Northwest Fishing Reports

Hey, guys I need some help on crankin. I know the basics but i have never caught a bass on one. I have had a strike but that is it. I was wonderin if someone would like to hit silver lake on my boat that has plenty of exp. in crankin and give me some tips. thanks

In my opinion cranking is one of the least productive ways to catch lmb in Western Wa..... I would stop beating your head on cranks and switch to some more productive baits....

cranks work great here! the best thing to do is to make sure its always in contact with something.

The key to fishing cranks typically is not to use a constant retrieve unless you're letting it bump against structure like T just suggested.

One of my favorite techniques is to throw a floating craw crank and "jig" it back over the top of submerged weeds- give it a tug or two from the rod tip, let it float up a second then jig it once or twice more. Caught a nice 4+ LMB at North doing this yesterday.

Jigging, stopping, and then a fast retrieve will get attention too - makes it look like the crank is "fleeing" when you start to burn it for a second or two and then it gets zeroed in on.

Ya i know to try to bounce it off rocks and logs and stuff. Ya retrives are one thing i need help with and color and depth selection.

We fish cranks very often for SMB/LMB/crappie/perch. The Thumb and I notice that the biggest issue is matching the hatch. Certain times of the year the perch print lures are on the slaughter, while another time of year they only care about white lures. Spend a little time at the various docks and see what the fry in the area happen to be. As of late Ive been fishing the SMB jointed raps and LMB print ripn minnows with decent success.

Also for the LMB, lures like the Wiggle Wort are killers. You can wing them a mile, they are irritating to say the least to get reaction bites, and you can fish them over weeds. They float, and have a brilliant darting action. Cast them over weeds that are 1-3ft below the surface. A crank or two will get them right to the weeds, but not in them, then allow it to float back to the surface. It seems to produce largies even when they don't want to bite. They get both the reaction/anger strike, as well as the topwater wakes as well when it pops up.

Don't forget the crankbait's most lethal presentation: Trolling.

Troll them at various depths to scout out new areas or work large expanses to find the fish. This tactic works GREAT for working long weed edges to focus in on where to fish. If it weren't for trolling cranks, I'd never have known about one of my favorite crappie/smallie spots.

E

Awsome tips thanks i will try that the bad thing is that i am more of a visaul learner :D

Well if you are in the Spokane area sometime, Ill show ya what we like to do.

E

Gisteppo has his lake down well, so if you are new, take the time to arrange a trip and drive out just to fish it with him. You will have cranks down in one day for sure.

We've been catching the majority of our fish on cranks lately. IMO matching the hatch with your crank is key. My dad was running a baby bass pattern while I was running a crawdad. He got 3 before I got a strike so I moved to a pattern close to the bass (I dont have a baby bass yet..) and began wacking them.

I found it best to give it a steady retrieve then stop, retrieve then stop. 60% of my hookups were on the stop portion with about 20% right as the crank hit the water. I seen a school of fry start jumping so i plopped my lure right on em and smacked a good LM right as it hit the water.

Bouncing them off logs and rocks is deadly and really helps in murky water from my experiences. I'm pretty green to this, but after catching over 100 LM this past weekend with the majrity being on a dt-4 rapala I'm beginning to get really confident in this bait and learning many new tings about it.

midnghtshdow wrote:Hey, guys I need some help on crankin. I know the basics but i have never caught a bass on one. I have had a strike but that is it. I was wonderin if someone would like to hit silver lake on my boat that has plenty of exp. in crankin and give me some tips. thanks

Since you mention silver lake use a shallow crankbait on the main island and make sure that crankbait ticks on those rocks once it ticks the rocks pause it and repeat. there is another rocky area on the lake marked by a bouy but you will need a little deeper crankbait. Hope this helps!
BMD

One thing to remember is that fish do not swim at a set speed for a long distance, so don't just cast and straight retrieve your crank. Fish will swim and pause, darting from here to there. Also like everyone else has mentioned, 95% of the time you are going to want to be in contact with something whether it is the surface, weeds, rocks or logs. Everyone else has pretty much covered the rest. Hope this helps

Thanks guys what about color selection?

It is a little different depending on where you fish. you will need to match what is in the lake. If I was starting out and needed to buy a bunch of new cranks the patterns I would get first would be perch, blue gill, baby bass, crawdad, and fire tiger. I know there will be other suggestions, but for me that would be a minimum. Then you need to look at where you fish and decide what depth range that you need to cover. Once you get this all done then comes the easy part, getting on the water and fishing

Also hit up Cabela's, I am in Boise right now and they the Cabela's brand cranks regular 6 bucks on sale for $2

Spot on posts. For colors don't go crazy. Match your hatch! Bluegill, crawdad, baby bass,perch, trout and firetiger. I don't have a baby bass pattern so I substituted it with and Oliver Shiner pattern and it seems to work just as good if the fish are biting.

I have most of those already have only had one strike on one.

Are you fishing them in the right conditions? If there aren't a ton of baby bass fry the bass pattern wont be as effective. Vary your retrieval speed and add slight jerks and pauses into it.