Press Releases

Kent Driscoll Crappie Fishing in the Predator

Day 1: Home Away from Home – the War Eagle Predator 861

Editor’s Note: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, a longtime member of War Eagle Boat’s Pro Staff team, has been crappie fishing for over 30 years and competes in national crappie tournaments each season. He’s helped design the Predator 861, and this week he’ll tell us how he’s fishing and why he appreciates this boat so much.

I’ve been fishing out of the War Eagle Predator 861 for 2 years. It’s my home away from home. And, when you spend as much time in a boat as I do, you really learn what the boat can do. The Predator is an extraordinary crappie boat because it was built by crappie fisherman for crappie fisherman. When I sit down in the front of my Predator, I feel like I’m the pilot of an airplane because everything I need to do my job is right at my fingertips. When a pilot gets in a cockpit, he never has to get up to take off, change course or land. So when I’m crappie fishing, I’m the pilot of my boat. Everything I need to find, catch and store crappie is right at my fingertips. My minnow bait well, live well, trolling racks and depth finder are all within easy reach from my seat. I can re-circulate water or fill my live well without getting out of my seat. My buoy markers are in a recessed part of the deck in the front of the boat, so I don’t have to get up to go get them. When you tournament crappie fish like I do, or even crappie fish for fun, you don’t want to have to be constantly getting up and down looking for rods, equipment, tackle, bait or controls. You’ve bought the boat to go fishing. Why not buy a boat that maximizes your fishing time, organizes your equipment and allows you to stay in your seat fishing, instead of spending your time looking for stuff to fish with, taking care of your fish or performing other chores?

December Fishing Tip:
In December, the crappie generally will be holding from 8-feet deep to the surface, depending on the weather conditions. If I’m fishing on really-sunny days, the crappie will be deeper than they are on cloudy or overcast days. Multi-pole fishing lets me find the depth at which most of the crappie are feeding faster than I can with only one pole. With the 14-foot B’n’M Capps & Coleman poles, I can cover a lot of water. The front of my boat is about 5-feet wide. So, with a 14-foot Capps & Coleman pole off the right side of my boat and another pole of the same length off the left side of my boat, I’m sweeping about 33 feet of water at a time. The poles inside those two poles on the outermost edge also are 14-foot poles. I prefer the same length of poles when I’m spider rigging. Then all the tips of the poles will be the same distance away from the boat. This way, when I look at the tips to see if I’ve gotten a bite, I can see the tips of the poles quicker and react to a bite faster. For me, it’s easier to fish poles all the same length.

You also can locate crappie by searching for shad on your depth finder. At whatever depth the shad are holding, the crappie will be holding either at that depth or just below or above the shad. I like to spider rig in bays with creeks or ditches in December because crappie are relatively-lazy fish, and they prefer to move along bottom breaks, such as creek channels or ditches.

For more information on War Eagle’s top-quality boats, click here.

Tomorrow: The Predator Will Take You There and Bring You Back

Day 2: The Predator Will Take You There and Bring You Back

Editor’s Note: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, a longtime member of War Eagle Boat’s Pro Staff team, has been crappie fishing for over 30 years and competes in national crappie tournaments each season. He’s helped design the Predator 861, and this week he’ll tell us how he’s fishing and why he appreciates this boat so much.

My Predator boat handles rough water better than any boat I’ve fished out of before, something I especially appreciate at this time of the year. The boat’s just over 18-feet long and has high sides. It’s not a flat-bottomed boat; it’s more of a v-bottom. All these components in the hull and side make the boat cut through the waves rather than bounce over them and keeps the spray off of you if you have to run in rough water. The hull design gets me to and from my fishing sites quickly and keeps me dry. If a storm blows up, I know I can get back to the launch site easily in my Predator, and I don’t have to fight the steering. The boat handles well in rough water, and it’s a tough boat. I don’t have to worry about running into a stump or a log underwater when I’m trying to get from one fishing destination to another.

The real test of a good crappie fishing boat is when you make a decision to go from one place to another, and you don’t have to think about the boat. You don’t have to wonder about what’s going to happen to you on the way to your fishing destination or when you leave it. I know that the War Eagle Predator offers me a safe, stable platform to fish from as well as a comfortable ride to reach to my fishing spot and get safely back again.

