Crankbait question

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JerryC
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Crankbait question

Post by JerryC » Thu Mar 07, 2013 7:21 am

Guys, when fishing a crankbait in lets say 15 feet of water, do you suggest first throwing a crank that can reach the bottom (15 feet) or maybe one that runs maybe at 10-12 feet of water? (Assuming you don't where the bass are located).

If bottom do you suggest a crank that rips up the bottom (ie: hitting rocks/stumps and so on)

This season I want to get my crankbait game up. It's not bad per say, but I want to look at this from a different angle.

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cndbasshunter
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Re: Crankbait question

Post by cndbasshunter » Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:08 am

You want the crank to hit the bottom sometimes, it will trigger more attention and bites.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by JerryC » Thu Mar 07, 2013 8:49 am

cndbasshunter wrote:You want the crank to hit the bottom sometimes, it will trigger more attention and bites.

Is there a rule of thumb that i am missing? Like if its a rocky bottom you want the crank to hit bottom, or if its a sandy bottom you want it to crank just before it hits bottom?

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by SaltyBass » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:08 am

In our neck of the woods I want it to stay above the bottom/weeds if they are going to goop/foul me up, but hit the bottom if it's rocks, logs or sand. I'm no expert but have started catching more bass on deep divers in jersey over the last year doing this.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by JerryC » Thu Mar 07, 2013 9:24 am

SaltyBass wrote:In our neck of the woods I want it to stay above the bottom/weeds if they are going to goop/foul me up, but hit the bottom if it's rocks, logs or sand. I'm no expert but have started catching more bass on deep divers in jersey over the last year doing this.
Thanks..

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by DarkShadow » Thu Mar 07, 2013 4:34 pm

Good questions, good answers.

I for one, am lost when it comes to throwing cranks.

I know the general rule of thumb was, "you need them to be hitting cover or else you're wasting your time," and I took that advice to heart and proceeded to lose half a dozen LCs in various types of cover, before I gave up and went back to fishing a Senko.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by Tokugawa » Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:38 pm

JerryC wrote:Guys, when fishing a crankbait in lets say 15 feet of water, do you suggest first throwing a crank that can reach the bottom (15 feet) or maybe one that runs maybe at 10-12 feet of water? (Assuming you don't where the bass are located).

If bottom do you suggest a crank that rips up the bottom (ie: hitting rocks/stumps and so on)

This season I want to get my crankbait game up. It's not bad per say, but I want to look at this from a different angle.
For me, it depends on the available cover. If it is an open area with a rock/gravel bottom or just hard cover, then I'm trying to get that bait to dig and deflect. Great for stump fields.

If it is an area with just weed cover that does not come to the top of the water column, I'll work on running the bait just over the top of the weeds. If it gets a bit of weedy hang up, then pop/rip it free and wait. Adjust the depth with the rod tip as needed.

For mixed hard and soft cover, I'll target working the bait through the hard cover first. Sometimes they leave the soft cover to hit something and run back in...and there is less weedy trebles to play with.

If they won't come out to hit something over or next to the weeds, it can be lipless ripping time.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by panda_slicks86 » Thu Mar 07, 2013 5:49 pm

if your hittin a rocky bottom the second that bait crashes into something hard give it a pause and then move it a foot or two and pause .... i usually get smashed that way if nothin just keep on trying to beat up some cover also if you catch up in some weeds pop it out of the weeds quickly after the snag and give it a pause it gets em hot and bothered...... i think the old saying go's "if your not losing cranks your fishing em wrong" .

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by Tokugawa » Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:30 am

panda_slicks86 wrote:"if your not losing cranks your fishing em wrong" .
Eh - it just means the angler doesn't know how to clear a bait from the cover. Sometimes there is no recovery, but most of the time there is.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by John Puckett » Fri Mar 08, 2013 8:28 pm

If you're fishing 15ft you want a crank that dives 16. The only time I can catch bass on cranks without it hitting and deflecting off cover is when they are actively feeding on schools of shad on the surface. Even if I have to clean my bait off every few casts I want my crank hitting whatever I can, be it grass, wood, rock, shell beds, it doesn't matter.

