Lets Talk Tackle

[Mikell]

I caught my first bass on a crank bait the other day. It wasnt as "spectacular" as I imagined using this reaction bait would be. Ive had harder hits on my soft plastics lol

 

Dont get me wrong it was cool to FINALLY catch something on a crankbait, I have a question though.

As I fish from the bank, I cast out and like to crank it up the points and the up the structure thats under the water.

Maybe catch the stuff hangin close to cover and/or the structures.

I only caught one on the crankbait BUT i noticed that a few times some nice size bass were chasin it all the way up the bank til like they were only in a foot of water or less but never actually went for it. Now this was cool to watch but id rather be catching them. My question is how come they would follow it so aggressively just to not go for it?

 

I tried all kinds of retrieves, slow, fast, near the top, all the way to the bottom in the middle, stop and go, jerk retrieve also and only got the one lol

 

Also just so i dont have to start a new thread, I REALLY want to catch something on top water but Ive not had any luck EVER lol

Frogs on top of lily pads that I can visibly see fish striking top water under the pads but nothing, hula popper on a cloudy slightly breezey day which ive heard is great for top water baits lol and its summer another time people use frogs and top water, but nothing lol

 

So, lets talk tackle haha

[Raul]

Something is missing in the presentation, that´s why they follow it but not bite it. What it could be ? for example, if you are reeling in steadily what may be missing is a change in let´s say, the speed ---> change the speed suddenly; if you are reeling in steadily in a straight line what may be missing is a change in direction ---> change direction suddenly, and so on, there´s no real or true answer, all the answers are valid. Erratic is the "secret".

[Mikell]

Something is missing in the presentation, that´s why they follow it but not bite it. What it could be ? for example, if you are reeling in steadily what may be missing is a change in let´s say, the speed ---> change the speed suddenly; if you are reeling in steadily in a straight line what may be missing is a change in direction ---> change direction suddenly, and so on, there´s no real or true answer, all the answers are valid. Erratic is the "secret".

thanks man maybe they just werent biting that great yesterday cus i actually tried all that too lol i made it as erratic as possible especially with the jerk retrieves lol ill keep experimenting but from what ive learned its different everyday on the water

[Jdm219]

I either reel it in slow so it gets a nice wobble action or I do an erratic retrieve. Now with hard jerkbaits, I like to reel it in slow with random jerks. Walleye and bass love it

[CalBassin]

When the bass are following your bait but not hitting it, it has to do somethingg with your presentation! What I suspect is that the color of your crankbait isn't exactly what they want! Always change up your colors; especially if they're following. Another thing you can do is go smaller. A lot of times your bait can be a tad too big for the bass' taste so they follow but don't commit!

And I'm confused about the second part. Have you seen fish hit your top water? Have you fished topwater? Get back to me so I can help!!

Awesome question!! Hope I helped somewhat(:

[Mccallister25]

As far as topwater is concerned.. Buy a super spook jr, and learn how to walk it. It is rediculously easy to learn, and flat out catches fish. It is, in my opinion, one of the best producing topwater lures out there..with maybe an exception or two.

Walk it along bank lines, around any visable structure in the water, shallow, deep. Anywhere. Iv caught dinks, all the way up to almost 4# fish on them.

If there are fish in your body of water, they'll destroy the spook

[Mikell]

When the bass are following your bait but not hitting it, it has to do somethingg with your presentation! What I suspect is that the color of your crankbait isn't exactly what they want! Always change up your colors; especially if they're following. Another thing you can do is go smaller. A lot of times your bait can be a tad too big for the bass' taste so they follow but don't commit!

And I'm confused about the second part. Have you seen fish hit your top water? Have you fished topwater? Get back to me so I can help!!

