retiredbosn

This is where I get really confused. Seems to me that this type of action would imitate a wounded baitfish, and produce more strikes. :-?

From my experience with slow speed reels (around 20"IPT) it takes at least 20-30 feet horizontally to get the bait to it's deepest point. So distance really comes into play when fishing deep running baits. I think the 5.1:1 recommended for the comfort of the fisherman, IMO.

I want to become a crankbait guru!!!! But the things are still somewhat of a mystery to me. My strong points are buzzbaits and softplastics (any), following that would be spinnerbaits, traditional topwaters (jitterbugs, spooks, etc) and last would be crankbaits with the exception of Rattl Traps, spinnerbaits and rattl traps would probably be tied. Anyway I want to master the crankbait, typically when I set out to learn something I research everything I can find on the subject, dissect it and review it again and again. I've read and re-read every crankbait article on this site, if you read them you may end up as confused as a breast fed baby in a topless bar! The retrieval rates recommended by the experts were varied and got me to thinking. Orginially crankbaits were designed to be trolled, especially deep divers. That is when the lightbulb went off in my head, if the original design of the bait was trolling then trolling speeds come into play to get the right action, depth etc. How do we as bass fishermen figure out how to reel a crankbait at the right speed when the literature on the use of cranks deal with trolling them? Simple math, 1 mph trolling speed equates to 17.6" per second, 1.5 mph relates to 26.4" per second, and 2 mph equals 35.2" second. Now all I have to do is figure out how long a turn of the handle takes on my reels. It is easy to know when you are working them too fast, especially deep divers, when they quit pulling as hard you know that the water is bypassing the lip and not the bait is no longer diving properly. But how about too slow? A 20 inch bass is capable of bursts of speed of upwards of 12mph, I used to think that a burner reel moved the bait so quickly that the bass couldn't catch it, now I know that the top speed we can get out of a burner is less than 5mph!!!! Now I have to figure out what IPT of reel I should be using. What I've come up with is that the smaller shallow running cranks, I need to be around 24IPT, and adjust accordingly. Where I'm stumped is the deep divers, I don't care what anyone says, cranking a DD22 all day will cramp your wrist and hurt. So although a little more speed may be nice on these baits, it will come at a higher price in my comfort. Obviously anything slower than 20IPT results in a bait that is barely moving at all, from the bass' point of view. I'm thinking something around 22 IPT. Any thoughts?

Make sure your upper arm (the one holding the paddles) is directly in line with the hook, and lead head. Just like a spinnerbait, if the arm, hook and head aren't in line the bait will not run correctly.

In a word yes. I recommend a summer craw trailer this time of year. Craws here still show a little orange right now.

Had about 40 minutes to sneak off tonight. I caught a little one and a snapping turtle. I have no idea how I caught the turtle as I was moving the bait pretty quickly. A couple things I've learned, one I was using too stiff of a pole before, and two I was using my whole arm instead of quick snaps with my wrist.

I like working crankbaits every which way possible. If I'm not getting bit on a steady retrieve then I start mixing it up. At times my retrieve becomes very irratic, stop, burn, stop, slow, medium, burn, kill it. I don't know if it helps or not, but it keeps me from becoming bored when the fish aren't biting.

I remember the fish, but only because unless I'm mistaken that is fishchris' avatar. What a bass!!!!

Whoever told you that you can't be a serious bass fisherman using spinning gear is full of it. Use what you are comfortable with, 40 years of spinning gear has treated you well. There are applications that I prefer bc over spinning, but that is my preference. I am very opinionated and there was a thread a few months ago on this subject, but I would not tell you that switching would make you a more serious fisherman. What a bunch of bunk. Having said that I will add that texas rigs, carolina rigs and cb's imo belong on a bc set up. The plastics has more to do with the rod than the reel though. More back bone to set the hook with the plastics. Spinning reels typically take up more IPT than BC's which is why they get the nod on cranks. There are rod builders who will make you a spinning rod for plastics using a bc rod blank and by doing that you can overcome the hooksetting issue. Drags are typically better on BC's so if you have to winch a fish out of cover, they get the nod, combine the drag with the backbone of the rod and I loose less fish on a BC set up. But these are my preferences, you can build a spinning outfit to do the same thing. Which I would be tempted to do and then take Mr. You aren't a serious fisherman out and show him how serious you are with a spinning rod. Good luck and tight lines.