I know lots of guys fish deep cranks slow and catch fish doing it and so do I but I found last year that if I'm really reeling a deep diver and can get it to deflect hard off cover I get more bites. I still use my Calcutta TE DC with the 5:1 ratio I just really go after it with it. With all the power of that reel it isn't that taxing either.

I fish square bills through grass where most guys are fishing spinnerbaits or chatterbaits. Yes I get hung but they are easily retrieved. I can only do this for a very short window in the spring when the grass first starts to grow and again in fall when it thins. I've gotten some great strikes when that square bill bounces off a stalk of grass. A little tip I think helps with not getting hung as much is to switch to #4 KVD trebles on the 1.5 instead of the regular #2's he recommends. I use #2's the rest of the year though.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by panda_slicks86 » Mon Mar 11, 2013 7:55 pm

Tokugawa wrote:
panda_slicks86 wrote:"if your not losing cranks your fishing em wrong" .
Sometimes there is no recovery.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by stalking coyote » Thu Dec 18, 2014 10:17 pm

Pick the crankbait to meet the technique your wanting to fish .. If I'm fishing laydowns and stickups .. I want a crankbait that will roll over and/or along the tree limbs very well without getting snagged .. And before someone says they don't exist .. Yes, they do I have several models that perform this function to almost perfection.

If i'm fishing rip rap .. I want a crankbait that is designed to have the bill bump into the rocks or brush without getting snagged to often .. and yes these do exist as well ..

I fish a lot of handmade crankbaits .. and I learn how the crankbaits fish and react to different types of cover .. and then I go out and use those crankbaits where they perform the best .. and I don't use them where they don't function optimally.

Example is with fishing crankbaits over weed beds .. I don't want a crankbait that is designed to have the nose digging down .. I want a crankbait that runs more horizontally ..

Learn your crankbaits and make them work for you .. I have a crankbait for every type of cover situation you can think of.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by Bassmar » Fri Dec 19, 2014 5:40 pm

In most cases I like my crank bait to be deflecting off the bottom as this definitely triggers strikes. But I have had many instances where fishing a 6 foot diver in say 15 foot water has been just as productive if not more so. Try both and see which works on a given day.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by Crankbaitmaker » Sat Dec 27, 2014 12:43 pm

I fish deep running crankbaits alot. For me it is target fishing. I am looking for a stump or small group of stumps on a point, a lone rock pile, hump, or ledge. I like to have a crankbait that is as close to the depth I am trying to reach. What I mean is if the stump is in 15 ft of water I wont be throwing a 20 ft crank or a 12 ft crank. I want it to run around 16 ft. This is why serious crankers in my area have several crankbait rods on deck. They want to adjust for the depth. Boat position is a huge factor as well. I don't want my bait on the ground 10ft or more before the target. I want it landing about 5 to 6 ft before the target. I do this from several angles. If it does not work, then I move on. If the bait digs too hard then you are affecting the action of the lure. If it is not running deep enough then I will never strike the target.

I don't follow this "keep the bait in the strike zone longer" stuff. Again, I am target fishing. I want to make the cast as short and effective as I can over and over again. If I have done my scouting correctly, then I know exactly where my target is. If you have good equipment and have it set up correctly then you can drop that worry out of your head. If you have a good crankbait that is ballanced and tuned correctly then the rest is just hitting the target and getting a good deflection. You don't want to run head on into the target. You want to deflect off of it. This is where the skill comes in. This is true regardless of the depth be it 10ft or 20ft.

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Re: Crankbait question

Post by johnnybass » Mon Jan 26, 2015 1:53 am

DarkShadow wrote:Good questions, good answers.

I for one, am lost when it comes to throwing cranks.

I know the general rule of thumb was, "you need them to be hitting cover or else you're wasting your time," and I took that advice to heart and proceeded to lose half a dozen LCs in various types of cover, before I gave up and went back to fishing a Senko.
I too struggle with cranking. The misconception that I had about cranking was that it was easy fishing compared to plastics. My buddy, who is tournament fisherman, has been trying to help me and I know appreciate how hard cranking is. We fish mostly over grass in WI and it about feeling exactly when you start ticking the tops and backing off the reel. You almost have to anticipate it or you will buried. Unlike a trap, if you rip it, it just goes deeper. My friend is also talking about things like feeling a fish following the bait when the vibration changes but that is too much for me at this point to think I can do.

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