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How, When & Where to Pull Crankbaits for Crappie

Learn the techniques of four crankbait trolling experts and increase your summer crappie fishing success.

“And the Bandits Stroll Away” might sound like a country song title. Instead, it’s what Arkansas crappie guide Payton Usrey tells boat guests when the final trolling lure is in the water and it’s time for fish-catching action.

Bandits are a brand of shad-shaped crankbaits, popular with Usrey and scores of avid crappie anglers who enjoy summer trolling for the species. They rattle and have a wide wobble when retrieved.

Strolling, in fishing talk, refers to various slow-trolling techniques in which a boat’s electric trolling motor is used to move the watercraft along in a deliberate, controlled manner for presenting lures.  

You’ll also hear “pushing” or “pulling” used to describe more specific crappie strolling applications, including the use of crankbaits. For pushing, rods are positioned forward at the boat’s front, and a weighted line is used to manage baits pretty much straight down. Pulling is when rods are either at the front or rear of the boat with baits being “pulled” behind.

The concept of intentionally catching crappie by trolling crankbaits nearly 4 inches in overall length is mind blowing to most crappie enthusiasts, who traditionally rely on minnows or jigs, but Mississippi’s Brad Chappell encourages anyone targeting crappie in water temperatures of 80 degrees or higher to give the technique a try.

“It’s a fun and easy way for anglers of all ages and skills to catch crappie; plus allows you to keep some air moving on the otherwise hot and muggy still days of summer. My clients appreciate the catching and the comfort. It’s also a great way to learn a new body of water or explore different parts of a lake or river. I’m always finding new structure while trolling and marking the spots for visiting again,” Chappell said.

Four accomplished crankbait trollers – Chappell, Usrey, Usrey’s fellow Beaver Lake guide friend Greg Robinson, and North Carolina’s Stokes McClellan – share their crankbait trolling knowledge in the information that follows to give you a head start to success.

Trolling Set-Ups

crappie trolling spreadcrappie trolling spread

Payton Usrey’s eight-rod spread consists of BnM Pro Staff Trolling and Pow-R-Troller rods positioned at the front of the boat. On each side is a Millennium Spyder Lok rod holder with four rods in mirrored sequence in the two sets. First and angling forward is an 18-footer for pushing. It is rigged with a 3-ounce trolling weight, 3-foot leader and Bandit. Next to the pushing rod, in descending order by length, are his three pulling rods: 16-, 14- and 8-footers.  

Usrey uses Shakespeare ATS conventional trolling reels with line counters. He spools with Vicious 10-pound test clear monofilament line.

Usrey owns almost every color offered in the Bandit 300 Series, but his preference skews toward the brighter hues, shad imitators and sunfish patterns. The lures are connected to the line using a quick snap.

Brad Chappell’s trolling spread also consists of eight rods, which he points out is an identical set to what he uses for long line trolling. His rods are held at the rear of the boat in two Driftmaster Pro Series rod holders, four rods per side.

Chappell uses Denali trolling rods in matching pairs: 9, 12, 15 and 18 feet. His rod sequence progresses sequentially from shortest to longest, with the shortest being in the first holder to pull directly behind the boat.

He uses line counter reels spooled with Power Pro braid 15-pound test, often alternating line colors – Hi-Vis Yellow, Green Moss and White – among the four rods in each set to visually aid in keeping track of his lines (also beneficial when separating tangled lines).

Chappell uses straight braid, with no leader “because I want braid’s strength from reel to lure, plus I think it gets my baits to depth faster with less line out,” he said. He ties the line directly to a small ball-bearing snap swivel, which then connects the crankbait. He starts the day with a different color Bandit on each rod.  

Greg Robinson uses BnN trolling rods and puts them up front in a similar layout to that of fellow Beaver Lake guide Usrey, having the shortest rods closest to the boat and progressively going up to the longest ones on the outside position. “With my clients up front, I can keep an eye on everything: them, bird or bait activity, and where I’m headed and so on,” Robinson said. He uses Vicious 10-pound test monofilament in Hi-Vis Yellow.

Robinson has a longtime preference for Bandit 300 Series crankbaits, owning quite the collection of the model.

“This is something I’ve been doing on Beaver Lake for a long time, and I have a long history of success with Bandits. I do have a bunch of them, in lots of colors, including some that have been long discontinued. But I also have the newest colors. Colors do matter!” Robinson said.

