Cranks question

Hi guys. Sorry for the rookie questions here, but any advice on a good basic cranks set up for fishing/trolling on the river; primarily Pool 4? As in, what do you recommend for a decent reel (line counter I assume) and rod (something as basic as an Ugly Stick ok? Length? Action?). And is lead core the ideal line set up? I’ve never used lead core. Finally, I’m fishing out of a 16 foot boat with a 40hp motor (2 stroke), and no kicker. So obviously tough reaching ideal slow speed etc. So it may be a moot issue for me.

For lead core reels, I prefer the size 47 reels from either Diawa or the Cabelas brand. These are large enough to hold a full 10 colors of line, which will allow you to reach any depths you would like. For rods, if i’m only running 2 lines, I normally like a 8′-8’6″ rod in a medium power with a fast tip. If I’m running more than 2 lines, I go a little longer than 8′ on the outside rods and use the 5′ shorties on the insides to reduce tangles. The fast tip will allow you to see the vibrations of your lure and detect a fouled bait much faster.

For fishing the river, I personally feel leadcore is a very effective setup and my favorite trolling method for rivers. You can fish it in 3′ of water all the way down to 40+ feet of water if you choose to do so. It also allows you to match the size/style of your baits much more effectively without having to worry about if that specific lure will dive deep enough to get you in the strike zone.

Also, for slowing down your boat, there are plenty of options available if you don’t have a kicker. A drift sock attached to the bow eye or 2 small drift socks on each bow cleat work well to slow down your speeds. A trolling plate may work in your case as well or even running your bowmount trolling motor in reverse.

Hope this helps.

Accudepth LC 17 is a decent entry level line counter reel. If you are using leadcore, the LC 47 is probably the better choice.

Here is a good article for you to look over.

If you can’t get down to 1.5 MPH with your set-up, you could always backtroll or use drift socks to slow you down.

I like the Flicker Shads as they are significantly cheaper than Rapala Shad Raps.

Great tips! Thanks guys. This is very helpful. I’ll start checking out supplies soon.

My boat trolls at around 3mph. Back trolling works, but it can get a little wet for the operator of the tiller. Splash guards would obviously help, but I don’t have them and don’t want them. I went the route of the drift socks, but instead of the expensive socks, I used a couple 5 gallon buckets. I hook them off of each side of the bow and it gets my trolling speeds down to 1.3 – 1.8 depending on the winds.

I don’t fish leadcore and bigger heavier setups only because you got to put them in rodholders a lot of the time, unless you got Popeye forearms. Leadcore works great and a lot of the time it is the way to go; but I like using Tidemasters and even spinning gear because I can hold the rod, feel the hit, and fight the fish rather than just winch it in. I just find it much more fun to keep the extras between me and the fish down to a minimum. This really works great about 12′ or shallower and gets difficult to do about 16′ or deeper. Just my .02 cents. Have fun!

dd

I would assume your boat is a tiller. That all ready makes it a great rig for trolling. If you can get it down to about 3mph getting speeds slower than that can be pretty easy. Drift socks, buckets, dropping the trolling motor and running against it all work well. When I need to slow down running against the trolling motor works best for me. You can also just kick the motor in and out of gear. This is a great trick when long line trolling. Get those lures to slow, stop and change speed over key pieces of structure sure can trigger bites.

free advice is worth what you pay it..i will not disagree with any of thr other post all are good advice but before you spend $ 500 on new gear get your butt in the boat and do it..ugly sticks work fine get the cranks you have in the water and do it..the nice thing about pool 4 is that you can run 2 lines per person and try out a number of cranks and let the fish teach you..that being said the right speed will get your lures in the right zone 1 to 1.5 mphs is a good range to start from speed up or slow down but get out there and do it

Yup. Tiller. At least with mine, sort hard to reach optimal low speed with my 2-stroke. But will have to experiment with your suggestions. Hadn’t considered running against the trolling motor. Btw, just how accurate are those handheld GPS units, or even an Iphone etc., for speed measurements? My current fish/depth finder is pretty worthless for low speed measurements and I’ll eventually upgrade. Just curious on the accuracy of the gps units or other options.

A hand held GPS should read your speed pretty well. A lot of the shorelines Im running current changes some much on them I run more by feel than watching the GPS. Speed up in some spots, slow down in others. Guess it just depends on how the lure feels on the end of the line and how it is contacting the bottom. Many of the fish I catch are caught while dropping the fishing pole back and forth to. This also tells me those fish do not want a constant speed. Learned a lot of this from running with just my depth finder speed wheel for a number of year before finely getting a hand held GPS unit for trolling mille lacs.

I think lake guys get more picky about speed adjustments where .2mph on a lake trolling run may make a huge difference in catching fish or not.

If you are looking for a basic GPS unit I have a old Garmin in my garage thats been sitting around for a while.

Come to think of it I might even have a couple of old Okuma Madga linecounters that have been taking up space in the garage for a while.

Cool. I appreciate the advice and offers, Mike. Lemme experiment a bit and see how it goes.

Like you, I got the itch to start trolling and have added as the years go by. Lot of ideas from some well experienced and insightful folks on this website. Started w/ 90hp 2stroke and buckets off the side cleats to slow ‘er down. Recently added a 7.5 hp kicker that is a gas saver. I still keep one small bucket over the front to calm the bow and reduce winddrift.
I like braided line on the cranks to go deeper and better read the crank action. 10# braid has been my choice. I have had success with the reasonably priced Frenzy crankbaits, but will try others as well. If grass is floating in the river system, do not be afraid to put a split shot sinker 2-3′ ahead of the crank to keep grass from fouling the crank action. Just a few things to consider. Tight lines, Epick4