Tips and tricks on cranking

[reellittlephish]

How about some tips and advanced lessons on crankbait fishing.  Ran across a Luhr Jensen link describing some tips on getting through cover. Never heard of squirt'in, rip-rap escape or 4 wheel drive for crankbaits. Never really thought much about rod position either in terms of getting hooked in brush.  

An Adobe pdf document.

http://www.luhrjensen.com/techreports/542%20Brush%20Baby%20TS.pdf

[Glenn]

We have a ton of articles on crankbaiting here.  Start on this page http://www.bassresource.com/fish/crankbaits.html  then follow the links at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

[Will]

Balsa crankbaits work good in wood since they are so bouyant. If you feel your lure getting hung up stop and let the lure float up a little.

[Stickling]

i like the stop and go method as well as the jerk method.

[earthworm77]

Put a red hook on the front of the bait. It should force fish to focus on the meaty part! lol

[reellittlephish]

Thanks for replys.  got bunch of Rapala shad raps and fat raps.  Some are customized to suspend. Fished the rapala stick baits for years.  Got some fat A Bombers and one Lucky Craft Staysee 90. Never tried the red hook.  Read some of the links refered to Glenn.  Figure I got the basics like burning, stop and go, ripping.   Don't have the finer points.  Looking for suggestions and pattern tricks for highland lakes as well as fishing reed, salt cedar and cat tail areas.

[playmaker47]

If you want the crankbait to run a little deeper than it normally does retrieve it with the rod tip almost in the water. If you want it to run a little shallower than normal hold the rod tip higher on the air. Also my fav way to catch bas with crankbaits is during the spawn. get a deep diver and find a spawning bed and just go about digging trenches all through it. I've caught quite a few 3, 4, & 5 pound bass this way, cause they think the crankbaits are attacking the nests.

[Chris]

(and you wonder why populations fall)

Anyhow the retrieves i use are just a straight retrieve, slow roll,stop and go, burn it, jerky retrieve,(crank, crank, stop, crank, stop, crank, crank,crank,stop,jerk,stop) Also i sweep the rod or fish a crankbait like a worm. If your fishing on top of weed flats use a rattle trap or a wood crank so that if the crankbait gets caught you can stop and it will back up out of the weeds. You can use a real shallow crankbait to buzz just under the surface too. Jerkbaits are another lure that works well in grass. Wood i tend to use a crankbait that either has a square bill or a rounded one (check the post i did on crankbaits in another thread) If i have a lone peice of structure like a stump i will use a coffen bill because the bait will bounce of the stump and shoot out away from it further than a round or square bill. It will also cause a reaction strike. If your looking to ram the structure use a straight retreave because it will hang less often on the structure. Another tactic is to reel the bait right up against the stump and rip it off the stump. That tactic also works well on standing timber too. If your fishing dropoffs you can fish the bait parallel to the drop or have it drop off the edge. Cat tails you  need to fish either parallel to or you can throw to the indentions in the grass and reel it out to the deeper water. A timber tiger can be a great lure if your going to 4 wheel drive though them but remember that cat tails grow in a peat bottom and you need to keep your lure off the bottom. Also beef up your line because the cat tail can cut your line easy if you get stuck.

[Glenn]

playmaker - destroying a bass bed?  Not smart.  I certainly do not advocate such a tactic and implore you to throw that technique out of your playbook.

[Chris]

Here is another trick you take a lure like a tennessee tuffy and you take a jigsaw and cut the lip so that its right on the edge of the line tie and the split ring hangs over the edge of the lip. The bait still has a great swimming action but now you have a better controle of depth. With your rod positioned down the bait will run about 4 ft and with the rod up it will run about 2 ft. Its a great bait for flats. Also the bait runs positioned straight instead of nose down.

[Mikey]

on a lot of my crankbaits I remove the split ring and use a "loop" knot or flemish knot. its there !

[FutureClassicChamp]

phish.....that link doesnt work

[Chris]

Thats because Rapala bought them.