Northwest Fishing Reports

Okay, I need to admit something here. I have NEVER caught a bass on a crankbait! Go ahead and say what you want, chuckle to yourself, phone a friend and have him read this...everyone get your laughs out because I'm digging for some advice. What are your favorite cranks of all time? I want to make sure I have all of my bases covered for the spring. I have purchased some Cabelas and BPS cranks, but have a limited selection of quality lures in the depths listed. What do ya think?

0-5'
5-10'
10-15'
Deep

I think you are jonesing because the weather is so crummy.

Bass like Husky Jerks fished like x-raps.

Sometimes the only difference between a lure that works for you and one that never works is a little confidence. Personally, if I am fishing rip rap, or a chunk rock bank, a crank bait is my go to lure.

For less than 5 feet, some of the best lures are the Bomber Model A series. The larger sizes will dive deeper, but in the smaller sizes, they will seldom get more than about 7'. Consider also Shad Raps, and consider also the lip less crank baits. Lip less cranks can be deadly in the early spring on flats when the weeds are just starting to develop. Cast them out a mile, bring them in fast, and snap off the weeds when you find them. More often than not, the hits will happen as you break free of the thin weeds. Consider also Jerk Baits. When the Bass are finicky, a shallow jerk can be deadly.

For Water over 5 feet, well there are a lot of options, but I'd suggest that Rapala's DT series is a great way to go. These lures dive fast, stay at the desired depth longer, and come in some great colors. Best of all, they come in different depth series.

Perhaps the best way to do this is to hook up with someone that fishes Cranks and learn from them. I'll bet I have over a hundred Cranks, gathered over a quarter of a century or more, and each have had their place at one time or another. A person could easily spend a small fortune getting lures that you don't know how to fish.

Tip of the day for fishing Cranks, make contact with structure. If you are not ticking rock, bouncing off wood, glancing off weeds, than a Crank is of little use. Good luck.

Not a big fan of fishing cranks (little ones, anyways) but I 2nd the bomber model A - they flat out catch fish.

My favorite crank is the wally diver. I've caught largemouth, smallmouth, perch, kokanee, and even one crappie on them.
Smallmouth really like them. I caught this chunk at Lake Stevens on a sparkle fire tiger wally diver.

0-5' - Bomber square A, great around cover and you can really burn them
5-10' - i prefer a lipless crank for this application, like the Strike King Diamond Shad on sunny days or a Red Eye Shad on overcast days
10-15' - my most productive crank for this is the Berkley Frenzy Diver. They're only about $3, but are incredibly loud and durable, and they work
deeper - Bomber Fat Free Shad in the 7F series - these get down to about 18 feet on a long cast. all the Fat Free Shads are great cranks really

I am learning the cranks myself 2000suburu. i fish the lower yakima and potholes alot, and, my uncles all like cranking, so, im going to spend some time this year learning how. they did direct me to some awesome deals online at bass pro shops (bait kits). 5 for $15.99 of some of thier hottest sellers. and also, recommended the shad raps (which i already use for walleye-#7's). thanks everyone for all the info. the ol lady again, is going to wonder where the money out of our "joint" checking account disappeared to. crankbaits honey!!

Smallmouth hate jointed shad raps bumped over rocks. They don't work at all so you might as well just save em all for me!!!! Just kidding I love them in any color. Smallies don't seem to care..

Get a selection of a couple different cranks that run at all sorts of depths. Couple shallows, couple mid-depths, and a few that run deep. Nothings worse than trying to use a deeper diving crank in too shallow of water only to realize that your just pulling up weeds every cast or getting caught up in rocks. And vice versa. Shallow cranks in deep water don't seem to work that well for me.

Anglinarcher wrote:Tip of the day for fishing Cranks, make contact with structure. If you are not ticking rock, bouncing off wood, glancing off weeds, than a Crank is of little use. Good luck.

^^ Thats all you need to know.

I dont fish cranks in more than 6 feet deep. When I do fish cranks its mostly 1-3ft deep. I always get ones that dive to 6 or 8 feet with a square bill. Crank them fast or slow in shallow water just make contact with the bottom. I think a lot of people including myself first start to crank a 4ft diver in 12ft of water and hardly ever catch much. Once you start ripping the bottom up you will triple your catch. Keep it simple. If you buy 1 crank to match every depth whats your approach going to be? If you buy 5 cranks that are the exact same you can target a specific depth all day long and have extras if you get hung up and break off.

Cranks, are probably my favorite way to fish. And although I am not an expert by any means this is kind of what I think... Pick a brand and stick with it, pick a few patterns and then get 1 in ea size for that pattern. This will help simplify things a lot.

