mille lacs crawler harness ?

I’m going to build some crawler harness’s for a trip to mille lacs next week an was wondering what test,length,and preferred color and size blades most are useing on the flats? Thanks for all suggestions.

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Gary Roach says green trilene xt 10#. I’d go as long as your rod length. silver.

I really like the blades and components from Jolly Roger Tackle. Pull it up online and you can see the different colors and options. They are also made with the best hooks IMO. Electric Perch has been putting a lot of fish in my boat so far this year.

Are jolley roger blades available in any stores in the metro preferably east metro? Due to timing ordering on will not work . Thanks much

#4 circle hook or octopus hook. I’ve been told the eyes can see gold or copper color better. Blade size I like #3, #3 folded clevis. I have experimented with the clevis that allows you to switch out the blades. They seem to work as good as the metal ones. 6 beads black seems to out do others at times. 5.5 to 6 foot Trilene 10 pound test. Bottom bouncer 1\2 to 3\4 ounce. About 4 inches between the hooks.Good luck

I’ve found that fishing 100% fluorocarbon versus mono can double your catch rate on bright sunny days. IMO 10-14# Suffix 100% fluorocarbon is the way to go. For harnesses I typically use a 6′ length. Like Brian said above, I am a big fan of the Jolly Roger blades… They ship fast so if you looked them up online you should be able to get some or just have them shipped right up to the resort. VMC or Gamakatsu hooks. One other thought is I like using the small plastic clevises that allow you to change blades.

Will

Hammered copper with red beads has been a mainstay for me while pink and royal blue work as well. This past weekend blue was the most consistent. I think I use a #5 blade, but I’d have to check to be sure.

Everyone has their own system for running spinners. I use a 3-way with a 12-18 inch dropper and use 1 ounce of weight for every 10 foot of water I’m fishing. Usually I’m fishing 25-35 feet so I use 3 ounce bell sinker. 7-8 feet is the length of my leaders using 10# green XT.

I guess I am out of the norm, but I like to use smoke fireline 10# for my crawler snells. They take a beating so that’s why I use fireline. I use Gamakatsu octopus #4 on the front hook and #6 on the back/trailer hook. I like to use the green anodized hooks. I make mine about 6-7′ long and use the clevis that you can change the spinner blade. Hammered gold has been my go to color for the blade and I like to run green and orange beads. A lot of time I put a floater in the bead string to help keep the crawler off the bottom. I use stick weights 1.5 – 2oz.

Will,
If may be so bold as to ask, what are your favorite color blades and beads.

Its great to hear everyone’s opinions. The easy suggestion is just to order up some pretied Jolly Roger Tackle but I also tie my own using their components. I use 9-10′ 10 lb mono leaders with #4 hooks. I front of the hooks are 6 3mm or 4mm beads and then a quick change blade clevis. Favorite beads are the pearl chart. or pearl white beads. For blade colors I like Electric Perch, Nuclear Perch, Red Craw, and Seyka Perch. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

I was up for 3 days this last weekend. We couldn’t get anything longer than 13″ on crawlers. We ended up rigging jumbo leeches on a 14′ floro snell, with a 1 1/2oz bottom bouncer and either gold or red hooks in size 1,2, or 4. I fished small tournaments on Saturday and Sunday and won both of them, I think my advantage was that I was using longer snells than the competition (We all fished the same flat, so I watched what other people were doing).

I would recommend sitting in your boat with the rod you plan on using for pulling harnesses and pretend you have a fish on. Extend your rod as high and far as you can and measure the distance from the tip of your rod to where the fish will be. Start with that as the longest snell you can use to successfully land a fish and make a few different smaller sizes (They are easier to use, but in clear water you might be better off going longer)

I use 10lb trilene xt, I measure two arm lengths, about 12 feet and go from there. You can always make them shorter. As far as colors, everybody has their favorites.

joshkral wrote:

I was up for 3 days this last weekend. We couldn’t get anything longer than 13″ on crawlers. We ended up rigging jumbo leeches on a 14′ floro snell, with a 1 1/2oz bottom bouncer and either gold or red hooks in size 1,2, or 4. I fished small tournaments on Saturday and Sunday and won both of them, I think my advantage was that I was using longer snells than the competition (We all fished the same flat, so I watched what other people were doing).

I would recommend sitting in your boat with the rod you plan on using for pulling harnesses and pretend you have a fish on. Extend your rod as high and far as you can and measure the distance from the tip of your rod to where the fish will be. Start with that as the longest snell you can use to successfully land a fish and make a few different smaller sizes (They are easier to use, but in clear water you might be better off going longer)

Those are some great tips, congrats on the wins. I am still not convinced that the spinner bite is in full swing….although we have been turning fish, there are a lot of pods that I am working that just won’t bite. Here’s what I have been doing lately, seems to put a few more fish topside. When I pass over a pod of fish, I’ll mark it with a waypoint. I’ll make 2 passes through them with blades and another with a plain hook snell. If I don’t get bit, I’ll Spotlock my Terrova over the pod and throw out a slip bobber rig. I have almost always got at least one fish to bite out of that particular pod. Sometimes they absolutely won’t chase anything, probably because there is so much food in the system right now….just my thoughts. However, sometimes they can’t resist a lively leech.

rwilliam wrote:

Will,
If may be so bold as to ask, what are your favorite color blades and beads.

Baby walleye & electric perch blades and I like to alternate blue/white/sliver beads

brian_peterson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>joshkral wrote:</div>
I was up for 3 days this last weekend. We couldn’t get anything longer than 13″ on crawlers. We ended up rigging jumbo leeches on a 14′ floro snell, with a 1 1/2oz bottom bouncer and either gold or red hooks in size 1,2, or 4. I fished small tournaments on Saturday and Sunday and won both of them, I think my advantage was that I was using longer snells than the competition (We all fished the same flat, so I watched what other people were doing).

I would recommend sitting in your boat with the rod you plan on using for pulling harnesses and pretend you have a fish on. Extend your rod as high and far as you can and measure the distance from the tip of your rod to where the fish will be. Start with that as the longest snell you can use to successfully land a fish and make a few different smaller sizes (They are easier to use, but in clear water you might be better off going longer)

Those are some great tips, congrats on the wins. I am still not convinced that the spinner bite is in full swing….although we have been turning fish, there are a lot of pods that I am working that just won’t bite. Here’s what I have been doing lately, seems to put a few more fish topside. When I pass over a pod of fish, I’ll mark it with a waypoint. I’ll make 2 passes through them with blades and another with a plain hook snell. If I don’t get bit, I’ll Spotlock my Terrova over the pod and throw out a slip bobber rig. I have almost always got at least one fish to bite out of that particular pod. Sometimes they absolutely won’t chase anything, probably because there is so much food in the system right now….just my thoughts. However, sometimes they can’t resist a lively leech.

We found similar results pulling lead on Saturday with crankbaits but didn’t have any live bait so we spotlocked on a pod of fish and pitched jigging raps and picked up 4 fish very quickly.

Well pulling bottom bouncers and crawler harness did not pan out but 10/12 FT live bait rig with one red bead was lites out crazy.Fished the tops of flats with the wind and clouds/smoke haze fish bit all day. Many 12/15″ fish but also caught 4 over 25″ on friday.

We also parked on top of a small flat that was holding fish and pitched jigging raps. Everything caught was around 13″. All of our bigger fish were caught before 10 a.m.