Crappie Pole

[StriperDon]

I just bought my first crappie pole and have no idea how to rig it. It's 13 ft.long. Do I just rig it like a cane pole with the line about as long as the pole? What pound test line should I use? What are the best floats to use? I normally use ultra lite spinning gear for crappie and thought I would give one of these a try just to try something different. Once you find a school it seems like this would be the ideal way of fishing it.

[Devils Horse]

You rig it like a cane pole. This kind of pole is indeed better in many ways than spinning gear for crappie fishing. Often you are fishing bushes, downed trees, or brush piles and with this long ole pole you can lower and raise your bait straight up and down. You can position the bait better and get hung half as often. Last spring my mama (yeah guys spanked by my mama, and she seldom lets me forget it either) wore me out with one of those long ole snatch poles. She was busy harvesting huge crappie out of the brush at Barren while I was busy breaking off and retying with my ultra light spinning outfit.

I've since gotten me a long crappie rod to use when necessary. I rig it with 10 lb test line and a light bobber for minnow fishing, but you'd probably want to lighten up on the line for jigs. When you get hung, the 10lb test will usually straighten out a Mr.Crappie hook instead of breaking it off. Bend it back in shape with the pliers, slap on a new minnow and get back to business.