Some More Fishing: Crankin� and Finessin�

[Paul Roberts]

I'm about to get back into the grind, so I fished hard for three days .

The Weather

A cold front rolled in, sandwiched by two of my fishing days lucky me . Surface temps in my pond of the day had been about 80F dropping to 77F at 9 feet and 76F at 14feet (2:30pm) the day prior to the front. This front looked serious at first (people were complaining about the chill) and the air didn't break 60F for most of the day. But it broke and allowed some afternoon sun and reached into the 70s. It had been 90F the day before.

What effect might this cold front have had on water temps? Very little. Back on the same pond the following day, I found ST at 79F and 76F at 9ft (again at 2:30pm). A large mass of water (like a pond) holds heat stubbornly, and will take on more at the slightest glimmer of summer sun (even through clouds). The largest temperature drop occurred following a good blow from a passing T-storm, that rolled up subsurface waters, dropping the surface to 78F. Temperature just wasn't going to be an issue for the day's fishing.

I mention this because many anglers often assume a "cold front" is going to kill the fishing. And temperature is often blamed. It can happen, but rarer than I hear talk of. Also, it's tough to judge without a thermometer. Lots of assumptions are made. "Chilly" air is often just not felt by the fish.

Despite the brilliant post-frontal blue, bass were cruising the shallows I saw several from 15 to 17 on the prowl. The blue wasn't going to last as T-storms were forecast for the late afternoon.

The first two days I fished a heavily vegetated pond, using crankbaits mostly. I just love fishing cranks in the weeds. It's all about plying the nooks and crannies some real fishing. Polarized glasses, sonar, observation skills, a small assortment of wide-lipped cranks, and a rod powerful enough to rip free of weeds when needed and keep a fish from burying, are the tools of the trade.

The Weeds

There are three main weed species in this pond:

Threadleaf (a Potemogeton) doesn't seem to hold fish, and is a bear to fish through regardless. It's soft and easy to rip through, but the lure just doesn't come through clean there's always a string of it fouled on a hook or wedged in the bill, killing plug action.

Threadleaf in hand.

Threadleaf on sonar. It's tall but not very dense. Density on this Lowrance unit is indicated by the brighter colors: yellow, orange, red, blue; with blue being the least dense.

Chara (a macro-algae) is coarse and wiry, and is tough to get through if you crash into it, but easy enough to fish bump and tick over. But it doesn't seem to hold fish. There's undoubtedly crayfish under that matt of steel wool, but they are probably safe. However bass can penetrate it; Let a hooked bass get too close to that Chara carpet and you'll see what I mean!

Chara in hand.

Milfoil (Eurasian) is what the bass relate to, as it offers way more surface area for life to develop on. Milfoil clumps can be large and dense enough to act as structure by themselves! This does not mean that in any water body, ANY milfoil clump will do. It's the underlying structure that matters most. But in flat bottomed dishpan waters, the bass are in and around the better milfoil areas.

Milfoil in hand

Milfoil and Chara on sonar. Milfoil is quite dense.

How to fish crankbaits in the weeds . Or how not to get buried in them :-/ :

The trick to fishing vegetation with a lure with exposed treble hooks is to avoid it! Milfoil beds can be dense, so I'm looking for breaks in it: edges, and seams in between clumps anything that breaks up those dense walls or hulking clumps. These are places I can put a lure and at the same time offer bass room to hunt. Breaks in the milfoil are created by substrate changes (it prefers softer bottom than Chara) and depth (tends to be shallower than threadleaf). Milfoil seems to need a lot of sun, more so than threadleaf. This is especially noticeable this year. With all the clouds brought by the El Nino, there is much less milfoil and much more threadleaf in all my ponds this year.

Wherever ideal growth conditions for milfoil give way, ragged edges, channels, and pockets are created. Find those breaks and get a plug down in there. This is where hunting bass cruise, and crankbaits can shine.