December Fishing Tip:
At this time of year, I’ve found that the crappie will be concentrated in the bays close to some kind of ditch or creek channel. Now, if you can find stumps or logs on the edges of the creek channels or the ditches, the likelihood of finding crappie will be much greater. Many people believe that because the water’s cool at this time of year, the crappie will be deep. But that’s not necessarily true. Once the water temperature drops below 55, the crappie start moving back out to deeper water. Therefore, when I go to a new lake, I first look at the water temperature. Many times in the South we don’t get 55-degree water until late December, so the bays really pay-off in crappie dividends from now until the water gets colder. When the water hits 55 degrees or less, I’ll pull out of the bays and fish deep creeks and ledges on the main lake.

Water temperature determines how you fish for crappie in December. If the water temperature’s below 55 degrees, fish with a single B’n’M Buck’s Ultra-Lite pole, work the cover thoroughly with your jigs, and fish the deep ledges and creek channels. If the water temperature’s above 55 degrees, fish the bays in the upper ends of lakes, and spider rig with the 11-foot B‘n’M Capps & Coleman poles. The crappie don’t die in the wintertime. You just have to use different tactics to catch them. So, don’t sit at home thinking about crappie fishing. Go out, and catch a fine mess of those great-tasting fillets.

For more information on War Eagle’s top-quality boats, click here.

Tomorrow: A Good Boat Should Accommodate Your Electronics

Day 3: A Good Boat Should Accommodate Your Electronics

Editor’s Note: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, a longtime member of War Eagle Boat’s Pro Staff team, has been crappie fishing for over 30 years and competes in national crappie tournaments each season. He’s helped design the Predator 861, and this week he’ll tell us how he’s fishing and why he appreciates this boat so much.

Electronics play a major role in my fishing, whether I’m running the boat or casting. My depth finder and Humminbird 997 side-imaging unit give me maximum visibility under the water. They allow me to see the bait, the fish and the type of cover and structure that’s under the boat. I’ll set my Humminbird side-imaging unit up on the side of the boat with a ram mount. By mounting the side-imaging unit with this mount, I can turn the unit 180 degrees. Then by simply looking over my shoulder, I can see the side-imaging display from the front of the boat. Or, if I want to check the GPS portion of the side-imaging unit and search for specific waypoints, I don’t have to get out of my seat at the front of the boat. All I have to do is look over my shoulder.

I use a portable transducer mount on the transom of my Predator 861 because the transducer for this unit costs about $300, and I’m often running in stump fields. I want to be able to move that transducer up or down, depending on the depth of the underwater structure where I’m fishing. If I’m fishing an area with numbers of stumps and logs, like Tennessee’s Reelfoot Lake or the back of Grenada Lake in Mississippi, I want to be able to raise that transducer up. But if I’m fishing on Kentucky Lake, I want to have my transducer deeper in the water since. Since I don’t want to break my transducer off in shallow areas, that portable mount solves this problem for me. When I pull it up shallow, I can’t use the transducer for side imaging, but I won’t break it off either.

On the front of the boat, I have a second depth finder – a Humminbird 787. This unit doesn’t have a side-imaging feature, but it does have GPS and an internal antenna for the GPS. I also mount this unit with a ram mount about 8-inches off my deck. Then I can watch my rod tips and my depth finder at the same time and see if I’m getting any bites on my rod tips and keep an eye on the type of bottom structure I’m trolling over. The Predator is set-up to accommodate all the tools that a crappie fisherman needs to be the best crappie fisherman he can be.

December Fishing Tip:
During December, I fish for crappie in the bays and the major creeks near the upper end of any lake. When I go into a bay, I want to locate where the crappie are holding before I put out my B ‘n’ M poles and start fishing. To pinpoint the crappie’s location, I use my Humminbird 997 side-imaging depth finder with GPS chart plotting. I mark the structure where the crappie are concentrating as well as the creeks and the ditches where shad are holding. I prefer the Humminbird 997 because I can see all this information on one screen.

Too, I’ll be able to spot any structure on the bottom, such as stakes, stumps or brush piles. When I see these features on the screen, I mark them as waypoints on my depth finder, which also marks them as waypoints on my GPS before I start fishing. I also can mark the schools of baitfish as waypoints, which will appear as white clouds on the screen. By moving around in the bay, I can mark the structure I want to fish, the clouds of baitfish in the bay, the creek channels and the ditches. Before I put out my B ‘n’ M poles, I know what I’ll find under my boat when I pass over a particular area with my jigs.

