papajoe222

The cranks can either be used in shallow water, or over the top of submerged weeds. The lipless can be fished anywhere in the water column by allowing it to sink however long it takes. With cranks, as with most baits, avoid a steady retrieve. Short pauses or using the rod tip to impart a short burst of speed will get you bit more often. The buzzer shines anytime of day over cover, timber/grass as does the popper. Early and late in the day are prime times, but don’t rule out shady spots during mid-day.

I’m guessing the three you landed were hooked in the soft tissue of their mouths. Even the lighter wire hooks on a 1/4oz. jig call for a rod with, not only some backbone, but a fast or mod. Fast action. Braid helps, but can’t make up for too much flex in the rod used. Bottom line.....Use a Med/Fast rod

Check out 'A Rare Insight into Crankbait Fishing' above. Crankbaits are great tools for both catching fish and learning a lake. If you can figure out beforehand what depth the fish/bait are holding at, pick a crank that will dive to that depth, or just above it. If you don't know what the bottom is made up of, or where it changes, pick one that will dig into the bottom on the retrieve. You can target the water above the weeds with a shallow runner, or learn where they stop growing. My favorite places to throw medium divers is around rip rap. Pausing the retrieve when the lure bangs into the cover will both trigger strikes and allow the bait to float up and back away from snags. The other area I like is shell beds. I fish it very similar there.

I was going through some old tackle and came across a topwater that I haven't thrown in 30+ years. i know it is no longer produced and I don't recall which company produced it. It's similar in appearance to a Lucky 13 and its unique feature was an internal spring/weight that would cause the bait to quiver when paused. There was a cigar/Spook shaped version also. Don't know why I stopped using it other than the fact that, at the time, I caught my PB with it on a vacation down to Orlando. Any of our seasoned members remember these and if so, do you recall their name or the name of the company that made them. Sorry, no pic.

Hair jig (hand tied), tube jig and a Slider Head jig and 4in. straight tail.

I prefer a buzzbait, especially if there is a bit of wave action. More commotion than a plopper. I will use one if it's fairly calm and bright skies because I can fish is slow with a lot of pauses.

I'd base your color selection on the water clarity. Up here, I deal with clear water and the baby bass color would be my choice. The weird thing is one of my 1-Minus baits is black (I don't think it's a current offering) and it gets bit just as often as the baby bass.

I can't comment on the Bandit bait or the Baby 1- Minus, but the bigger 1-Minus has been a go to for me for dock fishing, for years. I have one that is tuned to run left and another to run right. Not too many bass that call a dock their home have seen a crank invade their living room. I would venture to say either will suit your purpose.

One of my favorite Spooks was the old white with a red head. I lost my only one last summer. For some reason, it flat out caught more fish than any other color. I've even painted the head of a couple of bone colored Spooks red, but they don't seem to work as well.

The overall focus in tournament fishing has changed. Now the trend is more toward covering water and thereby presenting your lure to as many fish as possible during the limited time you have to fish. I believe that fishing pressure has had its affect, not only on tournament fishing, but fishing in general. The other trend you see more now than in the past is fishing off shore structure. The advances in electronics have opened that up to anglers that 10 years ago would never consider targeting. Heavier jigs and weights for soft plastics allow a quicker way of probing that deep water. For bottom presentations, it's understandable. Although it can be very productive, 1/8oz. jigs take a while to get down to the bottom in 20ft.-30ft. of water and that's time 'wasted' for both the tournament and week-end angler. The other benefit is the ability to fish those presentations fast. For decades my most productive ways of probing those depths was using a deep diving crank, or a C-Rig, neither of which I consider fast presentations.

I may have found a new presentation for musky

This question really hits home for me as my home lake is weed choked in the shallows and I've had difficulty catching fish on a regular basis. What I've done is fished my strong suit (off shore structure) first. I find that first and foremost, those fish are easier to locate. Secondly, they don't seem to be affected as much by slight changes in the weather like shallow fish are. Yes, I'll switch from faster moving hard baits to soft plastics after a front passes, but unless the barometer is really high, I'll stick with the deeper fish. That's me. If you feel more comfortable fishing the mats, I'd say start there. Just know that those fish tend to be loaners and they will react faster to weather changes, often times suspending under the cover. Punch rigs are great at penetrating the cover, but many anglers use them strictly as a bottom contact bait and miss out on those suspended fish. In short, IMO, unless you are proficient with fishing either, gravitate toward your strong suit. The exception for me is if a frog bite is on during pre-front conditions. Then, I hit the mats for some hand to hand battles.

