Anyone troll crankbaits for fish ?

Two friends of mine I fish with have told me they use crankbaits trolling for bass and panfish. Up until yesterday I was skeptical until when on the way back to the dock my partner caught a bass and two crappie trolling a medium dive crankbait at #2 speed on the trolling motor. His rod was held high at 45 degrees so the lure couldn't go too deep and the rod was medium action. The depth averaged 10' or so and the bottom fairly smooth with a few small humps seen on sonar while he trolled down the middle of this narrow lake one mile across three miles long.

The day was in the 60's, cloudy, windy at times (15 mph wind) and the water temperature 71 degrees and dropping due to nighttime temps dropping to 49 degrees. We are going into a fall pattern early that started over a week ago along with a drought that started in June. It's been a very weird year weatherwise!

When that rod bent back I thought he snagged something until he started fighting a fish ! I own hundreds of crankbaits with different lip sizes and never thought to troll for fish - especially panfish ! Other than soft plastic design and testing different ones, I stopped using bass lures such as jigs/trailers, spinnerbaits, crankbaits, spoons, top water lures, etc. though I've done well on all of them at one time or other.

Guess I'll have to concentrate on this this presentation when fishing is tough because my partner insists that he catches fish in the middle of a sunny day trolling crankbaits. He also said that when a fish is caught, he throws out a buoy marker and retrolls the area in the opposite direction after turning the boat around and at times stops the trolling motor casting back to the area in hopes a school is present and active. Man I love fishing schools - one after the other !!!

Too bad his sonar is old and never shows fish - only the bottom and at depths that are inaccurate by a foot or more. I would have loved to have seen the fish the pontoon boat moved over before being caught with a 2 3/4" crankbait! I have a feeling that a gas engine would have spooked those fish and maybe prevented any strikes. Now the question remains : which crankbait to use ???

I was on Fork about 15 years ago, crappie fishing. I saw a handful of guides trolling crankbaits for bass.

It was "the thing to do" back then, I have no clue if they still do it today

Trolling isn't fishing in my opinion, it ok it you have kids in the boat and they want to catch a fish other than that, I have never trolled for fish in my boat.

Dean Stroman used to smash big bass on Fork every May with a 141 Smokey Joe DD22. He used his outboard at an idle.

I was always of the same opinion but if it can help find fish in open water when other areas seem fishless, why not?! The first rule of fishing is you gotta find em before you can catch them. It does bring up some questions about open water fish that bite such as:
Is there a pattern going on? ;
Why would 11" crappie go after a crankbaits moving at a medium fast speed?;
Does this method catch most fish species? (my partner insists it has);
Do I have to be very selective of the crankbaits I troll?

He used 10 # test braid, so line diameter less than that should do as well though I wonder if a fluorocarbon leader would improve lure depth and motion.
Keeping an open mind is something hard to do unless being in the right place and time forces it open. Unless I saw it I wouldn't have believed it or tried it.

I’ve done it many times and it definitely works. If I’ve fished all day on a hot day and I’m wore out I’ve decided to troll for fish or if I’ve taken someone out who has never caught a bass and they’re struggling I will troll to help lift there spirits. I guess basically I use it as a resting technique.

Trolling is fishing, and there is absolutely strategy to doing it well. Trolling can be a very effective technique in the right situation, no different than throwing a senko at the bank.

It isn’t allowed in most tournaments. Strolling on the other is. Strolling is where a guy makes a long and then gets on his trolling motor in the opposite direction until most of the line on the reel is out, you then shut off the trolling motor and reel it all back in. Strolling extends the cast, and so does trolling.

I prefer to cast, but there are certainly times when trolling can be effective. It’s another technique.

Well, I think of the simple math related to it:

If you troll a lure and say it draws fish from as far away as 10 feet left and 10 feet right, so a 20' swath of water, and you do this for one mile, 5280 feet, you are exposing your lure to 2.42 acres of water.

You're bound to run your lure near some fish, I'd guess. If only it is in the mood to chase it and eat!

I do pretty well trolling at times when I am covering distance in my kayak. The speed is right and why waste the time not fishing. You just never know!!!

