Crankbait Question II

[keithdog]

Ok, now I am fired up after you guys have convinced me that a large crankbait would not be too large for northern Indiana. Now here is my second question. I am planning on buying a couple DD22's and DT16's. My next question regards color. Now I know it no doubt varies due to forage available, water clarity and all that. But my concern is as follows. The rule of thumb is brite lures on brite/sunny days, darker lures for darker/cloudy days and at night. Now wouldn't the same apply for deeper water where sunlight penetration is not as strong? The water is going to be darker in 15-20 foot of water. Wouldn't one therefore choose a darker colored lure for deeper water? The lakes around here can vary from fairly clear to very discolored depending on several factors. But even on days when the water visibility is fairly clear, deeper water is still going to offer less visability. I would think chatruese would be a poor color choice for deeper water as would white, or shiner colors. What colors do you guys prefer for deep diving large cranks? Perhaps color isn't such a big deal due to the fact that a large crank is going to send out strong signals from vibration to the fish due to increased water displacement caused by a larged bodied crankbait. Also I m planning to use a 7 foot med/heavy rod with 14 pound copolymer line spooled on a Garcia Abu C3. Does that sound like a good plan so far?

[Bob Smith]

Ahhh! My favorite deep diving crankbaits, no arsenal is complete without them!! I use them pretty much year round when the ooportunity presents itself (deep baitfish balls relative to points and humps, and ledges!
My absolute #1 color is Chartreuse/Blue Back with an orange belly. You'll find at least 4 floating and 2 suspending models in the Plano box at any given time. #2 is a sort of "clown" color with a chartreuse head and white body with an orange belly, # 3 is the White with black "splatter" back and yellow belly. I wish I could remember the color numbers, but a really great fall color is #141 or white with blueish green flake back.

Deep water favors the lighter colors

[boater]

DD-22 Ivory shad. or Slick is the other favorite of mine

[pig n jig]

Nutter Shad. I also like the firetiger coachdog and smokey joe.They run 15 - 17 ft. deep, not 22 as stated. P N J

[JB]

i got a lot of the supermag size traps, reason being that if you use a dd22 for 5 or six hours of cranking, the wrists get sore. If you can use a big trap and just let it sink instead of cranking down it saves on your arm/hand at the end of the day. Two dif wiggle patterns i realize, but I havent seen too many guy s that will stick with big plugs or rogues for a 10 hour day on the water.

[zooker]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

My absolute #1 color is Chartreuse/Blue Back with an orange belly. You'll find at least 4 floating and 2 suspending models in the Plano box at any given time. #2 is a sort of "clown" color with a chartreuse head and white body with an orange belly, # 3 is the White with black "splatter" back and yellow belly. I wish I could remember the color numbers, but a really great fall color is #141 or white with blueish green flake back.

damn his taste in crank colors are so close to mine,it aint funny..

way to go bobber

zooker

[keithdog]

Ok, smiles here. I think I have a pretty good idea as to color patterns to look for. Time to let the bait monkey run wild, lol. Going to head to BPS and buy a Garcia Revo this next couple months and will stock up on the big cranks then. I'm looking foreward to trying some of these big cranks. By the way, the Revo is not for the cranks, just a coincidence. Thanks guys. Your input is always welcomed. Buy the way, somehow I managed to post this post three times together. Not sure how. I know I clicked on upload a few times becasue it was taking forever to upload. But how does someone remove a post from a forum? I was going to remove the other two and couldn't find anything to clcik on to do so.

[keithdog]

You talking about Rattle Traps JB?

[JB]

yes keith i bought them (rattle traps in mag size)
about 10 years ago, my fav color scheme is white with some red/orange/blue painted just on the bottom only.
The lure itself is about 3 and 1/2 inches long 1 and 1/2 tall, easy to throw all day and sink to what ever depth

[pig n jig]

Keith, Here What I look foris any kind of break in bottom contour, any rocky ledges, a breaking sandbar anything different. Now If I can also put the bttom soil change very close to that, I will camp out for hours flogging the spot.What I mean is , here the lakes are gravel, or sand bottomed along the shoreline, in deeper water there is a silt bottom, I watch the fishfinder to find where the shoreline bottom turns to silt, if I can find a breakoff, or sharp change in bottom contour near that soil change, I am there for quite a while, until I can't throw the big baits any longer. The new fishfinder I have has GPS, so now I gotta get my note book out and mark those spots on the GPS.Its got to be better than triangelating spots in a note book. Yes JB was referring to traps.Don't know what JB uses, but I got a few LVR D-15 traps that see alot of water time, when I find those changes I was talking about. P N J

[Rebbasser]

Keith, if you stick with shad and/or crawfish colors you will be fine. One thing I cannot recommend highly enough: A low speed reel, as in 5.1:1 or less. I use a BPS David Fritts crankbait reel with a 4.7:1 ratio. The lower speed reel has more winching power and makes a huge difference in throwing deep cranks. A 6.3:1 reel wears me out after just a few casts, but I can throw a DD-22 all day on the low speed reel.