Many fishermen think a side-imaging sonar is hard to use, but it’s not. You can put the unit on auto, and it will generate phenomenal results. With side imaging, you can change the distance the machine scans on either side of the boat. The closer you scan to the boat, the more-detailed information you’ll receive. For instance, if I find a creek channel in a bay, instead of scanning 55 feet on either side of my boat, I’ll set my side-imaging scan radius to about 50 feet on either side of the boat. Then, I can see more detail and really study that creek channel.

If I’m in a big bay, I may run that side imaging out to 100 feet on either side of the boat, enabling me to get a good idea of the type of structure located on the bottom. So, in three passes up and down that bay, I can scan more than 600 feet of water. Too, with a GPS and side-imaging unit, you can determine the speed of your boat at all times. I’ll often be trolling at 4/10 of a mile or less. I need to know how fast the boat is going because at whatever speed the boat’s moving when I start catching fish is the right speed to be trolling to continue to catch fish. Speedometers on boats don’t break the speed down below 1 mile an hour, but a GPS does. Also, with a side-imaging unit, you can view your depth finder and GPS at the same time. You can split screen your side-imaging unit, so you’re using the depth finder on one side of the boat and side imaging on the other side of the boat. This is a great tool for finding crappie and locating structure in a very-short time.

For more information on War Eagle’s top-quality boats, click here.

Tomorrow: Store Plenty of Rods, Poles and Lures Safely on Your War Eagle Boat

Day 4: Store Plenty of Rods, Poles and Lures Safely on Your War Eagle Boat

Editor’s Note: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, a longtime member of War Eagle Boat’s Pro Staff team, has been crappie fishing for over 30 years and competes in national crappie tournaments each season. He’s helped design the Predator 861, and this week he’ll tell us how he’s fishing and why he appreciates this boat so much.

One of the big advantages that the Predator gives me when I’m fishing is that I don’t have to leave any of my rods or tackle at home. Right underneath my feet in the front of the boat is a storage compartment where I can keep all my tackle. I’ve got tackle trays with different sizes, colors and types of jigs; various tube bodies and assorted weights and hooks. Because the storage locker is right under my feet at the front of my boat, I don’t have to get out of my seat and go back to the middle of the boat or move all the way to the back of the boat to get tackle when I need it. I also have my landing net and my lunch in that storage compartment.

In the side lock, located in the middle of the boat, I’ll carry more than 20 rods and poles on every trip. The War Eagle rod locker is a two-tier system. The top part has six tubes where I can store poles and rods up to 9-feet long that are already rigged and ready to fish. So, if I decide I want to cast or shoot docks to catch crappie, all I’ve got to do is open that side rod locker, take the already-rigged rods out and start fishing. If I’m casting, I’ll use a B ‘n’ M Sam Heaton 7-1/2-foot rod. If I’m shooting docks, I’ll be using a B ‘n’ M SharpShooter in 4-1/2-, 5- or 5-1/2- foot size.

Below the tubes there’s an area that’s about 12-inches tall and 6-inches wide that goes all the way to the front of the boat. I’ll have 8-1/2-foot rods that are rigged with jigs and tie them four to the bundle with a string at the tops of the rods and a string at the bottom of the rods. This way, I can store 8 rods (poles) in that rod locker. These rods are two-piece rods that I have rigged and broken down. All I have to do when I take those rods out of my locker is put the top section in to the bottom section, and I’m ready to go fishing. I’ve also got a paddle, my running lights and other gear in there.

Each of these storage compartments has a lock built into it, and the same key unlocks all the lockers, making storing and transporting gear easy and safe. When I’m traveling and fishing in tournaments and staying in hotels, I can store all my tackle and depth finders and lock them up in the boat. Then they’ll be safe. I don’t have to take all of my gear out of my boat.

