papajoe222

I do and it's still my favorite rod for C-rigs. Just the right amount of flex for casting one, plenty of back-bone for that sweeping hook set along with good sensitivity.

A fish may reject a jig for reasons other than it feeling line tension. I've seen video of a bass inhaling a live craw only to immediately spit it out and inhale it from a different angle. Normally, a bass will inhale its prey head first, but in the case of a craw, that puts its soft mouth parts and gills in peril. If you've ever felt a double tap when fishing a jig one of three things has happened. Either a fish has hit and rejected your offering, the above has happened, or the fish has attempted to crush the 'craw' then spit it out and sucked it back in before swallowing. The last takes some time and if you're feeling that, your strike detection needs work.

They aren't expensive and need the hooks need to be sharpened or replaced right out of the package, but if you don't have one, get yourself a couple of Jointed Jitterbugs. One in frog and the other in black. You can add a feathered treble to the rear and pause it occasionally on the retrieve. My first choice when Spooks and Poppers aren't producing.

I've been using the same system to get my buzzers up and running with the first crank of the reel; I finish my cast with my rod tip parallel to the water, engage the reel just before the lure hits the water and immediately do two things. The first is to raise my rod to around 11:00. The second is to begin turning the reel handle at the same time. The lure doesn't have a chance to sink. A couple of quick turns of the handle while dropping the rod tip puts me in a good hook setting position. Unless you're reeling too fast, the buzzer won't roll on its side, or overly track to the side. I suggest you past well past your target. This will avoid spooking the fish with a noisy splash down and it will give you time to get the bait up and running at a moderate pace before reaching your target.

The majority of my cranks are shad or red craw colored. Nutter Shad was my go to for years and I still have a few. FYI, John Nutter operated a shop doing reel repairs and custom rods for many of the pros back in the 80's and 90's. He made my first custom built rod.

If you had a fish rip the split ring and treble hook off of your Plopper, your rod is over powered for the presentation and your drag is set way too tight. You don't need a lot of power to hook-up with treble hooks. A Med. power mod/fast action rod is ideal for that lure. It's length is a personal preference. Unless I'm throwing big, treble hook topwaters, this is the rod I'm using.

I have introduced a number of little ones to this great sport and I always start them out with one lure/presentation and that is a 4in. straight tailed worm wacky rigged with a #4 or #2 mosquito circle hook. The circle hook avoids gut hooked fish and the need to 'set' the hook. I should add that the location we fish is all but guaranteed to hold fish. Once they have caught fish and get some confidence in doing so, I'll introduce them to other presentations of the same style worm.

Something I've always tried to do, dating back to my tourney days, is use something different than the majority of guys out there. That line of reasoning applies to week-end anglers today as the sport and wealth of information has grown. I also believe that many of the recent innovations have come from an effort to do just that, show them something different. I'm not just talking baits, but presentations as well. One of my favorites is C-rigging small cranks for deep water applications. Another is using bulky hair jigs with a trailer rather than traditional skirted jigs. I still use these and others to give the fish something they don't see much of and they continue to produce with better than average results on pressured waters. What do you do, or throw, that is out of the norm? It could be something as simple as rigging a tube backward, or as complex as a major modification to an existing bait.

Your drag slips on the hookset because it's doing its job.....preventing your line from breaking. There was a time, when I used round baitcasters, that I did this and broke off more times than I care to remember. The rods I used back then were broom sticks and not forgiving. You may be able to get away with it with today's longer rods, but why chance it?

Adding a weight in front of a crank is something I've been doing since the 60's. We did it to get Rapalas down to the walleye. I started doing it with cranks and a pencil weight to 'Carolina' rig cranks for trolling,great way to get a small crank to run and stay deep. Trouble is, I'm not big on trolling and an hour later, I want to pick up something to cast. I've weighed down cranks also. The thing I don't like about doing that is that they won't back-out of a snag the way they do when they float. There are a couple of small cranks I've seen that will get down to 12-14ft. The Berkley dredger and the Storm Deep Wart are two I may give a try.

When fish are spooky in clear water you can back way off, or in your case make a longer cast, with a Yo-Zuri 3D Pencil Popper and their Prism Chartreuse Silver is a killer on big smallies. Easy to work, moderately priced and has some decent hooks that won't be needing replacement straight out of the package.

I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks as they are my favorite for crankin' up some numbers of good sized bass. I've done very little deep, summer crankin' over the last five years, but I love fishing with cranks.That's why I get so pumped when night time temps start dropping. Those fish become easier to target with cranks as they will move up in the water column using the less fatiguing baits that run 12ft.-15ft. My absolute favorite crank for this is a Bomber Fat Free Shad. It dives fairly quickly and just flat out catches fish. The problem with this bait is that sometimes, it's just too big and I can't get the Jr down past 12ft. What's a smaller, (around 2in. body) crank that will run at those depths?

