Known also as the “papermouth”, crappie are famous
for their soft, paper-thin mouths and setting the hook too hard will simply tear the membrane and release your hook.
Technique for
setting the hook on a Crappie is very difficult to teach without someone to illustrate it for you. The trick is that
you definitely don’t want to yank the line. Practice makes perfect and usually all it takes is a quick jerk of
the wrist. The amount of pressure you’ll need, however, will also depend on how deeply you’re fishing.
If you’ve hooked a Crappie in shallow water, for example, any pressure you apply will be transferred directly to the
hook. If you’re fishing in deep water though, much of the force will dissipate before it actually gets down to
the fish.
Another factor is going to be the type of pole you’re using. For best results, you'll
want a pole that has a soft tip with a strong backbone. All of my poles are B'n'M Buck's Jig Poles for jigging,
and B'n'M Pro Staff Trolling Rods for slow trolling. I very seldom lose fish with these poles because I can set
the hook as hard as I want, and the soft tips help keep me from tearing the hooks out of their mouth. As I mentioned before, all
it takes is to quickly jerk your wrist upward without raising your elbow and arm.
Once the hook is set, you’ll need to keep a slight bow in your rod and tension on the line.
Allowing the line to go slack as you’re moving it toward the boat will give the crappie the opportunity to shake the
jig out of his mouth.
Once the crappie is close enough to the boat or shore, the strong backbone of the B'n'M Pole will allow
you to easily pull a crappie out of the water. It's equally important that you use a fishing net to pull
in the crappie, especially if its a big one. Make sure you’ve caught the crappie in the net before it reaches
the surface of the water or again, odds are that you’ll lose him.