Bright sun helps me see the clumps, breaks, and transitions from a distance, which helps a lot. Under an overcast sky, if surface conditions are right, the beds can be still be located from a distance as they create slicks of flat water over the clumps, surrounded by rippled surface. Also, bluegills commonly crowd onto the tops of the clumps and when it's calm you can spot clumps from a distance by the dimples and slight swirls created by the gills. Deeper beds are found by sonar.

In a particularly promising area I may throw buoys to mark edges and channels, or just drop an anchor and line up with a shoreline object to orient my casts to the break. From there the rest is done by brail; feeling my way with the plug to identify the exact location and distance of weed type, each clump, and it's edges.

-Cast short. Don't cast long because you don't want to crash into the backside of a big clump and have to pull through it. The plug will stall and load up with weeds. Also, fish hooked out on a long cast are impossible to snub down if they attempt to jump. Leaping is probably the best way for a bass to throw a plug.

-Crank down gently. I much prefer to use the rod in short sweeps, instead of just cranking down with the reel. This does two things: It is a cautious way of coming into contact with what's down there, and I can both feel the plugs progress and watch the rod tip for the plugs rhythmic vibrations to let me know that it's running clean.

When you bump a clump you have three options:

Give slack and the plug may float free. If the water's surface is calm, lay the line on the surface and watch it, bass will often take as the plug rises watch for the line to tick' or skate.

If it doesn't come free, walk the plug through by pulling smoothly and firmly don't jerk. You'll feel it pop free, then let it float up a bit before resuming your retrieve. You may have to do this several times to get through. No problem, a fat, wide-lipped plug can do this.

The last option, and often the best (but can't be done until you're plug is in proper position on the clump) is, when you know you are on the front edge of a clump or wall, to lower your rod and rip the lure free like a hookset. If your plug was on the backside of the clump it'll just bury and you'll be cleaning a pound of milfoil off your plug. But if it's at the front side, the plug will rip free cleanly. That rip not only accelerates the plug but often causes a quick change of direction. Both are a major trigger. Once you get a bead on the layout of a given clump, probably in three or so casts, you can really fish it: the sides, and set up the rip off the front. Bass will hit a plug running without contact but do try to set up the rip; some days you'll get most of your strikes on the rips. Fish promising areas from different angles which can open up new paths, and trigger more fish.

-If bass are active they will likely be near the tops of the clumps. So you may not need to fish very deep at all. Even if the weeds are rooted in 15 feet of water with the weed clumps topping out at 2 to 4 feet, you may do well with a shallow running plug. In fact, I'd start there, and work deeper after. You can even twitch that plug before you crank it down, for some topwater hits.

Choosing plugs:

All brands make good plugs. Instead of worrying too much about exact diving depth, pick models that roughly cover the depth range you need: say 1-2ft, 4-6ft, 8-10ft, etc. Pick plugs with good action (wide wobble) at a slow speed (wider lips do this), and then vary your retrieve speed to adjust for depth. Retrieving slowly will keep you from gaining too much depth, and crashing; better to feel your way down to the weeds. Need to go a bit deeper? Reel a bit faster, or cast a bit further. Adjusting speed and cast length extends the workable range of a given plug without the need to switch line diameters or to a different plug.

Rapala DT Fat3: One of many good weed fishing plugs.

Some results from day 2:

Strikes often feel like a good 'TAP'. But, this 17" felt like I just came into weeds. I weighed the line before slacking, and felt her move -probably trying to spit those sticky trebles. I set the hook. Some people say crankbait fish hook themselves, but a lot of the time you have to be paying attention, and you do have to set those hooks.

This 16" I found at a nice milfoil edge just back from a steep drop-off -found via sonar. I had actually dropped this fish earlier in the day -just came unpinned. I returned at the end of the day and caught it. It had the fresh hook mark from the previous encounter. I can say that I did not lose a single fish that day lol.

