Hooksets With Crankbaits

[Lund Explorer]

Aside from the fact that no one brand name of rod is the only thing you'll need, there's plenty of good advice here. But there is one other aspect I didn't see mentioned.

Of the 7 you caught, where were they hooked?

I've noticed that there are many days when I'll lose a few fish on crankbaits and the ones I do get into the boat are usually barely hooked towards the outside of the mouth. This tells me that the fish are hitting the bait, but just aren't that sold on it. I rarely lose fish when they are swallowing the bait.

[NBR]

I also use cranks alot second only to soft plastics. First you will always lose more fish with trebles. I think the reason is the narrower gap on trebles, so a slightly larger treble will help. I don't usually change hooks but when I do Igo up one size maybe two if the new hooks have a lighter gauge wire. I pinch the barbs on all the hooks I use so I am very aware of keeping the line tight. I don't lose many maybe 1 in 10 or more. You don't say what kind of line. Mono is more forgiving and particuarly if your rod is graphite. I have some fiberglass cranking rods but I prefer one of my graphite rods. I have always used a soft easy to cast mono but I am slowly converting to fluro for better depth.

Be careful that your hook set is not so hard as to tear a hole in the critters mouth. With sharp hooks I don't think you need to cross their eyes.

[BILLYsobx]

In my experience the crankbait is the one lure that if that bass wants to eat that crankbait he eats it so he hooks himself then u just give it a pull. Just remember trebles are smaller than say a 5 0 wide gap worm hook where u can ****** him all the way to the boat, if u try to force a crankbait bass especially bigger ones the hooks can rip out. In my experience I lost more crankbait bass because I tryed to force them to the boat. In the past few yrs I've lost very few I think mainly because I learned to never give em slack, don't let them jump and let em swim u never know when that tail treble is outside of their mouth and only one of those hooks has em a 5lber can make one last lunge by the boat while u have maybe 4 ft of line out and even with mono there is not enough stretch to keep the hooks from tearing out. In short u never know how that bass is hooked on ur crankbait so treat em all like they are barely hooked

[Chris]

It also could be your drag setting which will also effect your lures running depth if it isn't tight enough. You want to have the drag set high enough for the hook set then backed off for the fight especially if your getting bit at a distance.

[Avalonjohn44]

It also could be your drag setting which will also effect your lures running depth if it isn't tight enough. You want to have the drag set high enough for the hook set then backed off for the fight especially if your getting bit at a distance.

This. I think this might be the best advice yet. I use a 7ft MH fast tip rod for cranking, and once I got my drag set properly I rarely lose a fish. I lose more fish on EWG hooks than on trebles.

[SquareBill]

Are using mono or fluoro line? I have found sometimes that when I'm fishing cranks with fluorocarbon, due to the extra sensitivity and less stretch of fluoro line, I feel the strikes just a hair to soon which causes me to sometimes rip the bait away from or out of the fish's mouth before it can take the bait in enough for a good solid hookup. This may or may not be your problem, but if you are losing fish in the first 1-2 seconds of the hookup, then it may be something to consider.