Brad

When I'm fishing with my nephew , when we make a move just using the TM, say from one side of a cove to another, he will troll from back of boat just because who knows. He has caught fish, usually sand bass.

Fished a Club Tournament on O.H. Ivie last year and my son was begging to go chase white bass. I promised him Sunday we would only chase the whites.

We trolled 5xds, 6xds, and DD22s by the dam and caught more largemouth than whites. Had 1 over 5lbs and 1 other fish over 4 lbs. The 5lber was over 70’ of water. Of course I told him it didn’t count as his new personal best.

Why not count? If you caught a lake or state record crappie while bass fishing would you just throw it back and say it doesn't count? To each his own, but he threw the bait out there, felt the bite, set the hook, reeled it in and got it in the boat. That is fishing.

I believe Rapala has a “Trolling depth chart” on how deep their lures dive when trolling at certain speeds on their website.

I hear some of the old timers on Falcon troll around the dam and smash bigguns.

I remember that well

I'll troll if I'm covering water looking for whites/stripers. Found big schools on Tawak and they have some big [censored] sand bass there that will pull drag on 15lb test. Generally use a square bill or DD6-8..

When I was a kid my grandpa would troll cranks for us. Caught lots of fish. Biggest was a drum the size of a bathtub. Wish I had a pic of that.

Many thousands of pounds of big fish have been eaten out of Falcon by people trolling out by the damn.

Trolling/strolling used to be illegal in Ts, so I never did, unless I was fun fishing for whites. Caught a 5lb LMB on Conchas once, trolling for whites. About 45 years ago, I guess. LOL. GOOD way too find fish, though. Hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

In early 90’s use to get hell from the guides during lunch at Lake Fork Marine or Lunker for our trolling armada. Went to college with Pack’s wife and he didn’t mind it as he would pull right up and start slaying them with jigs and Carolina watermelon ring fries. The algae die off decimated what was an incredible run.

Caught 12 DD’s from 1994-1996 trolling ole Fork.

Don’t troll nowadays but definitely respect the fisherman up north for their skill sets when it comes to that technique.

We used to troll for white bass and stripers here in Texas. Our diving lure we always used was hellbenders with a Tony Aceta pet spoon tied on a leader on the back. One day I got hung up and we were down to our last hellbenders. I was able to get it loose and when I reeled it up I had a Mann’s loud mouth 20+ crankbait tangled on my hellbender. Well a few minutes later I got hung up again and this time I didn’t get my hellbender back so I tied on the crankbait I had pulled up. It didn’t take long and I caught a 7 1/2 pounder on the crankbait. A few minutes later I hung another huge bass but it jumped and came off. We started using crankbaits instead of hellbenders and we always caught some big bass while we were trolling for white bass and hybrids.

Caught two today that way. A four plus and a three.

I do it going from place to place with the trolling motor and to rest as well. Throwing a deep diver for very long makes for a long tiring day.

I troll bandits for crappie and always catch some green trash fish doing that

The reason trolling is not allowed in tournaments is because at least half would be won by trolling.

I still do that when I'm cooling off and graphing....still catch the occasional big bass but mostly catch big [censored] sand bass

Strolling is deadly when deep cranking. Your bait stays in zone soo much longer plus you cover deeper water. Done it many times on Rayburn. Make a really long cast past your target zone then free spool with trolling motor on high until you are past your area. Engage reel and get to cranking

I have strolled DD22-s before on Fork and caught some good ones doing that. If you do, be ready to loose some baits. You need it to bounce off the bottom to catch fish. If it is not deflecting off of something they will not bite it most of the time.

My brother and I were fun fishing at Lake Ray Roberts one day, trolling for sandbass, and I caught a 10 lb bass on a wiggle wart. It was 10 even on the scales. Took pics and threw her back. We grew up trolling for sandbass when I was a kid. Always caught other species while doing it. Have landed several big flatheads over the years. Lot of fun, especially with younger ones or people who just like catching.

I did this exact thing with the late great Dean Stroman on Fork a few different times. It was always a fun way to take a "break" during the middle of the day and in most cases right after a good lunch. He was a master at this we caught countless big fish doing it.