From Crappie World Magazine
Trolling Tips Proper Boat Speed, Equipment & Rod Setup
Story & Photos By Darl Black

I pulled on the sides of my stocking cap to better cover my ears.
“It’s about as cold as it ever gets down here in January,” said Marc Danque, my host on this trip and owner of The Crappie Hole. “Don’t mention to anyone today that you just flew in from the North to go fishing. Otherwise, they’ll shake a finger at you for bringing this cold with you, and I’ll get blamed, too, for inviting you down.”

- Advertisement -

We didn’t have to worry much about meeting many people at Lake Wylie on this winter day. There was only one other vehicle and boat trailer in the parking lot when we launched. However, a little unseasonable cold seemed a small price to pay given the size and numbers of crappie we were catching.
Danque had been introduced to me as a “crappie trolling wizard.” It was quickly apparent why this title had been bestowed upon him. With 16 lines out, it looked like a forest hanging over the sides of the boat. However, Danque’s setup was so precise in rod length and placement that the lines did not tangle as the boat made wide, sweeping turns. Even landing a hooked crappie rarely upset the trolling rhythm.

Trolling Tactics
Danque has been crappie fishing his entire life. He was a dock shooter and jigger when first attracted to tournaments in 1988. But in the early 1990s, Danque began traveling beyond his home area in South Carolina to fish different circuits.
“Many of these new lakes did not have docks or the type of cover that I was accustomed to fishing,” he said. “I realized that I needed to re-educate myself to stay competitive. Long-line trolling with multiple lines seemed the way to go. I was fishing a lot in Georgia, and those boys down there were into trolling heavy, so I learned a lot from them.”
Danque soon discovered that he could cover a lot of water while trolling in a relatively short time.
“With the opportunity to put out as many as 16 different jig colors, you can key in on the bite a lot quicker than you can by casting docks or dipping stumps with a single bait,” he added.
Tight-lining (or spider-rigging) with minnows is generally the accepted multiple-rod approach for cold-water crappie because it is expected that all fish are deep and somewhat sluggish. But Danque is quick to point out that tight-lining forces you to creep along at a very slow speed, thereby limiting the area you can explore.
“Upon discovering that I could successfully catch crappie through the winter months by long-line trolling, tight-lining has taken a back seat,” Danque noted.
He has found that crappie are in similar areas during both summer and winter — situated offshore on large flats, typically around deep brushpiles, along ledges or just cruising. These are situations perfect for trolling.
“The speeds at which we troll in winter apparently are not too fast for crappie in 40-degree water,” Danque said. “Furthermore, we are discovering that crappie in some lakes during winter may be a heck of a lot closer to the surface than anyone realized before.”
Danque told of an eye-opening incident on Kerr Buggs Reservoir when he had to break skim ice to launch. To his surprise, he found crappie positioned only 2 feet under the surface.
“There were plenty of small crappie at 13 to 18 feet that most anglers were targeting, but the big ones were laid up just under the surface,” Danque recalled. “They weren’t supposed to be there in winter. I suspect it was sunlight warming the surface water that drew minnows and crappie up, but I can’t say for sure. What I can tell you is that under similar conditions in winter, I now fish the water column much shallower than I did a few years ago, often pulling jigs within 5 feet of the surface.”

Trolling Speeds
“Everything about crappie fishing,” is how Danque describes his Crappie Hole tackle business. As he focused in on trolling, he began designing rod holders and building custom speed sensors for trolling.
“Maintaining accurate, consistent speeds while trolling with your electric motor is the key to success,” stressed Danque. “My boat speed controls the depth of my bait, not the weight.”
Most trollers rely on a sensor speed more so than GPS speed. GPS does not update fast enough to register the slow, constant speed.
“GPS is getting better, but it’s not there yet,” noted Danque.
However, the standard manufacturer’s speed sensor on the transducer simply is not sensitive enough at slow trolling speeds. The wheel will not turn, and thus it cannot send a signal to the depthfinder.
Taking a standard speed sensor, Danque adds bushings and a larger propeller to turn the wheel easily at slow speeds. Then he mounts the transducer with a sensor on the bow trolling motor in “free” water rather than on the transom where boat hull turbulence can cause interference with speed readings.
“With my refitted speed sensors, trollers get a true reading whether they are going with the wind or against the wind,” Danque added. “Thus, with accurate speed, baits are going to run at identifiable depths in all conditions.”
But an accurate speed sensor is only one part of a total depth-control program. All of Danque’s rod-and-reel combos are spooled with 6-pound test. A 1⁄16-ounce jig is tied on the business end of each one. He has taken the time to plot the trolling depth of this jig weight and diameter line by running across a uniform sloping flat while varying his speed and recording the speed number when the jig touched bottom at various depth intervals.
“It’s time-consuming work, but extremely vital to trolling success,” Danque noted. “Most guys will not take the time to do that. They just want to go fishing. If they are trolling and start catching fish, they look down to see what speed they are going, but they don’t have a clue how deep their baits are running.”
However, with his compiled information, should Danque spot crappie on his sonar at a certain depth while idling across a flat, he knows exactly what speed number to start at — given the jig weight and line size — to put the bait right at that depth.
“If I want to pull jigs at 22 feet, I normally run 0.3 to 0.4, but if I want to pull them at 2 feet, I run at 2.8,” Danque explained. “Those are my reference speed numbers. For someone else with a different boat and motor — and different size line — the numbers will be different.”

