Count On Crankbaits

Most of the time bass eat other fish and there's no better lure to ring the dinner bell for foraging 
lunkers than the crankbait.

• Lure Selection Keys — Selecting a color is but one of the four major decisions you must make prior to tying on your choice of lure.
The most important fact you must consider is the depth you want the lure to run. Using the 5-foot 
depth of visible spawning nests as a key, you should select a lure that will run at least 5 1/2 feet 
deep.
Why? Because to maximize the crankbait's productivity, we've got to hit something with it. In the 
case of spawning bass, this usually means the bottom. We want our bait moving slowly, digging and 
bouncing around the bottom. If we're able to do this, the bass will take care of the rest.
Speed of retrieve plays a major role in our effectiveness with crankbaits. We mentioned moving the 
lure s-1-o-w-ly across the bottom. This is the best presentation for spawning bass.
The speed at which you retrieve the lure also has a big effect on how deep that lure will run. Now, 
forget everything you ever heard about cranking a bait real fast to get it to the bottom. It just 
doesn't happen that way. The faster you crank, the more shallow a lure will run. A moderate retrieve 
will allow every crankbait to reach its maximum depth. It also allows the lure to attain that depth 
more quickly. Learn this one lesson, and the time you've spent reading this article to this point 
will be well rewarded.
The last of the four major crankbait factors is size. Every bass angler has heard the rule: "Big Bait 
for Big Bass." It's difficult to argue that this isn't so, but we might expand on the theme.
Rather than limiting our thinking to big baits, let's talk more about the silhouette the lure forms 
when in the water. This reasoning allows fishermen to understand why jig-and-trailer combinations 
have earned a reputation for big fish. Simply put, the skirt and trailer add a dimension of size to 
the lure.

• Getting Down Deep — Let's look at one of a favorite big-bass crankbait, the Magnum Cordell Wally Diver. The characteristics that make this lure a favorite are its size and the depth it will run. 
It's a big lure with a tapering, shad-type profile and it dives quickly to depths of up to 15 feet.
Out on the water, it's easy to spot the Bassmaster using this or another deep runner in open water. 
First, he probably is lying down in the front of the boat with his arms, rod and reel submerged over 
the side. He's fishing structure, perhaps a ridge or hump in the 12- to 15-foot range, and probably 
catching bass with an average weight far above what the bank-banging fishermen are experiencing.
The reason for submerging the rod and reel is to allow the lure to reach greater depths and hit the 
bottom. The only difference between this type fishing and the situation mentioned for spawning bass 
is the depth you are fishing. We still want our choice of lure to kick up debris from the bottom and 
bounce off the structure that is located there.
As mentioned, the fish you'll likely catch from this open water structure will be larger than the 
bass from other shallow areas.

• Finding The Fish — For the weekend angler, the time necessary to locate these "best" areas is 
limited. Professionals, too, are limited in the time they can spend, and a practice period trick that 
is used with great success is to tie on a Rebel Deep Wee-R and troll. By working extended points and open-water structure located with the aid of a sonar graph, you can cover a lot of ground.
When a fish hits, immediately stop, throw out a marker buoy and start casting the deepest-running lure in your tacklebox. Try looking for a school of fish holding on some type of structure, and unless you take the time to make the second and third casts to a potentially productive area, you'll never know if you've found a school.
This is, generally, something the weekend fisherman fails to do. He'll be working an area and catch a bass and, then, casually continue casting along the bank. Frequently, he'll take time to admire a bass 
he just caught. What any angler should be considering is the prospect that there could be a whole 
school of fish in the exact area of the first catch.
Now, the odds on taking a second bass from that immediate area are about 1 out of 10. If you do make contact with the second fish, the odds that a school is present improve to 50-50. The third fish 
confirms a school of bass.
Speed of operation, then, becomes the key to catching a number of these school fish. You have only 3 to 15 minutes to work over this school. When they're feeding, school fish are almost always moving, 
and unless you're lucky, they'll move in a direction opposite your path. One suggested hint: If 
current is present, the baitfish that the school is feeding on will always move upcurrent. If you 
note this direction, that is the way you should move.
The Cordell Magnum Wally Diver, Bomber Model 7 A, and Strike King Sexy Shad are among the most frequently used crankbaits on the professional tournament circuit. If you're not familiar with these lures, you may be in for a surprise when you first see one.
First, you'll notice the overall size of these plugs. They're large.
Second, and you'll have to put it in the water to find out, these baits pull back very hard during 
retrieve. For the weekend angler, this is going to present a strength problem during the course of a 
fishing day. Simply, your wrist is going to ache to high heaven.

