MORE ON CRANKBAITING FOR CRAPPIE AND OTHER KENT DRISCOLL
TACTICS
How Driscoll Trolls Minnows and Jigs
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, has enjoyed
fishing for crappie for 30 years. He's fished in crappie
tournaments for 10 years, winning numbers of local tournaments,
several one-day tournaments and finishing third in 2000
and fourth in 2002 at the North American Crappie Classic.
Each spring and summer, Driscoll fishes the Crappie
USA Circuit, Crappiemasters and the new Crappie Angler's
Association, using a wide variety of tactics that produce
crappie all year long. Let's learn how Driscoll finds
and catches crappie.
When I'm trolling minnows and jigs, I have two pole
holders in the front of the boat - one on the left side
and one on the right side and each one of these rod
holders will hold four poles. So I've got eight poles
off the front of the boat. And if I have double rigs
on each one of these poles, I have 32- different
bait selections from which the crappie can choose. And
if I'm fishing with a partner who has the same number
of pole holders on the back of the boat, is also mixing
up his baits and is using the double rig, we can have
as may as 64-different baits in the water at one time.
And when that smorgasbord of baits comes through a school
of crappie, we can learn quickly what bait at what depth
and at what speed the crappie want to feed.
Driscoll: We let the crappie tell us what type of bait
they prefer on that day. When we first start trolling,
we'll use both minnows and jigs, and we'll use a jig
tipped with a minnow. Since we'll often have as many
as 16 poles out at one time, we can test on different
poles various types of baits to see what the crappie
want on that day. Many times when we begin trolling,
we'll not only be experimenting with minnows and jigs,
but we'll often have a crankbait or two down also. We
actually have had as many as 32-different baits in the
water at the same time because when I'm trolling with
a partner and fishing with both minnows and jigs, I'm
using a Caps and Coleman rig. These two fishermen are
five- time
national champions on the crappie-fishing circuit. Their
rigs have a weight and two different drop lines so that
you can actually troll two baits at one time.
On the front of my boat, the poles that will be fishing
out of the very front rod holders will be set so that
they're fishing the deepest of any of the poles. This
way, if the front poles get hung in the brush, I can
simply let out line on those two poles and keep the
boat moving forward to allow the baits on the other
poles to pass by the brush and catch any of the crappie
holding in the brush before I return to the brush and
get the first two poles un-hung. Once I get the front
two  poles
un-hung, I'll study the brush pile on my depth finder
to determine how deep the brush is. I'll adjust all
the poles up so that the jigs and minnows can pass over
the top of the brush the next time I pass over that
brush pile. For instance, if the brush is on a 14-foot
bottom and it's sticking up 4 feet off the bottom, I'll
set my depth on my poles at 10 feet because the speed
of the motor will pull the baits up slightly above the
brush. The next time I go over that brush pile, all
my baits will be swimming just above the brush where
the crappie can see them and eat them.
To learn more about Mossy Oak Fishing Line, go to www.mossyoakfishing.com.
For more information about B'n'M Crappie Poles, visit
www.bnmpoles.com.
TOMORROW: HOW TO FIND CRAPPIE
ON A NEW LAKE
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