Awesome question!! Hope I helped somewhat(:

yes i have used top water, what i was reffering to was the fact that i could see fish hit stuff on the top of the water AROUND my lure, so i knew that using top water would be a good choice but still no bites, even though they were clearly feeding on top water bugs and what not already

 

also on the crankbait it might have been color because i dont think i could have gone any smaller, if i did i would have to use a spinning rod to be able to cast it as the crank i was using was already smaller than a kvd 1.5

[Mikell]

As far as topwater is concerned.. Buy a super spook jr, and learn how to walk it. It is rediculously easy to learn, and flat out catches fish. It is, in my opinion, one of the best producing topwater lures out there..with maybe an exception or two.

Walk it along bank lines, around any visable structure in the water, shallow, deep. Anywhere. Iv caught dinks, all the way up to almost 4# fish on them.

If there are fish in your body of water, they'll destroy the spook

any reccomendations on colors?

[smalljaw67]

Crankbaits are tools like all other lures, some days they just won't take a crank, that has a lot to do with it. When you get chasers the very next cast slow down or speed up, if you get another follow you need to either change color or change the size of the bait. Since you are fishing from the bank you are constantly searching for fish so you need a crankbait that is a serch type deal, deep diving crankbaits are for fishing fish, if you are marking fish deep you can try cranking but not so much searching. Good searching type crankbaits are square bills, lipless cranks, and wake baits as well as other shallow divers, these are designed to be fished through shallows where a depth finder isn't exactly marking fish. If you really want to get good with a crankbait and learn areas that hold fish and how to fine tune your presentation with them, I suggest getting a Bomber Square "A", they are inexpensive and small, the larger one is still small but weighs 3/8oz so it cast well. Get Foxy shad, Oxbow, and Foxy mama, those 3 colors will cover the conditions that you will face, they are inexpensive as I said but they are really productive, the small size will entice strikes from small fish as well as big ones but it is more appealing to all fish which will get you bites and that will give you confidence and you will learn. I normally wouldn't recommend a specific bait but being a shore angler, you don't have a graph to find fish, you need to search them and this little bait comes through cover very well, it is very affordable and the fish eat it, I have fished flasts with a couple different square bills and didn't even get a follow only to tie on the Square "A" and end up catching seven or eight nice bass from a spot I thought had zero fish, that is what you need and a lipless crank of some kind. Good luck and don't give up on cranks.

[Mccallister25]

any reccomendations on colors?

Thats all a matter of preference. My favorite color is the "foxy shad". Not to say that color produces any more than the others, it's just pleasing to my eyes I feel that with the spook, the walking action and commotion draws the fish to strike over the color factor.

[Raul]

yes i have used top water, what i was reffering to was the fact that i could see fish hit stuff on the top of the water AROUND my lure, so i knew that using top water would be a good choice but still no bites, even though they were clearly feeding on top water bugs and what not already

 

also on the crankbait it might have been color because i dont think i could have gone any smaller, if i did i would have to use a spinning rod to be able to cast it as the crank i was using was already smaller than a kvd 1.5

 

You say: "I could see fish hit stuff on the top of the water AROUND my lure".

 

Not to be an arse but: are you shure those fish you are seeing hitting stuff around your lure are bass ?

 

In my experience 8 out of 10 times I see fish hitting stuff around my lure yes they are fish but they are not bass, most of the times they are either carp or tilapia. So if I automatically assume that the fish hitting stuff on the top of the water are bass I´ll be right 2 out of 10 times and wrong 8 out of 10 times.

[Mikell]

You say: "I could see fish hit stuff on the top of the water AROUND my lure".

 

Not to be an arse but: are you shure those fish you are seeing hitting stuff around your lure are bass ?

 

In my experience 8 out of 10 times I see fish hitting stuff around my lure yes they are fish but they are not bass, most of the times they are either carp or tilapia. So if I automatically assume that the fish hitting stuff on the top of the water are bass I´ll be right 2 out of 10 times and wrong 8 out of 10 times.

as this is a valid point and some probably are not bass but if you saw the area you would know that there had to be bass there lol its just good of location cover vegetation structure and all that for there not to be some in there

but yes point valid it may jus be some gar or some other fish