1. What power, action and length do you prefer on a crappie fishing rod. Any specific suggestions on brand/model of rods and reels are welcome as well.

 

2. I'm too broke to buy even a cheap setup dedicated to crappie right at the moment. All of my current setups are for bass or catfish. I've been using a 7' medium fast rod for crappie. It seems like I'm only hauling in about 50% of the bites I've gotten. I feel like I must be doing something wrong on the hookset. Any advice there?

 

 

Thanks.

I usually use an ultra light when going after crappies and panfish. I try to keep the length in the 6' to 6'9" range, but that's just a personal preference. I'm not sure if you are fishing with live bait or artificial, but I've always fished for them with minnows and I know with those you have to wait before setting the hook. Also, when you do set the hook you have to do it in a very soft manner. More of a lift and reel type hook set instead of a jerk. They don't call them paper-mouths for nothing. 

Thanks for the reply. That's what I suspected. I probably need to wait a second longer with the minnows. And I may have instinctively set the hook too hard a couple times too.

I use my dropshot rod for crappies and it works great. I do use larger baits than most guys use for crappie, but I don't catch very many smaller than 12" either Light line helps a lot too, I normally go with 4lb. 

I tend to favor 5 foot ultralights when fishing crappie around docks, but for when im using a bobber and minnow iI'll step it up to a 7 foot or 69 medium light helps pick up line quicker wthere'theres a breeze