HELP-Cranking!

[aikenyounggun]

Ok, heres the situation: I want to be well rounded by the time i hit college and really start fishing BFLs and whatever else as a boater. I have 2 1/2 years before i get there, but i want to really know every bait well and have confidence in it. I have been fishing since i was young, but i have only really developed confidence in soft plastics and jigs. The one cranking thing i have down is lipless/rattle-traps. But i want to learn how to gain confidence in CRANKING. I want to bug you guys for some general info on how to do this.

So, lets go basic: What should i be lookin for this time of the year? What general colors always work for you (no need to tell secrets)? What depths should i be throwing? Any other things? Line?

I have a lot of crankbaits cause my dads boat, but i also plan on buying some? whats the best bang for the buck? i have an academy gift card.

Any other hints will be much apreciated. I pond fish couple times a week and fish the lakes around here maybe twice a month. So any hints, ideas, or any basic knowledge will help.

Thanks in advance, God Bless.

[Marty]

But i want to learn how to gain confidence in CRANKING. I want to bug you guys for some general info on how to do this.

The best way is to use them!!

What general colors always work for you (no need to tell secrets)?

There's nothing that always works. Fish aren't always in the mood to hit a faster-moving horizontal bait. My personal opinion is that colors aren't that important; I've caught fish on a huge variety of colors. As far as I'm concerned, two colors will suffice: something muted, like shad or bluegill and something loud, like firetiger.

What depths should i be throwing?

Crankbaits are available that run barely beneath the surface to 15' and deeper. You need to determine the depth you believe they're holding at.

I've been fishing cranks since the day I started fishing 40 years ago and will fish them just about any time when the cover will permit their use. They are great fish attractors and it will be well worth your while to get into the habit of using them

Good luck.

[basstastic]

I would type my anwser out but Marty covered it pretty well. Color follows the same rules as any other bait. Early in the year i fish shallow cranks 2-4 feet divers and go deeper as the seasons continue to change. By fall i will be fishing shallow cranks again.

[Backwater Charlie]

Go with lighter line, flimsier rod, and one made of fiberglass or at least a composite. Helps in not pulling out the hooks from the fish's mouth. Medium rod of 7'. The rod will really load up and with it being 7' will cast a crankbait a mile or longer. 10lb line will do fine. 12lb for the heaviest. Lighter line tends to sink much faster than heavier line. Also, go with fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon sinks much faster than mono making crankbaits run deeper.

Bang them off a lot of stumps, rocks, trees. The more times you bump one off of a rock, stump, etc the more times you will attract a bass' attention.

Rapala DT's are great cranks but I've heard some issues with them being broken and such, which I've never encountered them doing so. They're about $7 a pop, too.

Bandit and Bomber have some nice cranks in the $4 - $5 range.

Simple lure color selection,

clear water : natural shad.

partly stained : sexy shad.

muddy : firetiger.

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by Backwater Charlie

Go with lighter line, flimsier rod, and one made of fiberglass or at least a composite. Helps in not pulling out the hooks from the fish's mouth. Medium rod of 7'. The rod will really load up and with it being 7' will cast a crankbait a mile or longer. 10lb line will do fine. 12lb for the heaviest. Lighter line tends to sink much faster than heavier line. Also, go with fluorocarbon. Fluorocarbon sinks much faster than mono making crankbaits run deeper.

Bang them off a lot of stumps, rocks, trees. The more times you bump one off of a rock, stump, etc the more times you will attract a bass' attention.

Rapala DT's are great cranks but I've heard some issues with them being broken and such, which I've never encountered them doing so. They're about $7 a pop, too.

Bandit and Bomber have some nice cranks in the $4 - $5 range.

Simple lure color selection,

clear water : natural shad.

partly stained : sexy shad.

muddy : firetiger.

This is about as basic as it gets right here, good info!

[aikenyounggun]

Guess its lookin like i just need to go throw them. Thanks for all the hints.

[MississippiBoy]

One thing....if the bait monkey bites, and since you've got an Academy gift card, check out their H2O line of cranks. There's plenty of rumors floating around as to who actually makes them (some say the same folks that make Lucky Craft), but they're really excellent lures, and they're as cheap or cheaper than the Bandit cranks, which are also excelent.

[BassinNC]

Your welcome even tho I didn't give any info

[swimbaitkid]

you need to come hang out with me in the summer,throw that DD22,and the big cranks. And i dont think you are gonna get good on Murray and the Hill with them,they arent those kind of lakes.You really need to come and stay at my house for like 2 weeks this summer,learn how to throw football's,10in worm, and crankbait.
(I have to learn to this summer)

[carolina-rig-01]

What you should be looking for?

You should always keep an eye on your graphs for bait balls. Anytime you can find shad is a good time to throw a crankbait. Also one of the most productive ways to catch fish on a crankbait is to dig up the bottom with it. An example of this would be throwing a crankbait that dives to 10' in less than 5' of water and letting it bang into the bottom on the retrieve. It can be hard at first to tell the difference between a bite or the bait bumping into rocks and stuff on the bottom but you will get the hang of it. There really isn't a time when you can't catch a fish on crankbaits so don't get stuck in the frame of mind that you have to fish it during a certain time of year.

Colors:

I throw a ton of different colors but here is a very basic list of water conditions and colors that will work for them. 1. Clear to stained - shad colors 2. stained - crawdad colors 3. muddy - firetiger or cirtius shad type colors.

Line:

Some guys swear by mono line because it stretches and helps keep fish from pulling off. other guys swear by flourocarbon line because it sinks and gets a crankbait down a little deeper. It's all a preference thing and boils down to what works for you. I personally use copoly line and really like it.

