When most anglers think of crappie fishing, they think of slip bobber rigs, minnows and tiny jigs. Truth be told, a lot of crappie anglers troll to fill their livewell with these tasty panfish. Both white and black crappie can be readily caught using select trolling tactics and gear. While this practice is clearly more popular in the southern states, trolling tactics work on crappie everywhere they are found.
JIG TROLLING
Long lining jigs tipped with soft plastic bodies are wildly popular in many areas. Normally this practice is conducted in fairly shallow water that smaller 1/32 and 1/16 ounce jigs are the most commonly used baits. These jigs are tipped with twister tail grubs, paddle tail grubs or small split tail minnow grubs.
When crappie are found in a little deeper water, long lining can be conducted using 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 ounce jigs. The Precision Trolling Data phone app provides the running depths of all popular crappie jigs, making it easy to get baits presented accurately to suspended fish.
CRANKBAIT TROLLING
Crappie may be classified as a panfish, but they are voracious feeders who spend a lot of time hunting down minnows. A wealth of crankbaits do an excellent job of imitating the many minnow species crappie routinely feed on.
Some of the most popular crankbaits among crappie enthusiasts are the modest 4, 5, 6 and 7 sizes of shad baits including the Berkley Flicker Shad, Rapala Shad Rap, Arkie 220 series baits, Jenko Crappie Crank, Reef Runner Rip Shad 200 and the Johnson Crappie Buster Shad.
CRANKBAITS AND BOARDS
These baits are effective when trolled as flat lines or they can be combined with the Off Shore Tackle OR12 Side Planer or the OR38 Mini Board. Using in-line boards spreads out lures, making it possible to fish more lines and to cover more water.
Because crappie often run small, outfitting the OR12 with an aftermarket OR12TFEK Tattle Flag® Kit is the way to go. This is an economical way of converting the OR12 Side Planer to include a spring-operated Tattle Flag® using the existing releases and flag from the OR12, the necessary linkage arm, spring and hardware from the kit. It takes about five minutes to install and anyone with a screwdriver can make this conversion.
When trolling with a Tattle Flag® equipped board, should a small fish get hooked, the flag will fold down tipping off the angler to reel in and check that line, Tattle Flags® are so sensitive even if a lure snags on a piece of floating weed or other debris in the water, the flag will telegraph the issue.
TADPOLE DIVERS
It’s very common to find crappie in water that is deeper than common crankbaits will dive. In this situation, using an Off Shore Tackle OR36 Series Tadpole Resettable Diving Weight in combination with a crankbait is a great way to get lures to deeper depths. The OR36 No. 1 and No. 2 Tadpole sizes are ideal for crappie trolling applications.
In addition to marrying up a Tadpole with small crankbaits, these divers can also be used to present jigs, spinners and live bait rigs to depth.
Many crappie anglers use Tadpole Divers to supplement their planers board spread, to add in a couple extra lines and to fish the deeper depths. By using longer rods and fishing the Tadpole Diver off the corners of the boat, a lot of bonus fish can be caught. Because the Tadpole is a deep diver, in-line board lines can be reeled in right over top of this flat line without issue.
SUMMING IT UP
Crappie are among the most popular sport species in North America. Not only are they found in most states, the daily limits are also generous and these fish rival walleye, perch and bluegill for table fare. Give crappie trolling a try and you’ll be amazed how willing these fish are to strike a wide variety of lures and baits.
