Crank Baits not working

[tritz18]

Everybody says how crank baits are amazing and can catch fish. I have bought several crank baits varying in color and brand and still have caught nothing on them. You guys got any tips?

[wagn]

bump them off stuff, wood, rocks, the ground.

Also make sure your trying different retrieves.

If your in clear water or slightly stained, watch to see if any bass are following the bait. That might tell you that you just need to change up your color or retrieve a little bit

[roadwarrior]

It's not "what" it's "where."  

You need to target structure and/or cover with a lure that runs at an appropriate depth. On a grass flat that might mean a Mann's -1, Bomber Square A or Norman Fat Boy. If there is deeper water, Bagley BII. On humps, drops, riprap or through timber a Rat-L-Trap type lure or Fat Free Shad might be the ticket. Deep structure can be reached with a DD22.

Fall is a GREAT time of year for crankbaits!  

[Raul]

Everybody says buzzbaits are awsom and I can 't catch a fish on them even if my life depended on it, so who is it, the bait or the guy ?

Use the search engine and read Chris ' post about crankbaiting ( he posted it about a month ago ), one of the best explanations on where and how to crankbait I 've read.

[bassmaster8100]

I personally struggled for a long time with crankbait fish but this year it seems like I just turned a light switch only and suddenly it started working for me. You just gotta experiment with them as far as the retrieve, the two things that are working best for me are the stop and go tecnique and also just cranking it down bout 5 or 6 times pausing and giving it a couple of jerks with a pause then repeat. Also fishing around stumps running the bait into stumps and pausing for a sec like a stunned bait fish. These are just a few things that are working for me, hope it can be of some help to ya.

[S I G M A]

i had no luck with crankbaits for a while either like bassmaster until this summer when i was just dinking around... i get a lot of hits when i run a 6'-8' crayfish colored bomber along where riprap ends

[WRB]

Any lure that equires the bass to swim fast to catch it is called a reaction bite lure. Reaction type lures create te elusion that something looking like prey is trying to escape and maybe injured allowing the bass to catch and eat it.

Crank baits, or diving plugs are reaction type lues. So are spinner baits, buzz baits, spoons and surface disturbing top water lures with propellers.

All the reaction type lures work when the bass are active, willing to strike a faster moving lure. The mistake most bass fisherman make is believing that bass are active the majority of the time and they just need to find the right size, color, action etc to get the bass to react. This simply isn't true. Bass are actively feeding about 10% of any given day. This means that bass are less active the majority of the time and spend about 50% of the time doing absolutly nothing, suspending/resting. Keep in mind there are several schools of bass doing different things at the same time throughout the lake.

To target active bass you need to know when they are actively feeding, what they are feeding on and where. Present a crawdad looking crank bait to bass looking for crawdads and your strike rate increase greatly. Crawdads for example hide around and in rocky areas like rip rap and thats is a very good place to use that type of lure. If the bass are actively feeding on shad, then a shad color and profile lure works well. How deep you fish is dependant on how deep the bass are feeding. If you see surface action, then a deep running crank bait may not be the best choice, a shallower running crankbait or surface lure would be better. If the bass are deeper a spoon may work better falling throught the shad school.

When the bass are less active, then slower presentations like soft plastics, jigs and swimbaits work better.

If you cast and crank all day you may run into some active bass somewhere. A better plan may be to take a look at soluner tables to determine when active time periods may occur and watch for feeding activity like birds and fish chasing prey. Nothing can replace time on the water to become familar with the lake you are fishing.

WRB

[tritz18]

thanks everyone I will be trying all of these methods on saturday