Cranking for crappies

[My_Key]

I was reading an In-Fisherman article the other day in which they talked about tossing smaller cranks for crappies early in the season. Has anyone actually tried this? What would be the chances that the DNR would believe I was actually targeting crappies and not something else? I guess I could just take the In-Fisherman from my parents' place and have it with me to show the officer I was trying something I read.

[ozzie]

I use small cranks for crappies and gills in the early season....I use the #3 and smaller I believe....I have them in bright yellow, minnnow, perch, orange, and blue in color......they catch fish and as long as you don't have a rap the size of a panfish or a big spinner bait u should b fine.....if you are only catching fish that are out of season then you should move but that goes with any bait u r using in the early season

[mainbutter]

What rod/reel/line do you use to cast your tiny cranks? Some are so small it almost looks like you need to cast 'em with a fly rod!

[ozzie]

I just use a 6'6 or 7' ml or lite rod with 4-6lb test line...I like 4lb but hate losing $4-$6 cranks to the occasional small pike...I haven't tried fireline but that would probably be the best with a mono leader.....I can cast out a decent way better with the wind!! HAHA

[My_Key]

Thanks for the info. I have a 9ft UL that is spooled with 4lb Lindy copolymer that I would be using. I may have to give it a try.

[mainbutter]

hey my_key, where did you find that rod? I've been looking around for any UL to medium light rods with some length to them, but it seems that 5'6''-6'6'' is the standard.

[My_Key]

Google "Crappie Hunter". It's a combo made by Shakespeare. I needed a long UL for panfishing around fallen trees and brush last spring and stumbled across the combo at Walmart. I gave the reel to my son for ice fishing and put a Mitchell Avocet II reel on it.

If you're one of those guys that needs expensive rods, I've seen G Loomis has a couple options in that length and action. So that would be the extreme ends of the price range, not sure what's available in bewtween.

**Edit: It's actually a light action, not UL.**

[MuleShack]

I troll around in the spring with a #5 type shad rap or other varieties of rapalas. I have caught my 2 largest crappies doing this along lots of other smaller fish. One was in 3rd week april 14 1/2" and the other was early June 15 1/2". Its definately a nice way to locate some active fish quickly.

[My_Key]

When you're trolling for them, what depths are you typically targeting? To me, trolling a #5 Shad Rap while the Pike/Walleye/Bass season is closed is like asking for a ticket.

[MuleShack]

six to nine feet.

[MuleShack]

Its the smallest rapala, i thought it was a 5 maybe it is a 3??

Either way it is only a little over an inch long so it isn't exactly screaming Pike bait.

Plus i'm using the bow mount in april and have not had any problems yet with mr dnr.

[slipperybob]

I put some countdown rapala's under a bobber. #2, and #3 and they worked pretty good at times. Other than that, I've used a Yozuri Pins Minnow or Snap Shad and those can be fun watching crappies swipe at the lures like a bass. I've also tossed some Rebel tracdown minnow and sometimes those work great as well. Overall, the cranks generally will get the bigger crappies if you're trying to weed out the smaller ones.

[tunrevir]

One of my largest crappies ever fell for a small countdown rap early season. I have a dozen small cranks that I like. There are lipless rattlebaits and a small shad type lure made by cotten cordell that fit the bill nicely for crappies. There is now a signature series line of crappie cranks but they tend to be a bit expensive. Small husky jerks can be great serch baits when looking for fish in the spring.

Tunrevir~

[scott b]

This is a tactic used in warmer early spring waters. I've been on crappies before, early spring, and tried tossing small cranks. At 45 degrees it seems that the water is just too cold for them to go chasing a crank. Now 50-55 degrees that's a different story. In-fisherman writes about this presentation pretty often. Pushing and pulling cranks for crappies about 5-10yrs ago was the article I remember. The article you read is about 2lb White crappies, on shad raps, in the south, with temps around 50-55. Still awesome. I'm fond of the Yo Zuri snap shads in chrome/blue orange/gold and orange. Excellent panfish cranks fished on 4lb.

[FishLocker]

I use the smallest Nano by Matzuo in black and silver. Also use a 5/8 inch cricket crank and a 1/2 inch fat tadpole with early season pannies. They hit them very hard. To use the Nano too long after spawn the Northers keep tearing them up and biting them off, then you are off to buy more Nano's I even had a Northern come in to 12 inches of water right by the dock when I was trying to get my speed down on the Nano for the best action...BANG, and it was gone...off to the bait shop.

[popriveter]

I had a tiny, green tadpolly years back. It was great. For a few years, I caught all my biggest panfish on that little crank. After I lost it, I never saw another and kind of forgot about using cranks for pannies.

[OnAFly]

The smallest Rattlin Raps work well along with the smallest Salmo Hornets.

I don't limit myself to using these in the spring. I'll troll them all year long around the appropriate areas. They work very well, especially for fishing edges and basins in the early fall.

[itchmesir]

Rebel Crickets

[mainbutter]

Well I was at wal-mart today and picked up a 9' crappie hunter rod with a bunch of extras I don't need for under $30. The underspin reel is probably junk, but the rod will work great with the spinning reels I have laying around. I'm excited to go on the hunt for big aggressive panfish this spring.

[My_Key]

Well I was at wal-mart today and picked up a 9' crappie hunter rod with a bunch of extras I don't need for under $30. The underspin reel is probably junk, but the rod will work great with the spinning reels I have laying around. I'm excited to go on the hunt for big aggressive panfish this spring.

I put the underspin reel on a UL ice fishing rod for my son to use during the winter. I swapped the cheap mono that was pre-spooled for some 3lb test Lindy Ice line to minimize the coiling effect. Held up for one winter so far.

[TruthWalleyes]

I'll be pulling Salmo Hornets after ice out for the big crappies.

[OnAFly]

One thing I noticed with the hornets, I was getting a fairly poor hooking percentage. The hornet only has one tailing treble. I threw on a Rattlin Rap and my hooking percentage was nearly 100%. The majority of these fish were hooked on the front treble. In this case, the RR worked much better.

[TruthWalleyes]

I upsize the hooks on my hornets.

[fishmounter]

Small rapala #5 count down works for me either in the gold or silver color. Had good luck with it last summer searching for crappies and will be giving those count downs a try as soon as the ice is gone.