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Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far and getting to spend some nice time with the fam and chasing some slabs! Let's get into some more crappie 🧃!

Matthew Rogers with some post-spawn 🧃

Got in touch with MO pro Matthew Rogers while he was out practicing for the Crappie Masters derb on his home pond, Truman Lake, MO. Dude is a hammer – look at all the hardware in his Facebook banner. 👀

Anyways, sometimes mapping, areas and patterns can be a bigger deal than baits. So I asked Matthew about how he breaks down areas right now – this is where he's putting in his time:

> "Main-lake flats, the opposite side of the river channel – wherever that lake has a big flat in it and doesn't have a lot of contour that comes up and down.

> "Ditches into it are really good because those are travel routes where there's some deeper water. A lot of times in a ditch like that, there'll be good tree rows."

He said he's not looking insanely deep right now – 5-12' on Truman.

What makes a flat more high-percentage?

> "A main-lake flat that's adjacent to a couple of big spawning creeks is going to be really high-percentage just because so many fish spawn in that creek.

> "There's also flats you just wouldn't typically think are going to be good. If you go scan them, and there's not a lot of structure around – especially flats that are not as clean or not as noticeable – that one piece of structure that's there typically always has some fish around it."

Once you find the flats or tree rows you want to pick apart, how are you working through them?

> "There's a lot of good tree rows on fields on the lake that always produce fish. When it comes to just catching bigger fish in general, you've got to cover a lot of water.

> "In the trees, when I get up there I'm bringing my [LiveScope] forward range in to 25', even sometimes 20' so I can really pick apart the structure."

When he fishes these flats right now, Matthew said in clean water he's casting to fish, and dirty water (like Truman) he's long-poling.

Matthew's long-poling gear

> 2.5" BoneHead Tackle Minnow in 'chartreuse diablo' (L) or 'blue grass' with a 1/16- or 1/32-oz jighead: the Big Bite Baits Vertex jighead, which is now the Swimmer Head.

> "It's got a little bit stouter hook in it [for long-poling, especially around cover] and a 1/4-1/2 oz weight above the jighead."

More

> "Whenever I'm fishing hedge trees or structure, I like a single 1/8-oz jighead. When you have that weight above the jig in trees and structure, it's kind of a pain because the weight bumps other stuff that you're not trying to hit, and you can't let it drop all the way down.

> "I use [straight] 15-lb Bass Pro 100% XPS Fluoro. I try to stick with fluorocarbon 100% of the time.... That way I don't have to question it.

> "You can get away with braid on these dingy-water lakes, but I personally think if I was going to do any braid, I would at least put a fluoro leader on it to give myself every chance I can as far as that fish biting.

> "I like a 14' Dobyns Josh Jones Hyperlite and a 12' BoneHead E-Series Carbon Fiber Rod.

> "A 14-footer in the open water because our fish aren't very spooky. In the trees, the 12-footer, so I can easily pick apart the structure."

A little cranking Q&A with Brad Chappell

When Brad Chappell isn't hosting The Crappie Connection, he's a Ross Barnett, MS 🔨 and a wiz 🧙‍♂️ on the crankbait trolling deal. I picked his brain on that a little:

> "I'm not using planer boards. I'm starting directly behind the boat with an 8', 12', either a 14' [or] 16', all the way up to 18' [rods], and stair-step them out of the back of the boat

> "I'm running really detailed ledges – pretty tight [contour] lines pulling 8 poles at a time, pulling 8 Bandit 300s.

Why ledges vs other types of structure?

> "I want some kind of ledge that has [stumps or brushpiles] on it.

> "The river ledge that runs throughout the lake is our deepest water. It generally goes out to around 30' to 35'. On the top side of the ledge, it goes up anywhere from 15' to about 12'.

> "I run right along that ledge line, and...right above some type of stump or brushpile or something like that.

> "Now and then we'll bump some of the structure gets up a little bit higher, and bumping it is fine. If you can run into them and bounce off of them, a lot of times that'll generate a strike as well."

Does bait presence or certain conditions make for better trolling conditions?

> "The sunnier the better. I want bright sunny days – something that really positions the fish on some kind of structure.

> "We have bait throughout the lake, so our crappie don't look for bait. They just wait for the shad to come to them."

Do you like super bright or natural colors?

> "The new 'Mo' Glo outlaw' has been fantastic for me. I was really excited when I saw that new color come out, and it's a solid chartreuse green."

Why does the Bandit 300 seem to be the trolling crank for most crappie peeps?

> "It has the right wiggle, has the right sound and it just looks right for a crappie to bite it.

> "You might think, 'Well, it's probably only going to catch the biggest fish in the lake.' Literally a crappie 6 inches or bigger will hit a Bandit 300.

> "I've been pulling crankbaits 20 years now. I started out with Bandit 300s and never had to change. They've just flat-out catch fish.

> "[Also] you can really fine-tune your depth with the Precision Trolling Data app."

I didn't even know that app existed – looks like it has all kinds of data on different crankbaits with their diving specs and how fast to run 'em. Pretty cool! Here it is on IOS and Android if you wanna check it out.

Here's those new Bandit 300 Custom Bobby Garland cranks!

