How to NOT Lose Fish on Crankbaits

[jooleyen]

As many of you know, I've been having some problems losing fish on crankbaits. I switched to a glass rod and that didn't even help enough. I switched to fluorocarbon line and that helped some. Then, I finally put some #2 hooks on my cranks, and WOW! I rarely lose fish on them now. It's still inevitable to lose fish, but it REALLY helps. It seemed I could land every fish under #16 or so, and now, fish over that are no problem.


So if you had the same problem that I did, try switching your #6 hooks to #4's and your #4's to #2's.

One more thing, when you feel the hit, don't immediately sweep your rod to the side. Just reel really fast and let your rod load, and gently sweep your rod; just enough to keep tension.


Yall may have known this, but I didn't.

[zooker]

drag is the #1 issue with loosing fish on a crank.. your right going up a size helps also go with a longer shanked treble also helps on the shorter blunt type cranks -bandit 100-

the drag setting is hard to discribe but it is normally just BARELY tight enough that it wont slip when setting the hook.. sweepin the hook set does an ok job with small cranks loaded with small trebles -jointed shad raps-

the problem with baits like the jointed shad rap is replacin the hooks with a bigger size kills the action..of all the fish i have caught this year on a crank*knocks on wood* i have not lost but one and he had the bait by the diving lip..
this inculdes a 9.2 pound toad i caught two weeks ago but said nothing on here about it..


zooker

[WTL]

Another thing that has helped me is a ritual sacrifice of a squirrel and a songbird (mockingbirds, robins work well) before each outing. What you do is you take your fillet knife, it needs to an an old style Rapala type, and you warm it in a fire. You then take the live bird and the live squirrel, and holding them in the palm of your hand you cut their throats with the fillet knife - but be careful, just enough to bleed them dead, we dont want to decapitate them. You want the blood to pour slowly over a crucible that you will then drink from. After I started doing this, I found I landed 9/10 fish I hooked on cranks.

Of course if you dont want to go through all that trouble, larger high quality trebles work too. Also remember with cranks a long whippy rod is your friend when you play them, and play them you must. Take your time, but never let line slack.

[Jigger]

I often say, somewhat with tongue in cheek, that a crank bait will catch and hold anything including your pants, car seat, back of your friends neck etc., anything but a bass!!!!!

The above tips are great. Another one that works for me is when I've got a big bass on a crankbait, I'll let the drag, flex of the rod and the stretch of the mono play the fish as long as I've got a lot of line out but once I get the bass close to the boat, I push the button on the reel and let my thumb be the drag to keep the fish from ripping the hook loose because the closer they get to the boat, the less forgiving the short line is and when they make that inevitable surge at the boat, I let the line slip manually under my thumb. That last surge at the boat is the most critical time and with a short amount of line out, I don't trust the drag but I do trust my thumb which has been educated through the years.

[bamabassman]

here is a question for ya gang.......since the standard cranks we buy come with hooks too small, and we know folks have to be telling the companies this, why on earth aren't they putting larger trebles on them in the first place? it just makes sense to me. oh....sorry, forgot that they want to sell their trebles too. they want us to spend more money on their products. never mind. hahaha

[WTL]

If everybody and their brother files down the lower lip of a Pop-R to give it a little better action, why hasnt Rebel made the Pop-R design have a little smaller lower lip out of the package?

I guess they decided to leave a little bit to the anglers regarding how they customize lures. Per 100 hooks, the smaller ones might be just a slight bit cheaper, and the smaller ones might give the balsa or plastic cranks just slightly a better action, so they go with the smaller hooks. Thats about all I can think of. I have been throwing the hell out of a Strike King crank latlely though and I havent touched the hooks, they were good out of the package.

[JB]

thats a good pt wtl, i used to spend hours sanding the popR to make it more effective, was never sure if I had any advantage afterwards or not..they always work either way...every bassmaster mag told the story of how zell altered his money maker

[3dkicker]

The Pop-R was effective tonight but the hooks weren't . Lost two coming to the boat. Of course the bait caught every little piece of floating grass in the river though.

[Twinsprtsfan]

I have some of those VMC "Sure set" hooks on a few of mine and rarely lose a fish with those. The way they are though, ou got to make sure they do not screw up the lure's action. But they work good.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/te...&cm_ite=netcon

[bamabassman]

i have a zell pop-r, and some regular ones. haven't noticed a thing different on how many i catch. just a little better on the color with the zell special.

[Raul]

Originally Posted by zooker

drag is the #1 issue with loosing fish on a crank..

the drag setting is hard to discribe but it is normally just BARELY tight enough that it wont slip when setting the hook..


zooker

Same opinion here

[islandbass]

I pretty much agree with zooker and raul, but my drag is ever so slightly just a wee bit less.

With that said, I almost don't have a hookset. I ensure that my trebles are super sharp so when the fish strikes, they practically impale themselves with little assistance from me.

VMCs are awesome, as are the triple grips.