A bit about barbs:

Barbed trebles damage bass jaws, and often make them a project to release. In my heavily fished waters, mangled jaws are common half the bass I caught these two days had damaged jaws. Last year I finally went barbless with hardbaits concerned I'd probably lose more fish, which just hasn't happened. Keep the line tight, and discourage them from leaping, and I can't tell I'm barbless; until I have em in hand, and then the hooks fall right out, without tearing tendons and skin.

Ouch! That infection is down to the bone.

Finessin'

On my third day off I fished with a savvy young angler who has good observational skills and is a good thinker. There is a pond we fish that's different from all the rest it lacks vegetation. It lacks any wood worth spending much time at -so far. Where are the fish? It's a pelagic fishery, based on plankton rather than vegetation to produce the food. Yellow perch, young bass, and young carp are the primary fodder; bluegills just don't make a good living out there with no where to hide.

On sonar the place looks like it could be a trout, or wiper, fishery! Fish suspended all over the place perch, carp, and bass.

Here's a cool shot of a carp and the edge of his mud cloud with bubbles rising up from his foraging:

The fishing has been pretty good in this pond the bass having no where to hide! Chuck-n-wind crankbaits, SBs, and topwaters find a lot of bass. But this year my friend was having a difficult time. They just haven't been biting, and indeed we found the fishing uncharacteristically slow. We did best on finesse stuff this day: small shad style cranks, 4 wacky'd stick worms, and shaky style worms on Slider heads. They wanted nothing to do with larger (reg'lar) cranks.

We are assuming that a huge year class of young largemouth have created some very well fed predators. I've been a tough sell on this kind of excuse. But some good research (on walleyes at NY's Shackleton research station 40 some years of data) have shown that this can affect angling success drastically. And indeed, the bass we did manage to scrape up were footballs.

[Fat-G]

Nice! I always like your pictures, the way you position the fish is really cool. Good fish, keep it up!

[5bass]

-Crank down gently. I much prefer to use the rod in short sweeps, instead of just cranking down with the reel. This does two things: It is a cautious way of coming into contact with what's down there, and I can both feel the plugs progress and watch the rod tip for the plugs rhythmic vibrations to let me know that it's running clean.

If you only take one bit of info from this post, this right here ^^ is great advice. This is also how I work deep cranks through the thickest of brush. Reel down and then thread or walk the bait through it with your rod, not your reel. Your crankbait success rate will triple once you learn to do this.

Another great post Paul, laced with good information.  

[DMac]

Very informative post! I've always shied away from fishing cranks in weeds, but now I might give it try thanks to you.

[Koop]

This is an amazingly informative post.  Thank you.  Great report.

[Steven Ladner]

Nice! I always like your pictures, the way you position the fish is really cool. Good fish, keep it up!

x2 on the pictures. Great fish, and even better info. Thanks for that post.

[Paul Roberts]

Believe it or not, I spent some time familiarizing myself with my camera, using a wood carving of a bass I have. Discovered a lot of pleasing poses I could do when stuffed into a float tube -tight shooting. But...I didn't even try to get fancy with these fish. I was too intent on catching. Happens when I can't get out as much as I'd like.

[RoLo]

Very nice presentation Paul!

Thanks for taking the time to include those sounder shots and the vegetation breakdown.

I can certainly relate to targeting pockets in the milfoil (Oddly, I use the same Charlie Brewer heads as you).

That is one busy float-tube, buddy  8-)

Roger

[J Francho]

Paul, you quite plainly know what is up.  nice report, and nice job!

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks guys. I know lots of people hate throwing cranks around cover. Weeds are the safest place to start. They sure are fun to fish.

Roger, I don't see that as odd at all -Slider heads are great fish catchers. Maybe we're just old school. There are a lot of models now, but I'd still like another, for shallow vegetation -the weedless Pro model (with the heavier hook), in 1/16oz. Lightest is 1/8. And the is hook too small and light in the Spider. The above fish was caught on a 1/8 Spider. Great head where cover is light enough to use the light hook.