UMMM Pinnacles are made in China, at least the one I have was.

There were two things missing that struck me as odd, I didn't see your hula grub single tail mentioned , or soft plastics at all. Also didn't see crankbaits mentioned either. For me at 2 pm it would be too early to switch to minnows if I were really trying the lures first, looking at your time frame you will be giving the minnows more water time than the mixture of lures in the summer months. I think that some plastics need thrown in and cb's including rattl traps. As far as switching out, I try to give a bait an hour before switching, sometimes I'll start throwing and just feel like it isn't going to work that day, more overcast than I thought to sunny, to windy etc. and will switch pretty quick.

Like Stasher said but with one change, your reel should be full or close to full. The IPT of a reel changes the closer your get to the spool, I have a C3 that has 24 IPT, I stripped fifty yards of line to get the IPT down to 21. The reel holds 175 yds of line, so I still have 125 yds or so. Anyway fill the reel and check the marks.

I am a huge fan of the jig with smallies. The smallies here just seem to love them. Good luck

thanks fellas, will let you know when I succeed with one.

7 foot BPS Crankin Stick MH or M, Abu Garcia EXT Pro 6.5:1, Yo-Zuri 12 lb Hybrid

I do it quite often. The only way I'm successful is to leave everything else at the house except what I want to fish with. When I was wanting to learn crankbaits, nothing went in the boat but my crankin rigs and a box of cranks. I like catching fish to much, and if I take something else I know works I'll put away the new stuff and fish what I already know.

Ok, I have a few jerkbaits in my box. LC live pointers, Rapalas, etc. I have never caught a fish on them, and I am assuming it is because I have no idea how to present them properly. So when you are fishing a jerk bait, how hard do you pull it, how far, I know you pause more in cooler water than warmer, or do you do more of a twitch? Any tips would be great.

It is a fairly new reel, and don't think the gears switch out, will drop him a pm and see. You know I had pm'd reelmech and asked him about the EXT's I have, didn't think to ask if he could regear the C3. :-[

Thats awesome. I don't believe I could accomplish the same thing ever. Great pic

Yeah stripping the line is just a temporary solution. Will shop around to get the right reel. Even the dark side is trying to seduce me with a Curado 200E5. HELP ;D

It takes practice, I feather with my thumb more consistently at night especially at first. As my confidence builds I find that it is no different than day time. As another poster stated your ears become your eyes at night, you can hear the line playing out and just know when it is time to apply the thumb. I bet you already know the sound of an overrun, listen to the reel, you do subconsciously already, that is why you can cast during the day. As you get comfortable with it, you don't even think about it, you feather correctly, you know long before your eyes see the bait that the reel is slowing down, etc. It is the same at night.

Up until 2006 or 07 BPS reels were made by other companies, Now they are made by BPS. What is troubling about that is no one truly makes their own reels anymore. They design them sure, but the companies no longer own the factories, pay their own employees, rather they are contracted out. The days of each reel company employing their own people and making their own stuff is over. Abu Garcia still has their factory in Sweden, but most of their stuff is made in Korea now. Shimano is supposed to have their own factory, don't know Shimano well enough to comment on this. Regardless small company owned factories have gone the way of the dinosaur, rahter the production of reels goes to a few companies overseas, who make the reels to each parent companies specs. When you see companies like Pinnacle and Okuma etc touting that they are finally putting their own name on reels and have quit making them for the big guys, all that means is that the factory is putting out their own brand, it will not be as good as what they make for other companies due to proprietary copyrights, patents, etc. So in short it is the design of the reel, the specifications of the parts, and not who actually assembles them, most brands are assembled in the same place by the same people who put different stickers and coverplates. Each reel quality is different not because of where it is made, or who made it, but the quality of parts and design of the parent company.

Great fish, congrats

finally got the pics to load, but man do they suck!! BTW my shoe size is 13 eeee.

Awesome