Bass Pro Crankin Stick Review And Questions

JETSWU87 · August 3, 2015

Hello all.

So I consider myself still a relativly new fisherman. I've only been fishing heavily for a little over a year, I fish rather shallow but I decided I was going to trial by fire deep diving crank baits. I had already had a ML crankin stick I purchased for 1.5s and fell in love with how easy it was to fish and how well it kept fish buttoned. So I went to bass pro again and bought a telescopic 7'6 MH Crankin stick (so it fits in my truck) and a Abu Garcia Orra Winch. Filled it up with 12lb Yo zuri hybrid

Fast forward, I take a yearly vacation to Northern New york and my family has a place on one of the smaller indian lakes up there. This is much different then my home lakes, being a natural pretty clear water setup. So I bought a bunch of 5 and 6xds and figured hey i have time to learn them.

Well it went well, I got nothing on my first bait I threw for about a hour. I switched up to a natual color with no rattle and hooked up wiht 5 nothern pike in 1 hour. I was hooked! (Hardy har)

I threw them a lot from there forward, over the week I caught near 50 fish and 90% of them were on the 6xd. I only lost three fish the entire week on that pole, lucky? Probably some, two of those fish were my fault, I tried to boat flip a bass that ended up being bigger then i thought...I lost him even though he had both hooks (4lb est). The other fish I lost I never saw, it felt like a heavier Northern....I had the drag too tight and he tried to run and it pulled the bait out of his mouth. After this fish i loosened up my drag and had no more issues. I caught a lot of fish on just one treble and they stayed hooked even on hard surges at the boat. SUPER impressed.

Now onto the bad, or what i need to learn. Since this pole is so "moderate" I have a hard time feeling the bottom unless I'm hammering it same to be said for grass on the bait. When I do feel the grass I was having a hard time clearing it like I can on a fast action rod. Sometimes I'd reel in and have grass on the bait and I never felt it. These poles really mask the crankbait's wobble, does anyone have any suggestions or is it simply more experience?

Another thing is after the first full day of fishing my ring finger and pinky felt numb. My elbow didnt hurt, just my hand. This is the hand that holes the reel while cranking, the 6xds pull this rod pretty good. The 5xds are way lighter of a tug. Is this to be expected or is my form bad? I have to imagine I flat out overdid it that day, I tossed these things for hours.

With all this said I hope I can translate this into my home lakes which are all manmade and much more hangups. I fished all week and didnt lose a single lure there, around here I'll lose a few a day even with a retriever and a pole.

6lb Northern ( for the lake it's a pretty good size, no known monsters in there)