December Fishing Tip:
On Sardis Lake in north Mississippi, deep water is 20 feet, because Sardis isn’t a really-clear lake. But if you’re fishing Pickwick Lake on the north end of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway or Kentucky Lake along the Tennessee River in Kentucky and Tennessee, fish 20- to 30-feet deep. The water in these two lakes is much-more clear than the water in Sardis Lake. When I’m fishing deep water after the temperature drops below 55 degrees, I’ll be using the 11-foot B’n’M Buck’s Best Ultra-Lite pole with 6-pound-test Vicious line and a 3/32-ounce jig. Many times I’ll put a split shot above my jig to get it down to deep water quicker. A chartreuse-and-lime combo is one of my favorite-colored jigs for deep water. Chartreuse-and-black, chartreuse-and-red and chartreuse-and-orange are also productive colors for deep jigging. I‘ll be working that jig down and around any type of brush or cover I can find on the bottom. If I’m spider rigging with the 12-foot B’n’M Capps & Coleman poles when the water temperature is 55 degrees or above, I’ll catch 25 to 40 crappie a day over 12 inches, which I classify as keeper fish. But if I’m single-pole fishing with an 11-foot B’n’M Buck’s Ultra-Lite pole, I only expect to catch 15 to 20 keeper fish per person per day.

At this time of year, you’ll have the lakes to yourself. You may not see another boat all day, so you can fish how and where you want and not be concerned that the crappie have seen two to three different-colored jigs before you reach them. Most people deer hunt, duck hunt or watch football in December. They don’t enjoy fishing when the weather’s cool or windy. But I’ve found December to be a great time to crappie fish.

For more information on War Eagle’s top-quality boats, click here.

Tomorrow: No Muss, No Fuss Live Wells

Day 5: No Muss, No Fuss Live Wells

Editor’s Note: Kent Driscoll of Cordova, Tennessee, a longtime member of War Eagle Boat’s Pro Staff team, has been crappie fishing for over 30 years and competes in national crappie tournaments each season. He’s helped design the Predator 861, and this week he’ll tell us how he’s fishing and why he appreciates this boat so much.

The War Eagle Predator’s built-in live well system is one of the best features these boats have. On the front live wells are two hatches, and they open from side to side, instead of opening from front to back or back to front. Then I can put a fish in my live well without ever having to get out of my chair. At least 50 percent of the people I compete against in tournament crappie fishing don’t have live wells on the fronts of their boats. The folks who do have live wells on the fronts of their boats still don’t have it as good as I do because the doors to the live wells open the wrong way. Neither of these is easy or convenient. Many times, fishermen have to get out of their seats, step back and then open the lids of the live wells toward the fronts of their boats and then they can put fish in them. But in my Predator, I never have to leave my seat. Because my partner has a hatch, and I have a hatch, each one of us can open the live well without disturbing the other while he’s fishing. I also have controls to fill the live well and recirculate the water on the right-hand side of the boat right next to my seat. Again, I don’t have to leave my seat to put fresh water in my live well.

Because the rear live well is a little bigger than the front live well, when we’re fishing in a tournament, we put our smaller fish in the front live well and our bigger fish in the back live well, to make culling much easier and faster. Since the back live well holds more water, we keep the fish we’re going to weigh-in inside the back live well. We want those keeper crappie to have plenty of water and aeration, so they’ll stay alive and lively until weigh-in time.

If you want a crappie boat that’s built for crappie fishing at any time of year under any weather or water conditions and lets you make the most of every minute on the water, then you need to check out the Predator.

December Fishing Tip:
In December, I look for crappie in major creeks and bays in the upper ends of lakes. As the water temperature begins to cool down, the crappie will start feeding heavily and should be biting really well. The baitfish should move to the upper ends of the lakes and follow creek channels in the bays there. Wherever the baitfish go, the crappie will follow.

The cool weather will warn the crappie of winter’s approach and cause them to start feeding heavily to prepare for the winter and the spawn. Right now, I’m fishing Sardis Lake in north Mississippi near Sardis, Mississippi, above the Holiday Lodge in the Piney Woods and the Hurricane Landing areas. I’ll be spider rigging with 14-foot B ‘n’ M Capps & Coleman trolling rods. I prefer to spider rig at this time of year because I can cover much-more water spider rigging than I can using a hand pole. On Sardis Lake, each person can fish up to five poles. Since I generally take a partner with me, we can fish 10 poles. The five B ‘n’ M Poles not only allow me to fish a broader region, they enable me to fish at several-different depths at the same time. Therefore, if I’m fishing in 10 feet of water, I can set my poles to cover depths from 2 to 9 feet.