Trolling right along

Watts Bar crappie. I went earlier during the week after work and had a really good day. Fished until the low voltage alarm went off and then left. I hated to leave. That day I had around 12 crappie, 30+ white and yellow bass, a smallmouth, blue cat, and drum. I kept 5 crappie and released the rest. Went back Saturday, and immediately started catching crappie on my first track. I was running two rods and it was a fun problem to have when constantly taking fish off. But then about 2 hours in, the low voltage alarm sounded. Hmm. Must have a battery going bad. I stuck it out as long as I could and just let the trolling motor follow recorded tracks and turned my sonar off. Ended up catching around 19 crappie...released them all this time, and I couldn't tell you how many yellow and white bass. Got home and went to check my batteries on the multimeter to find the bad one. Didn't see anything unusual. Plugged my charger up and none of the lights came on. Then it hit me...the storms the other day knocked the power out a few times. I bet it flipped the breaker. Sure enough....reset the breaker and my charging lights came on. So I'm hoping it was just that it never charged from my previous trip. Caught them on the ole trusty white crankbait and a green splatterback one.

Hope the breaker is your whole problem.
Congrats on the fish !

Crow Terminator said:

Watts Bar crappie. I went earlier during the week after work and had a really good day. Fished until the low voltage alarm went off and then left. I hated to leave. That day I had around 12 crappie, 30+ white and yellow bass, a smallmouth, blue cat, and drum. I kept 5 crappie and released the rest. Went back Saturday, and immediately started catching crappie on my first track. I was running two rods and it was a fun problem to have when constantly taking fish off. But then about 2 hours in, the low voltage alarm sounded. Hmm. Must have a battery going bad. I stuck it out as long as I could and just let the trolling motor follow recorded tracks and turned my sonar off. Ended up catching around 19 crappie...released them all this time, and I couldn't tell you how many yellow and white bass. Got home and went to check my batteries on the multimeter to find the bad one. Didn't see anything unusual. Plugged my charger up and none of the lights came on. Then it hit me...the storms the other day knocked the power out a few times. I bet it flipped the breaker. Sure enough....reset the breaker and my charging lights came on. So I'm hoping it was just that it never charged from my previous trip. Caught them on the ole trusty white crankbait and a green splatterback one. View attachment 190531View attachment 190530View attachment 190532View attachment 190533View attachment 190535View attachment 190534View attachment 190537View attachment 190536

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Mad cow and baby bass are my "goto" crappie cranks, in the Bandit 300.

agelessssone said:

Mad cow and baby bass are my "goto" crappie cranks, in the Bandit 300.

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It's neat how everybody gravitates to colors. I've got a couple in the Mad Cow pattern and other brands imitation of it. I've ran them a few times but I've never caught anything on em. Same goes for the pink colors. They are extremely popular in other areas...I have every variation of pink you can find and I might can recall catching maybe 1 or 2 fish on any of those. I know the white and yellow bass sure seem to leave the pink alone. I can put on a plain white one and keep myself busy. But then there's days like Saturday when I catch more on a citrus/green color vs the white/shad imitators.

Good times!

agelessssone said:

Mad cow and baby bass are my "goto" crappie cranks, in the Bandit 300.

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Good weekend, crow!

I remember the good Ole days when bandits were $2.99 each. They were the cheapest crankbaits you could buy, but worked better for me than any other crankbait.

megalomaniac said:

I remember the good Ole days when bandits were $2.99 each. They were the cheapest crankbaits you could buy, but worked better for me than any other crankbait.

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I remember when they were actually made in Sardis, Mississippi by Americans. The good ol' days.

When my son was young we would bass fish until it got hot, then put up the umbrella and pull cranks for crappie. I have a crankbait that we started calling "the magic bait". No matter which rod it was on, which position it was in on the rack, and what was on the other rods, it outfished them all at least 4-1. It has no markings, no identifying marks whatsoever. It looks like a Norman and has that Norman pearl/green paint job. Back then I scoured the interwebs and posted on forums trying to find more, but never did. There is just something about the action, size, color, or whatever, that crappie can't resist.

Awesome weekend.

Nice!

Nice catch. What speed, depth, how far back are you running?

