Cranking success

[Huckfinn38]

Caught 10 fish yesterday with most on a Rapala DT16 in citrus. Its been pretty cool to do things to try and trigger bites. Pauses, pauses then a jerk, burn pause, slow sweep, fast sweep, and long pause. Surprisingly a long pause where the bait comes float back up is triggering a lot of bites too. Found this out yesterday when i would stop and mess with something on the kayak.

[Swamp Girl]

You've done well, Pilgrim, to keep so much skin on your thumb with so many bass in your boat. Were it worth the trouble?

 

[The Baron]

Very nice!  I'm off shortly to do some deep cranking myself - which I've just got onto and am starting from near zero experience.  I got a few my first time at it, hopefully I do as well as you today! 😎🤞

[Huckfinn38]

10 hours ago, The Baron said:

Very nice!  I'm off shortly to do some deep cranking myself - which I've just got onto and am starting from near zero experience.  I got a few my first time at it, hopefully I do as well as you today! 😎🤞

Hope you slayed them

[The Baron]

19 hours ago, Huckfinn38 said:

Hope you slayed them

Didn’t slay them, but I got 3 decent ones with a 100% landing rate.  That was on a lake I’ve only fished once before so not terrible.  I’m still dreaming of the day I crank up multiple fish from a fired up school - maybe that’ll be next time. lol

 

[Huckfinn38]

9 hours ago, The Baron said:

Didn’t slay them, but I got 3 decent ones with a 100% landing rate.  That was on a lake I’ve only fished once before so not terrible.  I’m still dreaming of the day I crank up multiple fish from a fired up school - maybe that’ll be next time. lol

 

Loves those DTs

My bite was completely shutdown today. Managed 1 fish. 

[The Baron]

2 hours ago, Huckfinn38 said:

Loves those DTs

My bite was completely shutdown today. Managed 1 fish. 

Yeah, I was away from the sport for a very long time so gravitated to the Rapala name which was a mainstay “back in the day”.  I’ll be trying others, but am happy with the DT14 so just added a DT10 and DT16.  I do like the simplicity of the name vs. some others that aren’t so self explanatory - pretty handy for a beginner.

[Huckfinn38]

15 hours ago, The Baron said:

Yeah, I was away from the sport for a very long time so gravitated to the Rapala name which was a mainstay “back in the day”.  I’ll be trying others, but am happy with the DT14 so just added a DT10 and DT16.  I do like the simplicity of the name vs. some others that aren’t so self explanatory - pretty handy for a beginner.

Check out the Spro Little Johns. Big fan of the 60 DD and the 70 DD.  I have a bunch of Berkley Dredgers and the new Dimes and really havent had much success with them but in all fairness its because I try them when the DT baits arent working.  I also like the 6th Sense Cloud series but I feel like once you get over the C10 those baits get too big.  

[GRiver]

Man you guys are killing me. I’ve dedicated this year to crank bait. I’m not doing good at all. When I do catch one, they have been small. It’s shallow where I’ve been fishing, so I’ve been square billing it. I just need more practice.

[The Baron]

28 minutes ago, GRiver said:

Man you guys are killing me. I’ve dedicated this year to crank bait. I’m not doing good at all. When I do catch one, they have been small. It’s shallow where I’ve been fishing, so I’ve been square billing it. I just need more practice.

I’ve been having a rough time of it in July - the summer grind is definitely here, and has been for too long.  
 

How shallow is shallow where you are?  If cranking squarebills, you definitely want to focus on shade whether it be from the tree line itself or any structures (docks, logs, rocks, etc).  If you can find deeper water, I’ve got almost all my cranking fish in 14-16ft. of water, off ledges where the shallow weeds start to taper off.   That’s in fairly clear water, your weeds may end and/or the fish find lower light in shallower water if your water is strained.

[Huckfinn38]

4 hours ago, GRiver said:

Man you guys are killing me. I’ve dedicated this year to crank bait. I’m not doing good at all. When I do catch one, they have been small. It’s shallow where I’ve been fishing, so I’ve been square billing it. I just need more practice.

Find structure in 10-20 ft depths. My water is 88-91 degrees now and these fish have all be caught in 14-20 ft

[GRiver]

On 7/29/2024 at 8:31 AM, The Baron said:

How shallow is shallow where you are?

The average depth of the whole lake is about 10 feet, I’m fishing about 5’. Water temp is warm here, 90’s on the leeward, current wise. I mainly try the edge of the pads and cattails.
I think my problem is me, I can catch them in the same areas with plastics, Texas rigged. Maybe, I’m too fast, too slow, don’t know. 
 

[Bazoo]

4 hours ago, GRiver said:

The average depth of the whole lake is about 10 feet, I’m fishing about 5’. Water temp is warm here, 90’s on the leeward, current wise. I mainly try the edge of the pads and cattails.
I think my problem is me, I can catch them in the same areas with plastics, Texas rigged. Maybe, I’m too fast, too slow, don’t know. 
 

Might switch from a squarebill to a regular crankbait. I've been using the Bomber Fat Free Guppy lately. Also might try a jerkbait. I try both suspending and floating models.

[Huckfinn38]

On 8/1/2024 at 6:25 AM, GRiver said:

The average depth of the whole lake is about 10 feet, I’m fishing about 5’. Water temp is warm here, 90’s on the leeward, current wise. I mainly try the edge of the pads and cattails.
I think my problem is me, I can catch them in the same areas with plastics, Texas rigged. Maybe, I’m too fast, too slow, don’t know. 
 

Try a bluegill pattern. If that doesn’t work might just not be the pattern for

Couple more from yesterday 

Dt16 and a SK 6XD

Try a bluegill pattern. If that doesn’t work might just not be the pattern for…started a reply here

 

What im saying is a crankbait may not be a good pattern for that location. I would think a bluegill pattern would work best but maybe not. I tend to do better with crankbaits when it is banging into something like rock, hard ground, stumps, and laydowns. There are places on Shearon Harris where crankbaits/squarebills dont work but wacky rigs, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and texas rigs/jigs do. 

[Huckfinn38]

In addition on this underwater railroad track I have been fish I have caught +- 50 fish the month of July. One was caught on a carolina rig, three were caught vertically jigging a damiki vault, +- 20 were caught on dropshots, and the rest were caught on crankbaits. I havent gotten a bite on a jig, a texas rig, a ned rig, nor a neko/wacky rig. To me this tells me they are foraging on shad/bait fish. My point is that the area you are fishing may not be a place where their primary forage is bait fish.

[GRiver]

7 hours ago, Huckfinn38 said:

Try a bluegill pattern. If that doesn’t work might just

Bluegill and Pumpkin seed are what I have caught the most on. 
Went out today with a friend, both fishing crank baits. He caught fish, me none… I pick up my worm rig, Texas rig, 7” ribbon tail junebug color. Within 5 minutes I had a bass, my crank baits were very similar in color and size, but nada.