For instance I went w/ Bandits. They are a good brand and you can often find them on sale for about $3 dollars (instead of say $6 for rapalas). Then I picked 4 or so patterns: shad, crawfish, bluegill, baby bass (from fishing TX). Then I bought those patterns in all three sizes 100, 200, 300 series. The 100 series dives like 2-4ft, 200 = 5-7ft, 300 = 8-10ft (I also have some bandit footloose cranks that are more like waking baits that fish right on or below the surface - great for over weeds.) They also have deeper series like the 400, 600 but those can be hard to find and I have not fished them so I can not say if they really get down. For my deep cranks I use bomber fat free shads the big ones for water 10-14 ft. and any deeper than that I use Norman DD22s which will get to 20ft. or so. I don't know how big deep cranking is up here but in Texas it was a great way to catch em! Don't get me wrong, every one acquires various cranks but if you follow this process you will have simpler choices to make on the water and more organized tackle. I usually use these cranks when fishing hard bottoms (rock, wood, etc.) and will use lipless rattlers for grass. My favorite brand is the yo-zuri rattlnvibe but have a lot of the original rattletraps. These also work well in colder water b4 they start biting the cranks good.

Jerk baits are another discussion but I need to shut up now

love the Norman Cranks especially in the "fire tiger" suspend model.

Anglinarcher wrote: Tip of the day for fishing Cranks, make contact with structure. If you are not ticking rock, bouncing off wood, glancing off weeds, than a Crank is of little use. Good luck.

I think that you hit the nail on the head. I've got a few patches of water that I am looking at for some potentially great crankin' and hope to score a few good fish this year. Keep bringing the info. I have purchased some of the Cabelas and BPS crank kits and they appear to be great. We'll let the fish decide!

Chris

trucknmusic wrote:Cranks, are probably my favorite way to fish. And although I am not an expert by any means this is kind of what I think... Pick a brand and stick with it, pick a few patterns and then get 1 in ea size for that pattern. This will help simplify things a lot.

For instance I went w/ Bandits. They are a good brand and you can often find them on sale for about $3 dollars (instead of say $6 for rapalas). Then I picked 4 or so patterns: shad, crawfish, bluegill, baby bass (from fishing TX). Then I bought those patterns in all three sizes 100, 200, 300 series. The 100 series dives like 2-4ft, 200 = 5-7ft, 300 = 8-10ft (I also have some bandit footloose cranks that are more like waking baits that fish right on or below the surface - great for over weeds.) They also have deeper series like the 400, 600 but those can be hard to find and I have not fished them so I can not say if they really get down. For my deep cranks I use bomber fat free shads the big ones for water 10-14 ft. and any deeper than that I use Norman DD22s which will get to 20ft. or so. I don't know how big deep cranking is up here but in Texas it was a great way to catch em! Don't get me wrong, every one acquires various cranks but if you follow this process you will have simpler choices to make on the water and more organized tackle. I usually use these cranks when fishing hard bottoms (rock, wood, etc.) and will use lipless rattlers for grass. My favorite brand is the yo-zuri rattlnvibe but have a lot of the original rattletraps. These also work well in colder water b4 they start biting the cranks good.

Jerk baits are another discussion but I need to shut up now

you just nailed my top cranks. i really like bandits 100 series for my log and rock bumpin, and normans for the deeper water.

Bumping structure is a love-hate thing. Hate it when you snag up a $5 crank but your loving it when your ripping bass left and right outta the water....

Bottom line: Get em as close to bottom as you can. Bass love seeing a crank knock off a rock or stump and that'll often times make em hit your crank...

everyone toss's em, but, does anyone troll them for bass or is it a waste of time?? i notice when we pull the shad raps for walleye, we catch the occaisonal smallie. is this luck or do folks troll cranks for bass??

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

michaelunbewust wrote:everyone toss's em, but, does anyone troll them for bass or is it a waste of time?? i notice when we pull the shad raps for walleye, we catch the occaisonal smallie. is this luck or do folks troll cranks for bass??

Trolling for bass with Cranks does work, but unlike walleye, bass tend to hold to more distinct structure changes; changes that are hard to target with trolling.

Still, I have a couple of long underwater shelves that have broken rock on it that I occasionally troll with cranks. I hit Bass this way a lot. This helps to eliminate a lot of water and then I can key in with other techniques.

Over the years I have used many different Crankbaits and I have just a few that I have confidence in.
Some of the older ones that I am always looking for are the Manns Piglit and the Rebel Suspend-R. I also like the Shad-Rap in the Firetiger pattern for Bass and Walleye.

Michael, on those days that we get a bit lazy we will tie on a crankbait and pull them out in front of the dunes or on the face of the dam at Potholes. Smallmouth and Largemouth will both hit a crank behind the boat.

My all time favorite is a Bill Lewis lipless Rat-l-Trap. A few years back I was fishing a tournament on High Rock Lake and found a great pattern. I would cast into the biggest of structure and would slam the bait of logs, pause and them rip through. Yes it gets hung up at times but if you pause for one second after initial contact it usually bounces off. I caught 3 bass each over 3lbs in 45 minutes. I went on to place second out of 70 people. Only if I had figured out that pattern a little early instead of only with 90 minutes left to fish!