Robinson’s Secret Revealed

crappie trolling trailer rigcrappie trolling trailer rig

Robinson has perfected the use of a soft-plastic trailer rig tied behind his Bandits. It’s a highly effective tactic he’s held pretty close to the vest but has shared with Usrey. To rig it, he attaches a 12- to 18-inch 6- or 8-pound mono leader to the rear hook hanger on his Bandit. To the leader he ties a Crappie Pro Overbite Sickle 1/32-ounce jighead or a Bobby Garland 1/48- or 1/64-ounce Itty Bit jighead.

As for the baits, Robinson’s favorites are the Bobby Garland 1.5-inch Crappie Shooter, 2-inch Slab Slay’R, and, most recently, any of the 1.25-inch Itty Bit Series baits. The newest, the Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R has quickly become a real favorite.

Robinson hit upon the tandem rig discovery about 10 years ago while trying to learn the long-lining technique of trolling jigs for crappie. He said he was struggling with consistency in controlling depth through jighead weight and trolling-speed combinations. His solution was tying a jig behind a Bandit because he knew the crankbait’s running depths well. It was an “Ah-ha” moment for the angler.

“The trailer rig proved its effectiveness early on, and I readily caught crappie on either the crankbait or the jig, and sometimes on both,” Robinson explained. “The beauty is that you have two totally different lures being presented at the same time in perfect harmony. On some days, the catches come equally between the crankbait and the soft plastic. On other days, one or the other will prevail. The fact a crappie’s preference can change so dramatically from one day to the next is proof as to just how much a crappie’s feeding mood really varies.

During a late-July guide trip, 30 of 32 catches came on the Itty Bit Slab Hunt’R. “I think a lot of times the Bandit gets their attention, but the smaller jig is a better “match to the hatch” of summer forage, and they key on it. We had a big mayfly hatch going on and the Itty Bit matched the size. Having two differing baits to offer at the same time is a good thing.”

Usrey also has benefitted from the soft-plastic trailer rig concept. “It’s a deadly tandem rig for summer fishing. You’re going to catch something. In Beaver, it’s most likely going to be crappie, walleye and catfish, all of which mean a fun day of fishing,” he said.

Usrey has also found success with the Bobby Garland Itty Bit series rigged as a trailer, but also relies on the Crappie Shooter jig. “The Crappie Shooter looks and moves just like a flitting shad, and you gotta love that,” he said.

Usrey likes the transparent colors for usually clear water at Beaver Lake, including Monkey Milk, Purple Monkey, Mo’ Glo Green Lantern.

McClellan’s Twist on Trolling

Stokes McClellan puts out eight rods at the back in a similar manner to Chappell’s spread, going with 9-, 12-, 14- and 16-foot BnM rods one each side. Where his philosophy differs is that he doesn’t use a line counter reel, and he spools all reels with 6-pound test monofilament.

“When our water temps hit the mid-80s, I’m pulling crankbaits in open water, so I’m not worried much about hanging up and therefore go with a lighter line than most trollers do,” McClellan explained. “I think by doing so I can get a Bandit 300 down another 2- to 3-feet deep, hitting 18-foot depths and more, and that can be a critical difference when I’m following channel ledges 25 to 45 feet deep.”

McClellan uses an assortment of diving crankbaits for trolling, but especially likes Bandits because of the great color options to choose from; he opts mostly for pink or orange variations.

Along with Bandit 300s, McClellan will use the shallower-running Bandit 100 and Bandit 200 when he’s finding success at depths of 8-feet and less. Regardless of model, he always uses a ball-bearing snap swivel with his crankbaits.

“Part of the reason is for convenience when changing lure color or size, but I do it mostly because we catch lots of catfish while trolling for crappie and the swivel helps prevent line twist during all the spinning they do when hooked,” he said.

Speaking of twists, McClellan has one more. He often removes the front treble hook from his crankbaits and replaces the rear hook with a larger treble. “It’s just what I do since most fish come on the rear hook anyway. It works for me.” 

Finding & Targeting Crappie

crappie catchcrappie catch

Usrey keys on usual summer crappie holding areas in main lake and river sections on Beaver Lake. Productive areas include deep-water flats, bluff lines with pole timber and deep-channel swings, all in depths of 15 to 30 feet. He typically finds fish scattered and positioned near the bottom. While he does pay attention to shad activity, he’s found that in summer crappie feed a lot on sunfish, too, so he doesn’t consider it critical to be around shad.

On his front rods, Usrey lets out about 20-feet of line to push crankbaits at around 16-feet. On back rods, going from the shortest out, line payouts are 35, 45 and 55 feet on one side, and 50, 55 and 65 on the other side. That arrangement spreads baits from 12 to 20 feet deep.

