Friday crappie report.

[Dan the fisherman]

Good job lance. Ur on a roll.  

[Lance34]

Tried the same flat I've been doing the past couple of trips.  But only caught one on it.  So I decided to troll on down river and came to another flat that had fish in the 20 FOW range.  I started catching some then.   In a matter of 5 minutes I had 3 more crappie in the boat.  

Water temp was 80-83.  Trolled pearl flicker shads 130-150 feet behind the boat at 1.5- 2 mph.   Got started about 11 and quit at about 2:30

Ended the day with 3 nice keeper crappie, 2 10" crappie that I tossed back and 1 short overachiever crappie.  Plus one spot and another fat cat like last week.  

Getting more of the hang of this pulling cranks.  Seems that the size quality is better doing it this way.  

Less number caught though but the size are better and I'm looking for a wall hanger.  

Here some pics

[mjk86]

and next year this time youll have at least 4 tackle trays full of various sizes and colors of flickers shads.  I have 10-15 tackle trays full of reef runners, hot n tots, wiggle warts, wally divers, shad raps, minnow raps, every rap ever made....they all just collect dust...flicker shad purple tiger, blue tiger, and chartreuse silver, and a few custom paint jobs is all i use.  If I need to go deep ill use leadcore..but ill rarely stray from the flickers.

[Lance34]

Funny you say that.  I loaded up on different colors of bandits and Arkie 350's and I put on the one flicker I had one day and I started catching fish.  

After that I got back to the ramp and I went straight to the store and bought up on some more flicker shads and have been pretty consistent since.  

Still trying to figure out how deep there running.  Don't know how accurate that chart is on the package.  

I mostly been running them at around 1.5 mph, 150ft out the side of the boat using 10# fluorocarbon which I'm guessing is about 15-16 feet range.  

Does that sound about right?

I think the bandits run deeper at 150ft because I seem to be hit the bottom or snagging in 17-18 FOW.

[J-Doc]

Depending on line size and quality, yes about 14-19ft on 10lbs flourocarbon at 15ft back.  I think the reason flickers do so well is the size of the bait and it's a tight subtle wobble.  Other baits that have similar size and action are also effective. 

 

Now if I could get that action on chartreuse dynamite. .......I'd be doing better.  Lol!

[Lance34]

Thanks, the brand I'm using is Seaguar Red label.  I know yellow maybe better but it all starts to add up at the check out line.

Whatever them things do it's working.

 

 

[J-Doc]

I used red label for a long time but line twists were an issue even with swivels.  I switched to yellow and did not see much advantage for the cost. 

 

I'm trying Pline flourocarbon now. Just spooled it up.  Was trying CXX but I don't think it was seeing the depth the red liable was getting. 

[mjk86]

A flicker shad (7cm) will hit 17-18ft with 180ft of 15/4 braid.  Some have claimed 20 ft with over 200ft out but I've only ever hit 20 with my painted ones (very heavy paint).  6cm and 9cm run a bit shallower/ deeper respectively.  

[mjk86]

Depending on line size and quality, yes about 14-19ft on 10lbs flourocarbon at 15ft back.  I think the reason flickers do so well is the size of the bait and it's a tight subtle wobble.  Other baits that have similar size and action are also effective. 

 

Now if I could get that action on chartreuse dynamite. .......I'd be doing better.  Lol!

idk I've trolled 7cm flickers and shad raps side by side and flickers won big time.  Granted that was just once so who knows what other variables were at play but same size and color of bait. 

[J-Doc]

Do you like using braid over flourocarbon?   It will get deeper but I would think it could carry vibrations through the lime such as boat noise, etc. I typically use my big engine for trolling vs trolling motor. But I do use both for trolling. Flickers seem to be more effective around 2mph or more.  At least they do for me.