Trolling for Crappie

[Blazerman]

Now that i am here full time i troll for crappie often and have it dialed in nicely.

This was yesterday's take. Hard to tell from the pic but there are 2-13", 2 -12" and the rest are just about 11". The Flicker shad was the top producer and like usual had a catfish and bass on the flicker shad. One thing i have done on the flicker shad is changed out the hooks. The ones they come with are too small and you miss a lot of fish.

Amazing thing about this is i didn't go out till i got off work at 3:15. and quit at 6:00. Trolled in the river channel along the bluffs and got bounced around by the waves the whole time. But they still bite while the boat is bouncing around.

[3DHUSKER]

Nice report.  Those will be awesome in hot oil. 

[LoweSTX175]

What part of the lake/river were you on? I am at MM 81 at Cole Camp and Turkey Creek. I have trolled Flicker Shad at 2.2 MPH with really no luck. I have done better with crappie using slip bobbers with plastic jigs tipped with minnows. I have trolled in the past on other lakes in KS and MO with great success....just not on LOZ.

[nomolites]

Crappie like a slower troll if you can, 1.5 - 1.7 seems to be the best.  Over 2 mph really slows the bite.

Mike

[Ruger5555]

I have had good luck going 1.8 with bandit 300's.

[Blazerman]

2 hours ago, nomolites said:

Crappie like a slower troll if you can, 1.5 - 1.7 seems to be the best.  Over 2 mph really slows the bite.

Mike

Agree. I try to stay between 1.5 and 2 but the wind and waves will slow you down or speed you up and i sometimes think that helps. The changing it up i mean.

But right now i think you might have better luck doing what you're doing. Jigs tipped with minnows over deeper brush in coves or shooting docks. I usually save the trolling for July and August when the crappie are chasing shad in the river channels.

Right now it is the time of year when crappie follow the shad into the creeks. My neighbor across from me has been standing on the corner of her dock and casting a jig out past a deep brush pile and swimming the jig slowly back and getting good crappie on almost every cast. By deep i mean 15 to 20 fow. Of course, i had to try it so took my boat over and did the same thing with the same results. 

I then went to some deeper brush piles i know of by deeper docks and caught them both from the brush and shooting under the dock.

I caught about 20 and cleaned 10 in about an hour last week. And i am at the 31 but i would think the same thing is happening all over the lake.

 

 

[nomolites]

Agree as the water cools through winter docks get the nod.  I have great luck trolling from pre(mid-April)through post(mid-June) spawn when I move on to other species exclusively(walleye and stripers) during the summer.  LOZ is a great crappie fishery!

Mike

[LoweSTX175]

I won't be out on the water until the weekend after next. I'll post a report on what is going on in Turkey/Cole Camp Creek.