Trolling Equipment
According to Danque, almost every serious troller in his region is using a trolling motor with hand-and-foot-free steering. This allows the boat to continue on course while the anglers onboard are busy tying on new baits, adjusting rods or landing fish.
“The best boat for trolling is a heavy, deep V because it holds the water so much better than an aluminum flat bottom or a skiff, which can get blown about,” Danque said. “Until a boat manufacturer finally comes out with one built to our specifications, the popular ones with crappie trollers will be the walleye models designed for rough water.”
Good depthfinders are also critical equipment for trollers, with the newer color displays revealing more details than ever before.
As would be expected, rod holders are a vital component. Danque manufactures and markets his own holders, simply called Marc’s Rod Holders.
To effectively run from eight to 16 rods (depending on tournament regulations), Danque has specific rod-length requirements.
“I like softer rod actions and cannot find a single manufacturer who makes all the lengths — from 6 feet to 16 feet — that I need in the action I like,” he said. “Therefore, my rods are a mixture of Silstar, B’n’M and Wally Marshall rods. My reels are mostly Silstar.”

The Setup
With a 16-rod setup, eight rods are placed on the transom and four are placed on each side of the boat about midship. The transom set includes a 6-, 7-, 8- and 9-foot rod on either side of the outboard, starting with 6-footers next to the motor. The starboard and port each receives a 10-, 12-, 14- and 16-foot rod, with the lengths arranged progressively as you move toward the front.
The amount of line out is simply measured by one long cast. No additional line is pulled from the spool. Danque does not recommend opening the bail and letting line spill off the spool because it is impossible to get a consistent amount of line out each time by this method. With strategically placed rods of varying lengths and the same amount of line out on each rod, entanglement is kept to a minimum.
When a crappie is hooked and landed on a particular rod, it is important to return the bait by casting straight out from that rod-holder position and placing the rod back in the exact spot.
Danque never adds weight in front of a jig, and only rarely does he mix jig weights.
“A 1⁄16-ounce jig is my standard,” he said. “I’m all about boat speed to put the jig at the depth of the fish.”
Under windy conditions, he will go to 1⁄8-ounce jigs, but no heavier. Also, with the discovery of high-riding winter crappie, he has been experimenting with tandem 1⁄16-ounce jigs on the same rod to cover deeper water while also covering the water column closer to the surface with a single 1⁄16-ounce jig.
But even with the same weight jig, he points out that lure-running depth will vary up to 18 inches based on the type of soft-plastic body on the jig. A tube body or marabou tail has less drag than a curly-tailed body. Therefore, the body with less resistance will run a little deeper at the same speed.
Danque does not favor a particular manufacturer’s line of jig bodies. He uses them all. He carries an incredible selection of body styles and colors, starting each outing with a spectrum of combinations, including ones he believes should produce in the given water clarity based on his years of experience in different lakes.
The key strategy of using a high number of rods is the ability to offer lots of colors. As a certain color combination or a particular style of jig body draws more strikes, he fine-tunes the baits on the other lines. Meanwhile, crappie preferences are likely to change as the skies either brighten or become cloudier.
“I generally run lighter colors in clearer water and dark colors in dingier water,” Danque said. “But I’m constantly switching up colors throughout the day to adjust to changing conditions.”
Since it’s impossible for everybody to have a personal lesson from the trolling wizard, you can apply this information on his long-wand techniques to your next outing.

Want more great articles from Bassin' and Crappie World magazines?
Click here to download PDF articles just as they appeared in print.