Crankbaits

[Anglinarcher]

Alright Im going to screw this all up for everyone...

1) Figure out what the most abundant forage fish are in your lake.
- Where we are, its Perch, followed by northern pikeminnow, carp/suckers, bass ( L&S).

2) Buy lures that mimic those as closely as possible.
- I pulled a perch and a smallie out, and got down close to look at them. They have an irridescent, metalflake color to them. Next time you catch one, get down really close to its head and flanks in bright light, you will see what I mean.

3) Fish the lures in the places that FORAGE fish will be (protection is king!)
- Rockpiles are great, stumps and woody overhangs are great, altitude changes, docks, WEED EDGES.

4) Troll the ever living crap out of them!
- Trolling cranks is the #1 most productive use of them while learning to use cranks. No other lure can cover acreage as efficiently with as many strikes. Michael, we regularly get double and triple hookup situations trolling perch and white cranks, and have C&R'd 40 smallies in an afternoon trolling.


We spend a huge amount of time trolling cranks. During the high-agression stages of the year (spring, early summer, fall) thats one of the go-to techniques. It produces many smallies, a few largies, crappie of substantial size in the spring, and a wide array of bycatch that will keep you entertained.

I have an assortment from 2" floating rapala minnows to 2.5" countdowns to a 6" deep diver that will hit rocks in a 35' deep hole. Focus on your forage fish for lure selection. Perch print is the go-to lure here, with white being a late evening and secondary lure (more effective on the largies for some reason as well). Trout prints work in colder water, and we throw some randoms out for experimentation. An all-blue wiggle wort thats only 1.5" long picked up some monster crappie and a couple smallies when trolled 15' behind the prop (yes, Im not kidding, 15' directly in the propwash of the kicker).

On Long Lake (Lake Spokane), cranks are KING!

E

I see nothing here that screws me up. It is apparent that you have the kind of structure that I mentioned in my last post and trolling works well for you.

I hope to join you on Long Lake and check it out myself.

[Gisteppo]

This technique works exceptionally well in an area of gradual mudflats with long fingers of stumps in rows without a rock in sight..... 12-20' of water, mush, milfoil and loosestrife....

Lake's still down, and covered with snow!

E

[michaelunbewust]

thanks gisteppo and yellowbear. i always threw grubs at the face of the dam, yellowbear. no wonder my dad and uncle troll them cranks up and down the face. and thier stringer is always nice. could someone melt all that ice over there, so, we can get after it!!

[cavdad45]

I rarely fish deep diving crankbaits, but am curious about the Rapala DT series. Most of my cranking is less than 8 feet deep, averaging around 5-6 feet. However, Rat-L-Traps are effective throughout the water column.

[Gisteppo]

We have more success in 14' of water running cranks in the 10-13' range, with the occasional dip into the bottom than most any other crank presentation for smallies.

E

[kzoo]

I use to use cranks all the time, great search bait, traditionally I use rattle traps during the prespawn in shallow waters, usually catching largies. I like using them during warm windy conditions, when the wind dies down I'd switch to a shallow running crankbait 1-5' depending on the vegetation depth. During the spawn, mornings I'll use a shallow running crankbaits at possible bed locations. During the summer, I'll switch to deep diving one. I've had success using these tactics in the midwest and the south, but not here for some reason, at least not on Lake Washington. I've bumped into a bunch of bass heads here, and they swear on crankbaits, I haven't had too much luck here.

[quickfish12]

I know that I'm a little late in adding however I have fish extensively with cranks and love using them. I have a crank for every depth to nearly 20 feet. Of course you should "match the hatch" so to speak. Some of my favorite models are the Rapala DT Series. They consitently dive to and stay at their desired depth, their two drawbacks for me are of course the price but also their bill is really flimsy. But they are very good fish catching baits. I'm a huge Bomber fan, for shallow structre and over submerged weeds I use the Bomber 4-a in the silver side black back color. This is a mimick for ALOT of forage and has produced for me very well. My deep divers are the Bomber Fat Free Shad and Norman DD22. The DD22 have dove to 20 for me. Getting to that depth with a crank is alot of times the ticket for me, most bass that deep rarely see a crank. My lure retiever is simply in design and work 95 percent of the time. I use a lure retiever to get the deep cranks and have been known to go as far as swiminng to get them back. I dedicate probably half of my tournament box to cranks. Hope this helps.

[2000subaru]

I use a lure retiever to get the deep cranks and have been known to go as far as swiminng to get them back.

Dude, you are hardcore! Thanks for the tips. Looks like the Bomber and DT's get almost everyones nod.

[quickfish12]

When I tune a crank it takes time and patience. I would prefer to keep the ones that I have tuned in my box and not on a snag on the bottom of the lake.

[SPARKY101]

when fishing deep cranks flouro line and 12lb test works great dont reel all the way in just reel to the bottom then mostly sweep the rod slowly to feel the bottom works at all depths if you get snagged on the bottom just pop your line something that might have to be learned just like all fishing tips