I’ve got to admit that I love trolling crankbaits for crappie even though it’s a tough situation for me. Here in the East, most of our lakes are deep, clear and full of cover-loving black crappie. As you know, trolling crankbaits usually is a tactic for suspended white crappie in murky water. I catch fish, but they’re usually 3- to 5-pound stripers or hybrids.My 12-year-old son, Will, and I had the chance to meet up with Kent Driscoll of B’n’M Poles this summer at Mississippi’s Sardis Lake, and we had a blast trolling crankbaits. Kent knows his stuff and we caught some slabs on a hot day that Kent considered just average. Kent said the hotter the weather the hotter the tactic got.
It was with surprise that I opened the latest newsletter from the Magnolia Crappie Club and discovered that the first two places in the club’s October tournament at Ferguson, an oxbow lake full of cool Mississippi River water, was won by trolling cranks. That prompted a call to MCC’s president, Brad Taylor, for an explanation.
Brad admitted he was caught short, too, placing sixth using tight-lined minnows. Jim McKay and Tommy Moss took first, and writer Paul Johnson and Gil Woodis took second — all on crankbaits.
“It’s a suspended-fish tactic, not just a summertime tactic” was Brad’s explanation, indicating the crappie at Ferguson were suspended, chasing migrating shad and not really relating to any specific structure. That’s the same pattern for summer fishing except during summer they’re suspending in the thermocline to avoid the heat and bottom predators. Brad summed it up by saying that trolling cranks for crappie was still a largely undiscovered art. I tend to agree with him. I just wish somebody who has figured out how to do it in clear-water lakes would let me know. Somebody send me an e-mail.
Phillip Gentry
pgentry6@bellsouth.net
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