Could you only fish crankbaits year round forever?

[fin]

7 hours ago, WRB said:

You shouldn’t get bored when catching bass

 

I don't get bored when catching them. It's when I'm not catching them that I want to try something different, partly to alleviate the boredom.

 

The stats that @Glenn recently posted show that we are as much, if not more, interested in tackle than anything else, so it's no surprise that nobody wants to fish the same bait all the time.

 

I'm a little surprised to learn so many people feel the same about crankbaits though. That's my biggest takeaway from this post.

[steve-pierce]

8 hours ago, WRB said:

You shouldn’t get bored when catching bass, you odds improve fishing slower. If casting crank baits makes you happy, then cast away.

Looking back at the Flea Market I sold over a  hundred crankbaits and like to fish them. 

also sold a hundred pounds of jigs and catch more bass per hour fished using jigs.

Tom

I haven't seen the odds improve fishing slower play out in the smaller tournaments that I fish. Some days the finesse guys win and some days the reaction guys do. I havent seen any domination by either style. I'm sure it's different in different parts of the country

[TnRiver46]

15 hours ago, Chris Catignani said:

No...I like flippin and pitchin as technique for wood and other cover....and then we have night fishing.

Never did really great with a crankbait at night.

You ever encounter the boogie man out in them hollers in the middle of the night? 

[Deleted account]

13 hours ago, Bird said:

I've got enough miles on a Spinnerbait to require an oil change. Lol

I need the high mileage synthetic to keep the tail pipe smoke to a minimum, and my swim jig needs a new head gasket.

[J Francho]

16 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

For me it’s more like catch nothing with a $5 crankbait and get it stuck and break off. Where as the plastic worms are weedless and actually catch fish, sometimes a dozen fish on a single worm. I have never found any aspect of crankbait to be cost effective, I have dozens of them that just turn to rust 

At the time (early 80s) I was unaware of weedless plastic options.  I was probably around 12 when a guy in a bass boat came by fishing our dock with a Texas Rig.  I asked how his bait got through the slop, and he showed me how to rig and gave me some tackle.  I don't recall losing too many cranks, though I must have.  It would more likely be from a northern pike or bowfin than any kind of rocks or cover though.

[TnRiver46]

3 minutes ago, J Francho said:

At the time (early 80s) I was unaware of weedless plastic options.  I was probably around 12 when a guy in a bass boat came by fishing our dock with a Texas Rig.  I asked how his bait got through the slop, and he showed me how to rig and gave me some tackle.  I don't recall losing too many cranks, though I must have.  It would more likely be from a northern pike or bowfin than any kind of rocks or cover though.

Yea, Im always amazed when I travel north at the sandy smooth bottom waters with lily pads, all we have is jagged rock cliffs with logs stuck on them 

[scaleface]

17 hours ago, Bird said:

Crankbaits would be last choice to throw all the time. I like throwing to cover and vegetation.

Me too . I love cranks but there are to many places they dont do well in .

20 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

Inspired by seeing some specialized crankbait rods that are more specialized than I can justify since I can't carry 30 rods at a time (YMMV),

I dont use a specialized crankbait rod . They are not necessary for a recreational angler . I use a 7 foot mh for most cranks .  Sometimes I'll use a 7 foot hvy for big deep diving lures and  a 6'6" med for smaller cranks . I only carry 6 or 7 rods so they all perform double duty .

[Bassbum1016]

X3 Jig em up 

[The Maestro]

I wish I could use them more tbh. I'm going to try to incorporate them more this year but the water I fish isn't great for cranking year round. Still wouldn't want to do it exclusively but they are fun and a nice change from vertical presentations. They're also deadly when the conditions are right for them. I remember hearing that squarebills account for the most wins in major tournaments along with jigs.

[casts_by_fly]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Me too . I love cranks but there are to many places they dont do well in .

I dont use a specialized crankbait rod . They are not necessary for a recreational angler . I use a 7 foot mh for most cranks .  Sometimes I'll use a 7 foot hvy for big deep diving lures and  a 6'6" med for smaller cranks . I only carry 6 or 7 rods so they all perform double duty .

 

That's mostly me too. I'm fishing out of a kayak, so I carry 4-6 rods depending on the lake and time of year.  I do have a crankbait rod (shimano crucial 7' MH/MF) but it can double as a swimbait rod easily (though it only has 10 lb on it so I limit what else I do with it).  Its often the first rod that stays home when the grass is up and crankbaits limited, but I still fish cranks on my other rods (depending on the crank, any of 3 rods might get it).  If there is a good chance of throwing crankbaits, its in the boat. 

 

The initial inspiration was the 7'8" Falcon Expert "Toledo special" which is a 3/8-3/4 MH/S.  Its such a specialized rod, I got to thinking "in what situation could I justify buying and using it"?  Only two came to mind- I could carry enough rods in a locker that something that specialized wasn't taking away from something else, or I was so dedicated to crankbaits that this specific rod became a requirement.  All of my rods do double duty, so logically the existence of that rod in my set would imply that I had specialized to a point of only throwing cranks.  Hence the question.

[RB 77]

6 hours ago, scaleface said:

Me too . I love cranks but there are to many places they dont do well in .

I dont use a specialized crankbait rod . They are not necessary for a recreational angler . I use a 7 foot mh for most cranks .  Sometimes I'll use a 7 foot hvy for big deep diving lures and  a 6'6" med for smaller cranks . I only carry 6 or 7 rods so they all perform double duty .

 

 

Oddly enough, I picked up two G Loomis crankbait rods to try and encourage me to throw cranks more. That did absolutely nothing for me and I ended up selling one of them. Kept one for shallow to med depth, which is where I do 99% of my cranking. I have deep divers, but hardly ever throw them. 

[Synth999]

I could and have done it. It’s like Bubba Gump Shrimp, so many ways to do it. Slow, fast, trolling, casting, down rigging, deep, shallow, sinking, floating, suspending, large profile, small profile, rattling, silent. Bottom line is crankbaits  cover more water. While a guy is working one spot with a worm, I have hit 3 or 4 and have likely found the fish. Back in the day, guys would rent Rapalas and Big-O’s for tournaments when they were in short supply.  Not to mention, everyone is wormin’ now. Most guys I see are pretty bad at working crankbaits. I have been fishing old wood Pikies and River Runts lately, the fish have likely never seen one before. How many 4 inch worms have they seen? For weeds, I break the lips off floating rapalas, remove the hooks and add a single frog hook to the tail. Deadly when bait fish are hiding in pads or weeds. The Berkeley Dredge 25 is a new favorite for the big girls that much deeper than guys are fishing. Oh, and I only use spinning gear as I can cast much further with light baits.

[Bazoo]

Could I, mhmm. I wouldn't want to though. There has been plenty of times I've fished just 2 lures, crankbaits and worms.

 

If I had to do just crankbaits, I could do it, I'd catch less probably, but I also might end up learning a lot. Bass eat baitfish year round... so I don't see why it wouldn't work.