Crankbait question

[Tunit14]

I have never really fished crankbaits but am looking to get into them. My first question is do you think it’s possible to fish crankbaits without electronics?(I do not have any) and if it is how do you go about finding areas?

[roadwarrior]

Fish points and rip rap at the dam.  Run lipless throuh and on top of grass.

Bump square bills in stump fields.

[WRB]

Do you have a boat?

Tom

[papajoe222]

You don't need electronics to fish any style bait, but they do offer a big advantage.  If you can, look over a topo map of the water you'll be fishing. Pick out a few spots to try and make a note of the depth. Now run a crank through that spot that runs approximately that depth.  If it contacts the bottom early in the retrieve, you're too shallow.  If it never contacts bottom, you're too deep.  

Lipped cranks are a good tool to help learn, not only the depth you're fishing, but the bottom composition and the presence of any cover and they have the advantage over electronics in that they can actually catch fish. 

[Basser2021]

24 minutes ago, papajoe222 said:

You don't need electronics to fish any style bait, but they do offer a big advantage.  If you can, look over a topo map of the water you'll be fishing. Pick out a few spots to try and make a note of the depth. Now run a crank through that spot that runs approximately that depth.  If it contacts the bottom early in the retrieve, you're too shallow.  If it never contacts bottom, you're too deep.  

Lipped cranks are a good tool to help learn, not only the depth you're fishing, but the bottom composition and the presence of any cover and they have the advantage over electronics in that they can actually catch fish. 

What he said.

I don't have any electronics but I use crankbaits quite often. I also don't fish huge lakes either.

[Lasher]

Crankbaits are awesome and you don't need electronics.  I cast toward laydowns, rip rap, main channel points, secondary points, bridge pilings, and basically any structure that looks like it holds fish.  I'd start with squarebill cranks shallow and then maybe some mid divers 7-10 ft.  Erratic stop and start retrieves always seems to get more bites for me than just a strait slow wind.  If you are not used to fishing a bait with treble hooks, you should read into why the rods are different and the hookset is different than soft plastic fishing.  I won't be surprised if you hook a good fish and find yourself walking the aisles at the tackle shop and spending money on new crankbaits.

[papajoe222]

In addition to my previous reply;

You can use crankbaits as your depthfinder. Starting shallow and working the bait deep, once the crank stops making bottom contact, you know the depth has changed at that point.  Changing to a deeper running crank and repeating the process will show you another depth change.  You can continue changing cranks to 'map' out an area. You can do the same thing paralleling the shoreline. Loosing contact will show you areas where a creek channel swings in toward shore, or where an underwater point exists.  

[Bluebasser86]

I had more success fishing crankbaits back when I fished out of a 2 man with no electronics than I do now in my boat or kayak that both have electronics. I use to just find rocks or riprap and start cranking, I'd find bass eventually. 

[Chris Catignani]

On 5/10/2022 at 12:00 PM, Tunit14 said:

...how do you go about finding areas?

This is the Holy Grail of questions.

First it takes some knowledge of bass habitat behavior.

Then it takes looking at a topo map.

Eventually you may get a feel for the lay of the land by looking at a bank.

Theres more involved...but this should be a good start.