I really cut my teeth bass fishing with UL jigworms in the late 70s. I became something of a local sensation too (lol) -which wasn't difficult mixed in amongst the Lucky 13s and Hula Poppers of the day. People were asking me to take them fishing, but I was too shy then.

I still love the technique and was thrilled to pull it out again. Felt just like home. Instant confidence.

[J Francho]

Paul, not really a slider head at all, but you can get Bagley shaky jigs in 1/16.  It doesn't have the pointed head, but it doesn't really matter since its so small.  The hook is plenty strong, and the eye comes out of the head at a similar angle.

[Daniel My Brother]

Thanks for a great, informative post. I think I may have to try going barbless.

[Bankbeater]

Great Post!

[RoLo]

There are a lot of models now, but I'd still like another, for shallow vegetation -the weedless Pro model (with the heavier hook), in 1/16oz. Lightest is 1/8. And the is hook too small and light in the Spider.

Paul, I purchase my Slider jigs direct from the Charlie Brewer Slider Company (BTW: Charlie died in 2000).

Their website is convoluted, and descriptors like "Pro Head" and "Spider Head" are used redundantly on their site.

To avoid getting jigs with rubbery hooks, I believe the key words are "Ultra Head" and "Classic Head".

If that's actually true, 1/16oz with heavier wire hooks may be available under this Product Code: SPCH16-U

WHERE:

SP = Spider

CH = Classic Head

16 = 1/16oz

U = Ultra Point Mustad

(That little U seems to be the key to heavier wire hooks)

SEE JIGHEADS UNDER "J"> http://www.fishingworld.com/Slider/Details.tmpl?ID=10144845751626346&Cart=12488153305079665&SKU=Pro%20Heads%2020

Roger

[Fishing Rhino]

Nice pics, especially those of your sounder, and the vegetation, showing the different echoes they produce.

Here's a phenomenon that you'll find interesting, and one I never would have noticed with the old paper recorder.

Another tale from my lobstering years.

In the spring, and early summer, we'd leave the dock about an hour before sunrise, to get to the gear at daybreak. Inshore fishing regs prohibit hauling lobster gear at night.

When I first got the color sounder, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. When we left the dock, it was still dark, without the slightest trace of dawn in the sky to the east.

That pale green light appeared two or three miles after we cleared the harbor and were headed for Buzzards Bay.

Simultaneously with the appearance of that faint light on the horizon, the bottom echo on the screen began to get larger, 'til it about doubled in thickness.

Then the line would separate, and a portion of it would rise, making it look like there were two bottoms. Over the next five minutes, maybe fewer, the upper line would gradually vanish.

It occurred without fail precisely at the same point during the transition from night to daylight. It did so without regard to the phase of the moon.

This threw a monkey wrench into the amount of light theory since there was more light from the full moon than the hint of light in the eastern sky.

Nonetheless, it was connected directly to the sunlight, even the feeble light from the green tint in the sky.

After a bit of research, it turned out the second echo was caused by photoplankton rising from their slumber on the bottom in unison, producing the second echo which vanished as the plankton dispersed throughout the water column.

Amazing that a light, so feeble above the surface, produced the reaction of the plankton in twenty or thirty feet of water.

There was not the same graphic show at sunset. Probably because they settled like sediment to the bottom, not forming up just above the bottom, then settling to it as one.

One other thing.  

We would get echoes from underwater vegetation, particularly strong from plankton, but only during the slack tide, or nearly slack tide.  The strength of that return was due no doubt to the air pockets within the plant.

When the tide was running, it would lay the plants along the bottom.

[Paul Roberts]

John, you are right, at 1/16 the heads you suggest would probably work quite well. I went ahead and ordered some of the Bagley's heads, and some Do-It's too.