[pig n jig]

You can point the rod tip pointed towards the lure , as not to be getting torque in the rod blank itself, just a straight pull. The only thing is if you hitting bottom, or structure, like you should be, you will hang the bait up. P N J

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by pig n jig

Nutter Shad. I also like the firetiger coachdog and smokey joe.They run 15 - 17 ft. deep, not 22 as stated. P N J

I belong to the Bartow County Bass Club and we meet at Nutter's Rod and Reel Repair in White, GA. That color was created by none other than John Nutter himself, for Lake Allatoona (and it works fantastically). Get it in the Little and Middle "N" series also!

[BigBassin144]

Since we're speaking of deep cranks, and since I'm a big fan of Bandits, Has anyone tried the new 700 Series? They look awesome. I'd like to get a couple deeper cranks for the bigger reserviors around here.

BB

[pig n jig]

Originally Posted by Bob Smith

I belong to the Bartow County Bass Club and we meet at Nutter's Rod and Reel Repair in White, GA. That color was created by none other than John Nutter himself, for Lake Allatoona (and it works fantastically). Get it in the Little and Middle "N" series also!

Well thanks for the information on its origin.It has worked very well here, The color was given to me by a friend, who fished the ESPN elite series last year.I don't have much use for the rest of the Norman series. As mentioned before, in which I got scoffed at, I dig deep divers through shallow water , rather than buying a ton of different cranks for each depth.I know I am not right, but yet they still produce fish for me. P N J

[keithdog]

Hey Bob, those color patterns you mentioned above, what make and model crankbaits are you using? I havn't seen either in the Norman DD22's. I do see a color pattern in the BPS catalog called Sun Chart./Blue, #97. There is a small orange patch under the lip. But nothing where the belly is orange. I did see a color available from The Tackle Warehouse that looks great to me. It's called Green Joe Scale. You might want to check that one out.

[lunker-lander]

I like the Fat Free Shad's (3/4 Ounce; 3"). I just bought a couple recently, and I really like the looks of the Pearl White, the Rootbeer Float, and "Dance's Firetiger".

You should give them a try, they really are good baits!

-Lunk-

[pig n jig]

here's a picture of my DD22, can you tell me what I did to it ? Yes it still works, maybe not as well as the original, but there is a reason to my madness. P N J

[lunker-lander]

NO EYES! No he won't be scared of a big 'ole sow chasin' after him!

-Lunk-

[pig n jig]

Lunk, its got two beady eyes painted on it from the factory. In that scanned picture what sticks out clear as a bell, when the rest of it doesn't ? P N J

[lunker-lander]

You put hooks on it!?!?!

-Lunk-

[zooker]

Originally Posted by BigBassin144

Since we're speaking of deep cranks, and since I'm a big fan of Bandits, Has anyone tried the new 700 Series? They look awesome. I'd like to get a couple deeper cranks for the bigger reserviors around here.

BB

the bandit 700 is a hand full. the front of the bait-head- is on the same plane as the lip. guess this helps during the dive. it dives steeply i can get it down about 18 feet..it pulls back MORE than the dd22 btw.. the lip looks a lot like a dd22.. as the vintage bandit 600 has a funky shaped lip..

zooker

[pig n jig]

Originally Posted by lunker-lander

You put hooks on it!?!?!

-Lunk-

I downsized the hooks to a #4 treble.The reason is for the large number of smallmouths in my lakes. So far, it hasn't hurt as far as hooking and losing largemouths, but it hasn't helped for the smallmouth. Due to the fact that no smallmouth have taken it yet. P N J

[keithdog]

Would 14 pound mono line be sufficient for using these big cranks, or should a line even smaller be used to reach deeper depths? I've heard of guys using lighter lines to get maximum depth. However, with a large crank bait and the resistance it would create durring the retrieve I would think one would need a line strong enough to handle repeated retrieves.

[lunker-lander]

Originally Posted by zooker

the bandit 700 is a hand full. the front of the bait-head- is on the same plane as the lip. guess this helps during the dive. it dives steeply i can get it down about 18 feet..it pulls back MORE than the dd22 btw.. the lip looks a lot like a dd22.. as the vintage bandit 600 has a funky shaped lip..

zooker

Zook, the reason the head and lip are on the same plane is to help with snagging. It is set-up like this so the bait swims "vertical", per se. This way, the lip catches hits brush first and deflects the hooks away, therfore preventing snagging.

There was a real good video on this during one of the Bassmaster Elite Series TV programs.

-Lunk-