Just out and a limited run so get 'em while you can! Top left is the color Brad was talking about:

What's the "guide difference"?

After our crankbait convo I asked Brad what makes guides so good – meaning what do these guys do differently to day in/day out put limits + big ones in the boat?

I figured he'd say they fish different areas or they're just way better at Scope or something, but he said:

> "...attitude.

> "I think it's easy to get out there and say 'they're not biting today'.

> "[A good attitude allows guides to] pick out the really fine, detailed differences of what the fish are doing, how they are reacting to baits and really paying attention to what the fish are telling us – especially [with] live sonar.

> "There's information that we're getting from the fish throughout the day [that] is nothing that we've ever seen beforehand. Even with years of experience, we keep changing up, keep really fine-tuning what's working and forgetting what's not working.

> "Everybody kind of seems to fall back [to] what way they're comfortable fishing instead of the way the fish actually want it."

That's one of the biggest things I saw when I got on the boat with Kayle Ward and Jerry Hancock at CrappieFest. Even when we were doing media stuff and then some fun-fishing – those dudes went 110% the whole time and you could just tell they were picking up every bit of info they could. Those guides are on another level man!

Why the Lindner team likes the Rapala Countdown for crappies

Cool tidbit from a recent Lindner's Angling Edge FB post:

> As crappies start to push out of the shallows and feed heavily after post-spawn, minnow baits become deadly again. The Rapala Countdown has been one of our favorites over the years for panfish during this period.

> The Countdown allows you to consistently put a smaller hardware bait in the face of those deeper fish. The countdown metric also allows you to reel it right over weeds and other structures without snagging. 

In you're unfamiliar, the Rapala Countdown Elite is a sinking balsa crankbait you can count down (hence the name) to whatever depth you want, then reel it back through that zone. Check 'em out here on Tackle Warehouse!

Would you fish this?

Tournament after tournament after tournament this year in bass fishing at all levels – including the top level, even just last weekend...

...is being won on these baits. The bass are acting so dumb – they've never seen it before so they smash it.

Have you tried it for crappie yet? If so, let us know what you're finding out!

If you haven't tried it yet – would you?

1. MS: Free fishing event for kids who lost their dads...

...on Sardis, Jul 25. ✝️🙏

2. FL: Best bite at Johns Lake is the hottest part of the day

> In the past the best bite during the summer has been early morning during low-light conditions. As of late the best bite has been between 11am and 2pm, the hottest part of the day.

3. TX: Cedar Creek hot weather summer bite tip

True for a lot of lakes in the South right now:

> The trick now is fishing brushpiles or laydown logs in water 15-20' deep and the bite is usually best within a couple feet of bottom. This heavy cover attracts all sorts of baitfish and crappie move in for easy picking.

> Bridge columns can also be productive – the algae on the columns attract the bait and you will find crappie where their food source is most plentiful.

4. ND: It's deep weedline bite time

> Depending on water clarity, the deep weedline is often in 12-20' of water. Various weed types make up these edges, with a high percentage of crappie holding spots, often being weedlines with cabbage weeds present.

> A small panfish plastic threaded on a light jig-head and cast to the weeds and slowly retrieved to the boat is a great way to cover water and find active crappies.

5. TN: Crappie Connection pod on fishing Percy Priest

6. OH: Deer Creek has good pops of black and white crappie

7. The Minn Kota Summer Sale was extended! 👀

The Minn Kota Summer Kickoff Sale has been extended to end on Friday, Jun 26. Don't miss your chance to save up to $300 on Terrova, Ultrex, Edge and Endura trolling motors:

8. BnM Buck’s Graphite Jig Pole now available in 18' and 20'

9. FL is doing a burn on north side of Okeechobee this week

> ...a prescribed burn on Eagle Bay Island and Kings Bar...weather permitting. The burn area will be up to 3,500 acres and includes cattail, willow and other associated vegetation.

10. Could data centers become the biggest threat to fishing?

Interesting post by Jay Kumar on the BassBlaster. He says: Where do you think fish and fishing will be on this list?



• AI supported by billions of $$$ and thus every politician
• Drinking water for people
• Farming/Ag
• Flood control
• Fisheries/fishing

Good question. Yikes.

Use the blue palette for a "bullseye"?

Talking about the color palette on your LiveScope or MEGA Live 2 or whichever you run. Here's Fish-Eat-Live's Kirby Ham on why he uses the 'blue' palette on his Garmin LiveScope:

> "Every palette on the Garmin gives you a monotone color other than...'blue'. I call it bullseye blue because the blue and the yellow, when mixed, give a hot return – I call it the red bullseye.

> "You get a 3-color combo and then...when each fish is lined up perfectly, it gives you a red dot – that blue and yellow making that bullseye."

20 minutes and nothing to show for it...might as well put it on the trailer at that point! 🤣

I love this pic! Yep hes holding it out, but dang what a big beautiful fish!

That's throwing it back to Feb 2021 when David Burruss boated what I think is still the state record: 4 lbs 5.3 oz. Looks bigger than that – and I have heard that bigger crappie than that have been caught on the same lake that one was: Clear Lake. I gotta go! 🫨

National Professional Anglers Assoc.

MN-FISH