Roger, thanks for looking into that for me. I ordered some of them too. They have a larger hook than I'd like -being a 3/0 wide-gap. I have some Slider heads (1/8) I bought at BP that have a heavy black nickle round bend. I'm pretty sure it's a Slider head but cannot find it on-line. Anyway, I'm a jig head freak -never too many styles in my jig boxes.

Tom,

Very cool observation. My guess is those plankton were not responding to the light but to a circadian (24hr) rhythm, entrained to sunrise. That kind of activity happens in freshwater environments too and explains some daily fish behavior patterns like that of whitefish, cisco, and lake trout in deep northern lakes. I assume there are patterns in bass waters we just don't notice.

As I familiarize myself with my sonar I'm playing around a lot with sensitivity and colorline and finding such neat things as plankton, sediment clouds from foraging carp, and large schools of YOY fishes. I'm bringing an UL and tiny jigs on my next trip to catch some of those tiny guys -real curious as to what they are.

Some see this kind of thing as esoterica. But I see it as a creeping toward a deeper more wholistic understanding of just what the hell is going on out there lol. Just fascinating. Thanks for sharing that.

[Paul Roberts]

Thanks for a great, informative post. I think I may have to try going barbless.

Daniel, I have a friend who is a really good CB fisher, and he catches 1000 bass a year. He gave barbless cranks a go (200 fish) and said he too couldn't see a difference. I believe he did finally decide on micro-barbs for his cranks.

I lost a good bass last week that may have been the first casualty of going barbless for me. It struck on the initial descent a long ways out and made one of those mouth wide open head shaking leaps. I reacted, as I do on a jump, by pulling low and hard on the rod. But she was too far out and the plug actually came speeding back at me! Barbs might, or might not, have made a difference in that case. She was a big one though.

Doesn't deter me, as again, I just didn't start losing more fish after going barbless. That one fish just got me to shorten my casts so I can better control those beasts. And the alternative is not OK with me.

Oh yeah, the Slider head I used for those finesse fish was micro-barbed -I mashed down the barb 'til it was almost closed. I'm not apt to go fully barbless with jigs due to the compact weight. Several of those finesse fish jumped, including two full head shakers from that football in the photo.

[slider head]

Great Post! Love the Slider Head part!

[Paul Roberts]

Well I tried an experiment -a foolish one. I mashed the barb completely barb flat on a jig. On the first two hook-ups two airborne bass spit 'em like greased butter. I went back to a barb.

This was on the pelagic pond in my first post above -full of YOY bass and perch possibly making the fishing difficult with regular gear. So I went back with an UL, 4lb line and a box of little jigs. Before being driven off by wind and rain I lipped five 14-16" LM and brought some perch home.

ULs are cool, you just suddenly feel weight, then you can't do anything with 'em for several minutes. Actually I was a bit too light in rod for these fish. Will move up a tad next time.

I actually stayed too long -the rain just wouldn't let up. I was completely drenched despite waders and rain jacket. I have a hard time giving it up. But on the hike out I admonished myself for not waiting another day for this nasty front to blow through. I did want to take temps though -finding the water just holding heat (still 75F). I was able to warm my stiffened hands in the water.

Here's one from yesterday on the 1/16oz grub with missing maxillary and premaxillary bones. This is how the one with the infection above will look next year.

[TommyBass]

Great Post!.... I wish more people would post pics of the sonar like you did... nice to see what someone else is seeing.

[CWB]

Great post. I must be old school also as I've been using Slider heads for years. Look up the SPHWG16-U and SPHWG8-U from the site Roger posted:http://www.fishingworld.com/Slider/Details.tmpl?ID=10144845751626346&Cart=12488153305079665&SKU=Pro%20Heads%2020

Good size (3/0) EWG heavier hook on the great spider head.

Don't usually throw alot of cranks in the weeds as by me you can usually walk across the top of them but food for thought and I am one hungry guy!

[Paul Roberts]

CWB --that might be the head! I emailed the company bc it's a little confusing. I hope that's it! Thanks!