Can you fish cranks on a soft bottom?

[Cdewyse]

I am new to crankbait fishing but not fishing. I live in the northern part of michigans lower peninsula. Most of the lakes around here have soft mud and silt bottoms. I know most people crank rocks and shell beds and stuff like that. Can you fish crankbaits on those soft bottoms and be successful?

[Turkey sandwich]

Yep!  it may not always be my first choice, but it can be really effective at kicking up a mess on the bottom like a flying baitfish or crayfish.  The key is finding soft bottom areas that hold fish without thick weeds that would make presenting a treble hook bait a nightmare. Around good structure dotted with rocks, stumps, submerged timber, or sparse vegetation it can be a really good technique.  Learning to fish them through cover can be tricky, and certainly has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be very effective.

[Cdewyse]

 

6 minutes ago, Turkey sandwich said:

Yep!  it may not always be my first choice, but it can be really effective at kicking up a mess on the bottom like a flying baitfish or crayfish.  The key is finding soft bottom areas that hold fish without thick weeds that would make presenting a treble hook bait a nightmare. Around good structure dotted with rocks, stumps, submerged timber, or sparse vegetation it can be a really good technique.  Learning to fish them through cover can be tricky, and certainly has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be very effective.

I live near a decent size river that is dammed up in 5 different place which created 5 reservoirs. They all have submerged trees and brush. I need to get some decent electronics now so i can find them a little easier! Thanks for the input!

[Montanaro]

Crankbaits dont need to be run on bottom to catch fish.  I fish a lot of silty vegetated lakes and one of my top producers is a shallow running crank that I smack into laydowns or buzz over tops of grass and outside lily pad edges.

[the reel ess]

In addition to the replies above, you can use a lipless crank in a lake like that with good results. Rat L Trap makes a floating model as well.

[Raul]

Of course you can.

[Scarborough817]

you can  i would look for transition points from soft to hard bottom or use a lipless but i would also suggest a bladed jig it can be fished around grass it's fairly weedless, most of the lakes i fish are similar and from what i've found they prefer to feed higher in the water column not so much in the silt and dead leaves on the bottom.

[NHBull]

All the time, especially over grass

[roadwarrior]

No, they look and act too much like crawdads, the #1 enemy of bass.

 

[scaleface]

It can be difficult in some places  . I fish a silted in bay off the Mississippi river that is difficult to crank . I like to use  a shallow diving  Bagley Balsa lure there . 

[the reel ess]

My buddy uses a BPS crappie sized bubble gum crank over grass in a shallow lake. He'll just reel it down a few cranks and stop it and let it float up a bit. He has caught a few big gals on this method. I would think a smaller crank with less of an aggressive bill might work well. Like maybe the Bomber A.

 

[Dorado]

5 hours ago, the reel ess said:

My buddy uses a BPS crappie sized bubble gum crank over grass in a shallow lake. He'll just reel it down a few cranks and stop it and let it float up a bit. He has caught a few big gals on this method. I would think a smaller crank with less of an aggressive bill might work well. Like maybe the Bomber A.

 

You nailed it. I caught my PB doing exactly what you described with a Mann's Baby One- Minus in a fire crystashad