run the two-tone colors, I use a lot of black/blue, green/chart, pink/chart, orange/chart, etc. Those to me seem to be the best. I also run bandits as well. They are a great crankbait. The arkies float so generally speaking they will run at the same depth you put your weight if you use a 2-3 foot leader. so my opinion is, it is easier for me to target the correct depth if you are pushing versus pulling. Hope this helps.


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## Skippy (Dec 2, 2009)

There's a guy watching a young boy dragging a chain down the street. As the boy walked up to him he asked, son, why are you pulling that chain? The boy answered back, Mr., have you ever tryed pushing a chain? 
Hence I pull my crappie lures mostly using the mini yellow bird planner boards. The above lures all work but don't lock yourself in to them. I have some and do use them but I'm one who's most times trying different things. The small size HJ's will work also. I have and use the old lazy ike's Which at the slow speeds really have a super action and crappies will inhale them. Lindy makes something just like them called a river rocker and those work also. 2, 2 1/2 inch flutter spoons using a lighter snap weight also work well. As a side note, we, me and my wife seem to catch some bigger fish using those lazy ikes and river rockers compared to the smaller crank baits.


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## Crappie/Eyes (Mar 10, 2007)

My first attempt to push crankbaits for crappie was a miserable failure. I'm uncertain if black crappie are receptive to crankbaits. I know that hook size is an issue but feel that more white crappie are caught on crankbaits than blacks because their mouth is larger than the same size black. Went back a few days later to the same spots and found the black crappie more receptive to road runners and minnows but caught very few fish (6).. We were getting hammered but had very few hook ups with the small road runners we were using. Once again, I suspect that hook size was a big factor. It looks lime its time time to go back to size #4 at a minimum and size #2 hooks to increase the hook up rate.


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