Bang for the buck:
Bandits are great baits for the money and a lot of guys love them, myself included. But my favorite crankbait out there is a Bomber 7A or a Bomber Fat A in size 6. These things just catch a lot of fish for me.

One more thing you should really consider is swapping out the hooks on crankbaits for premium treble hooks. I really like Mustad Triple Grips and put them on every bait I fish that has trebles on it right out of the box. I never fish a crankbait with factory hooks on it and since I started doing this several years back I haven't had much trouble with fish coming off.

[Justin2729]

My all time favorite way to go after bass is Deep Cranking! David Fritts is my favorite all time angler. So you could see why

[Arkie Bass Buster]

Originally Posted by MississippiBoy

One thing....if the bait monkey bites, and since you've got an Academy gift card, check out their H2O line of cranks. There's plenty of rumors floating around as to who actually makes them (some say the same folks that make Lucky Craft), but they're really excellent lures, and they're as cheap or cheaper than the Bandit cranks, which are also excelent.

I bought a couple of the H20 cranks to use last weekend. I actually prefer them to just about anything else and they are cheaper. I'll be getting some more

[Bob Smith]

Originally Posted by Justin2729

My all time favorite way to go after bass is Deep Cranking! David Fritts is my favorite all time angler. So you could see why

Hard to argue with that, another good one is Paul Elias, I learned a lot about crankbaits from watching and reading about both of these guys. I learned a lot about "structure fishing" from them as well!

C-rig -01 makes some very good points as well. Although changing hooks out isn't nearly as important as it used to be because the manufacturers started listening. It's still good to experiment and sometimes upping the hook size will enable a bait to become closer to neutral buoyancy or slower to rise. That little change can sometimes make a huge difference when you bounce off cover like rocks, trees and brush!

This is one of the better sites to get some well rounded information and it thrills me to see folks so willing to share it.

[Garry2rs]

Most everything has been covered already.

But here's my two cents worth...

You might do okay with bargain bin or no-name baits. The house brand ones that have been mentioned might be outstanding.

BUT...I wouldn't try to learn using them!

When you're not sure what you're doing, you must eliminate the variables. You must fish, where you know there are active fish. Catch some using your confidence bait, then switch to the bait you want to learn.

The baits you use should be the tank tested types that are guaranteed to work properly right out of the box.

Now if you aren't catching fish you can change colour or retrieve etc. looking for the right combination.

If your not sure whether the bait is working for, or against you, you are fumbling in the dark.

[3dkicker]

Maybe if you ask Zooker nicely he might explain what a it means when a crankbait "hunts". And if you find a bait that "hunts" then don't lose it!

[Garry2rs]

A lure that hunts is one that pulls to one side.
This generally happens when the lip is not installed straight. If a lure runs to the left or right when new, return it...Failing that you can take a file and remove a little bit of plastic from the side of the lip on the side it runs to.
Work slowly because you can't put it back!
If the lure runs to the side after you catch a fish or pull off of a snag etc. you probably bent the loop that the line ties to, or the split ring goes through. Sometimes you can straighten it with needle nose pliers.

[rodnreel]

Originally Posted by Garry2rs

A lure that hunts is one that pulls to one side.
This generally happens when the lip is not installed straight. If a lure runs to the left or right when new, return it...Failing that you can take a file and remove a little bit of plastic from the side of the lip on the side it runs to.
Work slowly because you can't put it back!
If the lure runs to the side after you catch a fish or pull off of a snag etc. you probably bent the loop that the line ties to, or the split ring goes through. Sometimes you can straighten it with needle nose pliers.

I've found many times that modifying a crankbait to run either left or right can be quite beneficial. There are certain times and conditions on the lake I fish when using a crankbait around boat docks can be deadly. Bend the eye one way or the other so the bait actually runs up under the dock and deflects off it's pilings. It's probably not something you want to do when first learning how to crank, but it becomes another tool once you get comfortable enough!

[3dkicker]

Originally Posted by Garry2rs

A lure that hunts is one that pulls to one side.

This is a little different from what I understand it to be.

[zooker]

Alot has been said that is true.in reallity you only "need" 5-6 differant colors. Most of which are mentioned above..

Once you have your colors start looking to get depth educated. You'll need to start finding baits that work in differant depth ranges you'll face... Since your in sc i would hold off learning to dig deep. Focus your search on the bandit 100-200,dt6-dt10,#5-7 shad rap,and norman deep lil n.. Mind you the #7 and norman dive right at the same depth 10 feet...

zooker

[Geezer]

Originally Posted by MississippiBoy

One thing....if the bait monkey bites, and since you've got an Academy gift card, check out their H2O line of cranks. There's plenty of rumors floating around as to who actually makes them (some say the same folks that make Lucky Craft), but they're really excellent lures, and they're as cheap or cheaper than the Bandit cranks, which are also excelent.

Hello All, would someone please explain "monkey bites".

[MallenManson]

Originally Posted by Geezer

Hello All, would someone please explain "monkey bites".

Welcome to the site Geezer! There are Bait Monkeys, Boat Monkeys and RV Monkeys.
If you walk into a tackle store and spend a bunch of money, the Monkey made you do it!
There really is no defense against the Monkey.

[Geezer]

Originally Posted by MallenManson

Welcome to the site Geezer! There are Bait Monkeys, Boat Monkeys and RV Monkeys.
If you walk into a tackle store and spend a bunch of money, the Monkey made you do it!
There really is no defense against the Monkey.

OUCH! Not too smart, especially for the first post. Thanks.....