• Tools Of The Trade — There is a way to prevent the muscle stress caused by big crankbaits, and it relates to your equipment. More than anything else, the rod you select to use is the most important 
choice you'll make. The rod should be a minimum of 6 feet long with a sensitive tip combined with a 
sturdy backbone. This allows you to retrieve the lure without the rod pumping back and forth, creating unnecessary movement that is eventually tiring.
The rod should also have an extended casting handle. This allows you to accomplish two things: *First, you can use the handle with both hands while casting. It allows for longer casts and 
eliminates a great deal of the stress involved in repeated casting of large lures.
*Second, and probably the most important, is that during the retrieve, you can rest the extended 
handle on your hip or stomach, allowing you to use your body as leverage. Without this leverage, even the most conditioned professional will be worn out at the end of the fishing day. With the extended handle, you can comfortably fish these large baits with a minimum of exertion.

• Deep-Diving Designs — Following the lead from the pro bass fisherman that "depth is the key," some manufacturers, Rebel and Cordell among them, have modified lures to allow them to run deeper with less resistance. Both the Cordell Magnum Wally Diver and the Regular Wally Diver, along with the Rebel Deep Wee-Crawfish and Double Deep Wee-R, have diving lips equipped with a molded-in steel ball near the front of the lip. The lures remain floater-divers, but their design accomplishes two things:
* It adds a bit of weight to the lure, which increases its running depth.
* It also increases the diving angle of the lure, allowing these plugs to work in the 10- to 15-foot 
range.
Sinking lures, such as the Rebel Deep-Sinking Crawfish and Spro Aruku Shad Jr., can be fished at all depths with a slow, jigging presentation.
This new crankbait design means that the occasional angler is not going to have to fight a bait to 14 
feet. Simply, the necessary depths for post-spawn and summer bass can be reached by pointing your rod at the surface of the water and cranking s-1-o-w-ly until contact with the bottom structure is made.
If you find that extra depth is still necessary, try switching to a lighter line. With all crankbaits, 
figure that for every 4 pounds of line test you eliminate, you'll add approximately 1 foot of depth to 
the retrieve. It might not sound like a lot, but in a game of inches, it can be extremely critical.

• Crankbait Pluses — For years, the professional bass fisherman has known and understood the devastating productivity of the crankbait in relation to the average depth where fish are generally found.
These pros will be the first to tell you that lures requiring a great deal of skill, such as the plastic 
worm and jig combinations, will yield an average of six fish for every 10 strikes. It is important to 
note that the professionals average six of 10. For the weekend angler, the average is much less.
It stands to reason, then, that an artificial that will allow the occasional angler a higher 
catch-per-strike percentage is the type lure he or she should be using. The crankbait offers this and 
more:
1. Two sets of treble hooks allow the occasional angler to approach a 100 percent strike-per-catch ratio.
2. Because of the floating/diving characteristic, a crankbait fishes from the surface to its maximum depth. This allows the angler to cover the entire zone with one lure.
3. As opposed to the slow-moving, bottom-bouncing artificials, the crank-bait allows the angler to 
cover tremendous amounts of ground (water). The more the angler is able to move, the more likely the angler will come into contact with a bass or perhaps, a school. Movement, the ability to cover more water, is a distinct advantage to the crankbait angler.
4. Bass in a feeding attitude prefer the movement and action of a crankbait over that of slower-moving, bottom-bouncing baits.

• Crankbait Tips
1. Always select a crankbait that will run at least one-half foot deeper than the bottom you are 
fishing. This allows the lure to hit bottom and structure. The erratic action that occurs when the 
lure bumps something is one of the main characteristics that makes the crankbait a devastating artificial.
2. The size artificial you select will have an effect on the size bass that will find it an attractive 
morsel. The larger baits offer a larger silhouette and will sometimes eliminate strikes from smaller 
fish. The smaller lures will increase the number of bass you will catch, but this can also have an 
effect on the overall size of your catch.
3. Check the accompanying chart for those color patterns that experience has taught work best during certain seasonal and water clarity periods.
4. When the water temperature is below 45 F and the water clarity is muddy, it's time to stay home 
and catch up on household chores. When the water's cold and muddy, the fish are not going to bite.
5. After the spawn, move away from the bank areas. Bass will be in the depths noted in the chart. Very few bass will, on a regular basis, be in extremely shallow water. There are exceptions, such as river lakes where the current is a key factor in locating bass in relatively shallow water.
6. To locate bass in the open-water areas of a reservoir, use a deep-running artificial trolled 
approximately 200 feet behind the boat. This is the best way to locate bass in an unknown area. Once contact is made, stop trolling and start casting.
7. Make sure your hooks are sharp. Until recently, very few treble hooks were sharp enough to do the best job. In recent years, new designs, such as the Heddon Rotating Excalibur Treble Hook, have dramatically increased the strike-to-land ratio of crankbaits. Keeping your old hooks sharp or 
replacing them with the new, super sharp ones could help you land up to 25 percent more of the fish you hook.
8. Use a moderate retrieve to allow any crankbait to attain its maximum designed depth. A fast, or 
burning retrieve will cause any crankbait to run as much as 2 feet more shallow.