Crow Terminator said:

Watts Bar crappie. I went earlier during the week after work and had a really good day. Fished until the low voltage alarm went off and then left. I hated to leave. That day I had around 12 crappie, 30+ white and yellow bass, a smallmouth, blue cat, and drum. I kept 5 crappie and released the rest.

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Nice catch! What depth, speed, how far back are you running?

1.5 to 2 mph is my normal speed range. Just depends on how they are eating it. Usually 90 to 150 feet of line out. Depends on which rod I've got it on and which crankbait. The depth also depends on where the fish are suspended. Here lately the crappie have been about 12 to 14 feet over 20-30ish feet of water. The white and yellow bass have been about a foot off the bottom. Here's a couple schools of yellow bass on DI on a hump.

Crow Terminator said:

1.5 to 2 mph is my normal speed range. Just depends on how they are eating it. Usually 90 to 150 feet of line out. Depends on which rod I've got it on and which crankbait. The depth also depends on where the fish are suspended. Here lately the crappie have been about 12 to 14 feet over 20-30ish feet of water. The white and yellow bass have been about a foot off the bottom. Here's a couple schools of yellow bass on DI on a hump.

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Thanks. Just got my new to me trolling rig finished. I fish the chick mostly and like to know what others are doing. It's been years since I've been trolling on a regular basis. And that was for Walleye and trout/ salmon up north.

On the Chick you are going to run into more black crappie than whites. You'll probably catch more shooting deep docks or bridges there vs trolling. Watts Bar has a big population of white crappie and deeper water. If I can ever get a day off, I am dying to get down to Harrison Bay area of the Chick and troll my cranks. I just can't go that far and back while working 7 days a week, 10-12 hrs a night.

Crow Terminator said:

On the Chick you are going to run into more black crappie than whites. You'll probably catch more shooting deep docks or bridges there vs trolling. Watts Bar has a big population of white crappie and deeper water. If I can ever get a day off, I am dying to get down to Harrison Bay area of the Chick and troll my cranks. I just can't go that far and back while working 7 days a week, 10-12 hrs a night.

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I'm wanting to get up below Watts Bar Dam for Walleye and Stiper's

Install a good loud car alarm if you are going to go there. You might could hear it from the dam when they break your window out and maybe you can get to the ramp before they get gone.

Crow Terminator said:

Install a good loud car alarm if you are going to go there. You might could hear it from the dam when they break your window out and maybe you can get to the ramp before they get gone.

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Good to know. Sounds like I need to put in somewhere south and motor up to there

Crow Terminator said:

On the Chick you are going to run into more black crappie than whites. You'll probably catch more shooting deep docks or bridges there vs trolling. Watts Bar has a big population of white crappie and deeper water. If I can ever get a day off, I am dying to get down to Harrison Bay area of the Chick and troll my cranks. I just can't go that far and back while working 7 days a week, 10-12 hrs a night.

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Dadgum. I dont see how you fish at all with that schedule

redblood said:

Dadgum. I dont see how you fish at all with that schedule

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I made the decision a long time ago that I wasn't going to just sleep/work and quit living life. So I sacrifice time I could be sleeping, for fishing after work in the mornings.

I used to have it made. We were on a 12 hr rotation shift...3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. It was a dream schedule for hunting and fishing. BUT...these people I work with, don't know how to manage their money and needed a ton of over time to pay their bills, and hate their home life too. So they whined about the rotation schedule to the managers/supervisors. Managers said "you do realize you will be 7 days a week if you come off rotation...". That's what they wanted. So we all got sucked into 7 days a week, every week.

Crow Terminator said:

I made the decision a long time ago that I wasn't going to just sleep/work and quit living life. So I sacrifice time I could be sleeping, for fishing after work in the mornings.

I used to have it made. We were on a 12 hr rotation shift...3 on, 2 off, 2 on, 3 off. It was a dream schedule for hunting and fishing. BUT...these people I work with, don't know how to manage their money and needed a ton of over time to pay their bills, and hate their home life too. So they whined about the rotation schedule to the managers/supervisors. Managers said "you do realize you will be 7 days a week if you come off rotation...". That's what they wanted. So we all got sucked into 7 days a week, every week.

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That would tick me off. I did 7 days a week for 17 years and left that job. We are on a 4 day schedule but still work OT. I can handle 5 10 hour days but I don't ever want to work another Sunday