“With my boat being the centerline, I’m fishing a different water column on each side of the boat, so I treat my two rod spreads accordingly.” Usrey explained. “I pay attention to what rods and depths are producing best and adjust my lines out accordingly.”

For Brad Chappell and the Mississippi lakes he guides on most – Ross Barnett and Washington – it’s all about locating tight balls of shad. “I depend highly on finding baitfish to be successful, but best success comes when shad are in tight groups. If I’m seeing clouds and clouds of shad, or loosely formed bait balls, I’ll just keep looking because those situations are less than ideal and not as productive for me.”

He generally lets out between 45 and 55 feet of line to achieve Bandit 300 running depths of 9 to 12 feet on his braid. “I’ve found that to be the most productive depth range for our fish and waters. For me, best speeds are in the 1.5 to 1.8 MPH range, and I take great pride in the fine-tuning of colors to determine which shades the fish like best on a given day.”

Chappell said he likes to use Bandits in multi-color combinations to start with and then dial in even tighter on a real preference. As a result, he’ll ultimately end up with one or two colors that out produce all others.

McClellan also targets tight balls of shad for his trolling areas, but he prefers stretches with depths hitting 40 feet or so. For him, it translates into keying on main lake areas and deeper creeks.

“I prefer the white crappie prominent lakes best for my crankbait trolling because they seem to be more aggressive at hitting these baits. I’ve had good success with the approach on our North Carolina lakes like Jordan, Wiley, High Rock and Norman and South Carolina’s Wateree.”

But McClellan says he’s caught plenty of black crappie on crankbaits, too. “And catfish, my goodness, catfish love trolled crankbaits, so you will be catching some. A big ol’ catfish will knock your crankbait out of tune, so keep that in mind to check your crankbaits tuning before returning the bait to duty.”

Speed

Each of the four anglers said they pay careful attention to speed because it is an influencing factor on bites, more so than lure depth while trolling, and does depend on a crappie’s feeding mood. Here are the preferred speed ranges of these four anglers.

Usrey:                1.5 – 2.0 MPH

Chappell:          1.5 – 1.8 MPH

Robinson:         1.2 – 1.8 MPH

McClellan:        1.8 – 2.2 MPH

Words of Wisdom

Usrey:

  • Start with a different color of crankbait on each line and adjust based on success
  • Have the best electronics your budget allows, even if just showing depth
  • Go with a quality medium-heavy action crappie rod and 10-pound test line

Chappell:

  • Take advantage of your trolling time to find new cover and explore more water
  • Fine-tune your colors to maximize success
  • Start out at the bottom range of trolling speed and increase from there to see what the fish want

Robinson:

  • When a fish is on, hold the rod high to reel the fish in along the surface to avoid it tangling your other lines
  • Try bright colors on bright days; go darker colors early and late, or when cloudy.
  • Try a soft plastic trailer tied on a leader behind your crankbait. Put the trailer on a weightless jig hook or you can use a Bobby Garland 1/48- or 1/64-ounce Itty Bits Jighead instead

McClellan:

  • Use the same line size on all your reels. If you don’t have a line counter reel, do like me and cast your baits to estimate how the distance as to how much line is out
  • Keep crankbaits tuned to run true
  • Don’t put a line out until you find tight balls of bait

Final Thoughts

All four anglers agreed that trolling crankbaits can be as simple or technical as you want to make it, and each offered a final thought with that in mind:

You can go low technology and still have a blast trolling crankbaits for crappie. If you don’t have a fish finder, go to a chunk-rock bluff, tie a Bandit 300 on with a Bobby Garland trailing behind it and start slow trolling, even if holding the rod in your hand. You’re going to catch something!

-Payton Usrey.

 

Move around and cover water … if you haven’t had any luck for 20 minutes or so, make a move to cool off a little and try another spot. And don’t think trolling won’t work in your area; if you have crappie and open water that you can pull a crankbait through, you’ll catch ‘em.

-Brad Chappell.

 

Allow yourself plenty of room and time to make a big wide turn to avoid tangling lines. If you do have more than one or two lines out, avoid the temptation to stop and retrieve a snagged crankbait. If you just have a single line or two out, then that’s easier to manage a recovery effort.

-Stokes McClellan

 

Try the soft-plastic trailer behind your crankbait … I’m with Payton, you’re going to catch something using the technique and odds are good it’ll be a crappie. Besides, it’s just a fun, relaxing way to fish.

-Greg Robinson.