I'm currently doing a crankbait build (my first) on a MHX 7'6" blank and am questioning myself on using nine guides plus the tip guide. I normally use eight on that length rod, but come up with line touching the blank under load. The extra guide won't make any noticeable difference in weight, but the finished rod looks a little off with so many guides near the tip. Am I just overthinking this, or is this common for a rod with a moderate action?

I've been fishing the same lake a couple of times a week, for over 30 years and I can count on one hand how many bass I've caught on a lipless crank. I've tried different brands, sizes, colors along with a number of different retrieves=nada. I go to different lakes and they are consistent producers, often times with multiple species. Has anyone given up on a style of lure, or presentation on their home lake because it 'Just Don't Work Here?'

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a 'shoulder season?' I can relate to your frustration. With only one or two exceptions, you've described the lakes in SE Wisconsin. There was a time not to long ago, that we only had to deal with the mayhem on the week-ends which was okay with me. Now, however, I'm limited to night fishing.

I was in a similar situation. I grew up using spinning gear and didn't purchase a baitcaster for over 25 years. My line of thinking was the same as yours. The problem was there were no left handed baitcasters for bass fishing back then and I found that the switch was almost instinctive. I still use spinning gear occasionally, reeling with my left hand, but for the life of me, I can't use a left hand casting reel. Go figure.

For buzzbaits, I really don't think the type of line makes any difference. You don't need the sensitivity of braid or fluoro and you don't need a line that floats like mono or braid and you don't need a line that stretches like fluoro or mono. If you only have one combo and fluoro is the line on it, go for it. If it's braid, just back off the drag so there's a little give on the strike and go for it.

I think I'm in a minority when it comes to catch rates and seasons. I love fishing in the dead of summer. In July and August, my catch rate is way higher than in the spring or fall. In the spring, they move around a lot and in the fall, locating the forage is tough as we don't have shad up here. I find the bass are much more predictable then (summer) and I spend less time looking for active fish, or just fish for that matter. Although they may move short distances, the general areas I found them two or three days ago are the same ones I'll find them tomorrow. I may have to change presentations, or work the area more meticulously, but I know they're there. I should mention that in the summer, I target off shore bass the majority of time and find those fish aren't affected as much by changing conditions. A slight wind shift, or clearing sky seems to turn off shallow fish. With the deeper fish, it doesn't happen as quickly and generally not to the same degree.

OMG, I see this one going on for a long time. I'll play along. Hands down it's a ribbon tail worm and I throw more Culprit than other brands, but in the dead of summer, an Ole Monster and a C-Mac get a lot of playing time.

Makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up for sure. I was following that story, but haven't heard a thing since that first day's report. They have no clue to motive or possible suspects from those reports. Anything new that you've heard?

Here you go; https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/northland-fishing-tackle-rock-runner-slip-bouncer We used these for fishing rip rap for walleye and they work just as well for C-rigs. I actually use them for running small/shallow cranks deep, which is something the fish don't see much. Another option is a Lindy sinker. They'll occasionally get hung up too, but no where near as often as other types. You can find them by looking up sinkers for walleye fishing.

Try trimming the skirt on your swim jig back. Too long of a skirt reduces the action of a paddle tail.

I would use the more buoyant ones for cranking around timber. You can pause it and, if the hooks don’t catch a limb, it will rise and clear it. Around rip rap would be another place.The slowest rising ones Can be used in water deeper than the lure runs and paused during the retrieve. They will remain at their running depth, or very close to it, during short pauses. That is a good way to target suspending fish at that depth. Another way would be using them over a clean bottom. During pauses they would remain close to the bottom giving it a more natural action.

Yes. and not only cranks. With cranks the big differences are silent vs. rattles and wide vs. tight wobble. Even plastics of the same size can have less or more action, or a completely different action.

I use tungsten on my C-Rigs and my punch rigs. The first for the added sensitivity and the second for the smaller size. I use braid for both applications and can't recall but one time last season that I lost one. I still have a ton of brass and lead weights that see frequent use for other applications. Like anything else used in bass fishing, there are pros and cons and then there's individual preference.