Most guys that have boats equipped with Power Poles fish off the front deck even when they have a partner. I, however don't allow anyone on the front deck with me as a safety precaution. I find that with a right handed partner, I tend to work a bank or weed line from left to right so that person is casting over their right shoulder. This eliminates complaints from those that want to sit and cast (not true bass anglers) and allows me to fish with the minimum of ratchet jawing from the back of the boat.

I love collecting custom painted versions of my favorite hard baits. I said collecting because I don't fish these. In fact I never added rings and hooks to them. I'll dig out a couple on days when I want to go fishing, but for some reason or other can't. They're kind of like a pacifier for a fishing addict. I have a custom built rod that I do the same thing with, but I actually use that.

Thanks for all the replies. I tried the fluoro on the reel I purchased (20lb. Red Label), but used a different rod with a moderate fast tip. I also, reminded myself not to overdo the hook-set. I caught a couple of 3lb. bass early in the day with no issues. However, on the last bite of the day, the line broke on the hook-set. Most likely it was my fault as I hadn't retied AND I did my normal (to me) cross their eyes hook-set. I don't believe the line broke at the knot, mainly because there didn't seem to be the same amount of line returned as cast.

I have a love/hate relationship with fluoro and I doubt that will change anytime soon. I am curious, however, if you use straight fluoro for your worm fishing and, if so, what lb. test? My current worm and C-rig combos are spooled with braid and a 20lb. big game leader. I purchased a used reel spooled with 20lb. fluoro and thought I'd give it a try before I strip it and respool with braid.

I just revisited this thread. A very beneficial post, not only about crankbait fishing, but about searching the entire water column in search of active fish. Worth a revival.

As I fish mostly smaller, natural lakes up north this never crossed my mind when I mentioned 'new water.' A creek arm, or the upper or lower reaches of a reservoir can be new water to those that don't have nearby access to different lakes. Thanks

I don't know about Owners, but these I the ones I use on most cranks https://www.ebay.com/itm/174819435883?hash=item28b40ce56b:g:2MkAAOSw6VVecDYj https://www.ebay.com/itm/124128696318?epid=2256079866&hash=item1ce6a597fe:g:D7YAAOSwxcFeeiRK

I make it a point to fish two or three new bodies of water a season and revisit a couple I haven't been to in a few years. I get lazy with my search skills fishing the same three or four lakes on a regular basis and find that, not only does this keep me sharp, but it tests my ability as an angler to adjust to new water. Did I mention that along with the challenge, I love the anticipation. How many of you do the same? It doesn't have to be different lakes. Trying a pond you've never fished before, or testing your skills on rivers; just somewhere you've never gone before. This ongoing experiment paid big dividends for me earlier this year when I caught possibly my biggest muskie on a lake only ten minutes from my favorite muskie haunt in Wisconsin. It was a spur of the moment thing, no research involved, which made it that much more gratifying.

The only thing I enjoy more than fishing. WHEN? Congrats, your fishing time just got cut in half, but if she's like mine, it'll be worth it.?

Easy decision for me; A Grape Culprit Original 7.5in. ribbon tail. I've caught more bass on ribbon tailed worms over the years than most others combined (tubes being the exception). If I had to eliminate using them on a C-Rig I'd be throwing them with a sliding 1/4oz. tungsten bullet weight, 12lb. fluorocarbon, a 7.3:1 geared reel paired to a 7ft. MH/ModFast rod.

I find Tom's comment about having the rod tip up for buzzbaits interesting as that is the way I'd fished them for years, but I also used braid and didn't need to move the rod tip much to set the hook. I use a high speed reel spooled with mono for them now and I've migrated to a much lower rod position. I still wait until I feel a fish's weight, or see the line moving off before I set the hook, but as with most topwater presentations, I just wait for the rod to start loading up rather than dropping the rod tip and reeling the slack before setting the hook. My hook-set for cranking is similar to A-Jay's only I sweep back to the side and slightly upward. Moving as much line as possible on any hook-set is just as important as quickness and power. The short, broomstick worm rods we used back in the 70's and 80's have been replaced by longer rods for that very reason.

Norman DD22. I don’t do much deep cranking anymore, but of all the baits I use, this one is a bear to work. I end up tossing one for half an hour and switching to a heavy lipless and then switching back to the crank when my wrist stops aching. The real dilemma is the fact that it flat out catches fish, otherwise I’d abandon it entirely.

A true professional and gentleman. RIP