Crappie Trolling Rods
 

I have noticed a lot of people having success catching crappies while trolling cranks. So I have decided to get into the trolling game a little bit. How heavy of a trolling rod are you guys using? I am looking at getting a couple 7'-6" M rods so I can use them for walleyes/saugers as well. Will these rods be too stiff for crappies? I don't want to tear the crank right out of their mouths. I would think as long as I am using a mono mainline, there will be plenty of stretch in the line to prevent pulling the cranks out of their mouths. What do you all think?

I do the crappie trolling thing a couple of times a week and use the same rods that we use for our annual Canada fishing trips. 7' medium action will work great - plain old ugly sticks work just fine. We use 8lb Trilene, make a full cast, then let out about 5-6 more rod lengths. Plenty of stretch - never a problem with tearing it out of their mouths. Hot color this week was Diamond Dust.

Tried it on Center Hill this week too and while no crappie, my wife was catching smallies. I got skunked, which is not unusual for me on Center Hill and also why I tend to stick with JPP.

Trolling for crappies I have two 12' rods that I would normally use for spider rigging. I put one on each side of the boat. Behind that is usually a 7' rod turned back 45 degrees, one on each side of the boat. then coming straight out the back of the boat will be two more 7' rods for a total of six rods fishing.
Shallow running (8-10' crankbaits) on the 12' rods, deep runners (15-17' crankbaits on the 45 degree rods and "whatever" on the straight back rods.

It's gets a little crazy when you run through a school of fish and have four rods start jumping at once....or you hook into a 10 lb. hybrid....or big cat. You'll get to cut a bunch of lures off and retie after that mess! But it's FUN!

Any bass crankbait rod will work fine. However as you add more rods, the rod length becomes important to keep tangles to a minimum. I like rods labeled for walleye/steelhead trolling and also dipsey diver. My short rods are 8' and most are 9'. Rather than go with the long (12-16') crappie trolling specific (B&M, Ozark, etc), I use a mast and dual planer boards for the two outer rods on each side.

PS cabelas depthmasters with line counter reels are currently on sale.

Merv's Set up .. <'TK><
 

Those are some good looking slabs, TK!

-Alex

Great looking setup, TK.

Good looking fish too! That LM looked to be 4-5 lbs....is she swimming in your pond now....or was she dinner?

TK, that's a real nice setup you have there...so while trolling, with that many rods out, the lines don't end up getting tangled up?

TK, I like your setup and have been trying to figure out mine.

Here it is as of now:

http://i260.photobucket.com/albums/i...pse00fc8da.jpg

The actual holder is my uncle's creation but have been testing it to see if that is a route to go or something more permanent. At least this can be taken off, left in the back for 2 person trolling or moved to the front for spider rigging/solo trolling. When solo I sit in the center on the cutting board like a seat and put a rod out each side then navigate the trolling motor.

The major draw back is of course the size and fact that its a complete unit. You can pop the rod holders off then lay it in the deck moving a back to the rear deck for fishing but still have to walk around the holder on the floorboard.