Page 12 - Crappie NOW - August 2018

by Ron Wong

Surface temperatures in the south John Harrison pulls cranks out of the back
of his boat. A MinnKota Terrova keeps the
are really hot this year from all the 90- boat on track and can be controlled by
plus degree daytime temperatures. Many remotely.
of the lakes surface temps are near or
above 90 degrees; however there are
crappie to catch. There are still several War Eagle crappie boat. He has corner
techniques that will put them in the boat style Driftmaster rod holders set ups on
and trolling crankbaits is one of the most the back of his boat and uses a MinnKota
of effective way to do it this time of the Terrova trolling motor so he can operate
year. it remotely. He uses B’n’M Pro Staff rods
We at CrappieNow had the with two rods each of 8, 12, 16 and 20
opportunity to spend a day in the boat feet. The shortest rods are mounted at
with John Harrison on Enid Lake where the middle of the boat with the other rods
the daytime temps reached 95 degrees mounted around the aft section of the
and the surface temp was 90. We trolled boat and the 20 foot rod closest to the
crankbaits and within a couple of hours bow. 10-pound test Gamma Optic Yellow
had seven nice crappie weighing about 10 line is spooled on each rod. This setup
½ pounds. We caught numerous 10- to provides approximately 47 to 48 feet of
11-inch fish along with the seven keepers coverage when trolling. Each time John
(a keeper is longer than 12 inches) and gets on the water, he starts with 40 feet
we continued to catch quite a few more of line spooled out on the shortest rod,
before we decided to call it a day. 50 feet on the next rod, 60 feet on the 16
Here is the setup in John’s 21-foot foot rod and finally 70 on the longest rod.
12 Crappie NOW August 2018