Troll with the flow

Mitch Glenn of Garfield keeps an eye on fishing rods while trolling crank baits for crappie on June 17 2022 at Beaver Lake.
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
Mitch Glenn of Garfield keeps an eye on fishing rods while trolling crank baits for crappie on June 17 2022 at Beaver Lake. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)

Ten lures work better than one when it comes to catching summertime crappie at Beaver Lake.

A glaring sunrise on a hot June morning put the heat on Mitch Glenn of Garfield and Brad Wiegmann of Nob Hill while they trolled with 10 fishing rods each rigged with a different color of crank bait.

Glenn manned the bow of his boat and trolled with four rods. Wiegmann placed another six poles in rod holders mounted on the stern.

"With multiple rods and more baits there's more chance of catching fish," Wiegmann explained. "Using all these varied colors, it tells you what color the fish want. If one color gets hot, it's easy to put more lures of that color on the lines."

Glenn trolled his four crank baits differently than his buddy in the back. A 3-ounce trolling weight was attached to each fishing line. A second length of 10-pound-test monofilament line about 3 feet long runs behind the weight. A crank bait is tied to the end of that line.

Glenn trolled slowly, about 1.5 mph, to give the crank baits a gentle wiggle that gets crappie to bite. He calls the method "pushing" crank baits because rods face mostly forward, pushing forward, as opposed to pulling crank baits in the stern with rod tips pointing behind the boat or out to the sides.

"Basically I'm just long lining," with 90 to 100 feet of line out behind the boat, he said. Line diameter, trolling speed and the type of lure determine how deep a crank bait will dive. Generally the longer the bill on the front of the lure, the deeper the crank bait will reach.

In the stern, Wiegmann attached two outside lines to planer boards, which carry the lines away from the boat to the left or right. This reduces tangled lines and lets the crank baits cover a broader area.

"Fishing this way, we're covering an area 75 feet wide from top to bottom," Glenn explained. Lures ran anywhere from nine to 18 feet deep. "If you fish much deeper than that you get more catfish than crappie."

The mid-June morning was hot and so was the catching. Wiegmann and Glenn caught the first crappie not long after their crank baits were in the water. Wiegmann had the hot hand catching most of their fish from the stern. Nearly every crappie was a keeper from 12 to 14 inches long.

Crappie must be 10 inches or longer to keep at Beaver Lake. The daily limit is 15 per angler.

The pair spent their morning trolling in an area of Point 12, where the White and War Eagle river arms meet on the upstream end of Beaver Lake. They called it a day around 11 a.m. when nature turned up the heat. The count was 15 big crappie in the livewell.

Glenn owns Pico Lures in Garfield and crank baits are a big seller in his product line. He keeps every color imaginable in his boat. Wiegmann helps Glenn with marketing and is also a fishing guide on Beaver Lake.

"We make 37 different colors of crank baits and there are 10 more in the works," Glenn said.

The spring spawn is a fine time to catch crappie with jigs or minnows. Once that's over, trolling crank baits is the way to go, Glenn said. Trolling with the swimming lures should work until the water cools this fall.

"What this does is keeps crappie fishing going all year so it's not just a two-month thing," Glenn said.

  photo  Brad Wiegmann trolled with a multirod set-up on the back of the boat June 17 2022 to catch several crappie. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 
  photo  Mitch Glenn, owner of Pico Lures in Garfield, keeps several colors of crank baits handy when trolling for crappie. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 
  photo  Brad Wiegmann shows crank baits in several colors he and Mitch Glenn use when trolling for crappie. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 
  photo  Mitch Glenn of Garfield brings in one of several crappie he caught while trolling crank baits for crappie on June 17 2022 at Beaver Lake. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 
  photo  Trolling crank baits with several rods lets anglers use lures of different colors. If crappie hit a particular color it's easy to switch to that color on more rods. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 
  photo  Nearly every crappie Glenn and Wiegmann caught was legal size. Crappie must be 10 inches or longer to keep at Beaver Lake. The daily limit is 15. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Flip Putthoff)
 
 

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Catch a mess

Black crappie and white crappie are both found in Beaver Lake. Black crappie have black spots on their sides while white crappie have vertical greenish bars. Black crappie are mostly found on the north half of the lake while white crappie are more common on the south half.

Crappie at Beaver Lake must 10 inches or longer to keep. The daily limit is 15.

Source: NWA Democrat-Gazette

 


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