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Small, easy changes can lead to big increases in your crankbait fishing success

By Walker Smith

Crankbait fishing is widely misunderstood. While many brand it as a technique as simple as casting and reeling, paying attention to the smallest details will greatly increase your catch.

I have the opportunity to take a lot of novice anglers fishing when I guide trips on my home lake, and over the years, I have found 4 effective ways to land more crankbait fish. It’s important to understand that there isn’t a “right” or “wrong” way to fish a crankbait, but the following tips have helped both myself and my clients enjoy more success on the water.

Keep your rod tip at a 45-degree angle to your target

One of the biggest mistakes anglers make when crankbait fishing is holding their rod tip at a 90-degree angle to their target. When I first started crankbait fishing, I did the same thing—it feels most natural at first. Try to fight that instinct whenever possible.


When you hold the rod in this manner, you don’t leave yourself enough room or leverage to set the hook. If a bass happens to bite when you’re in this position, you’re left having to torque your back in order to make up for your decrease in leverage. Doing so results in a delayed hookset and it also takes you out of position to counter any strong runs or jumps the bass may make. I jokingly refer to this as being “caught with your pants down”.

Instead, try to keep your rod tip at a 45-degree angle to your target. When a bass bites your crankbait, you leave yourself an additional 45 degrees to lean into your hookset while also staying in position to effectively fight the fish. This approach also allows the bass to eat the entire crankbait and get both hooks in its mouth, therefore increasing your chances of landing it.

Make sure to keep your rod tip low to the water

When you fish a crankbait with a high rod tip, you’re immediately taking the control from yourself and giving it to the fish. If you get bit with your rod tip in the air, you have to make an extra, downward movement in order to get into fish-fighting position.

This position can also tempt you to set the hook upward when you get a bite. When a bass eats your crankbait, you want to drive the hooks that are on the bottom on the bait into its mouth. Pulling upward on the hookset drives the top of the crankbait—the part with no hooks—into the top of the fish’s mouth, resulting in a decreased probability of getting a solid hookup.

To counter this issue, simply keep your rod tip low to the water. I prefer to keep my rod tip approximately one foot above the surface. When I sweep to the side on the hookset, this technique makes sure that I am driving the hooks downward into the mouth of the bass. If you combine a low rod tip with a 45-degree angle to your target, you’re going to notice an immediate improvement.

There’s one exception to this tip. When fishing in ultra-shallow water, sometimes you have to “high stick” your crankbait to avoid snagging vegetation or other cover. If you find yourself in this situation, make sure to give the bass a little “tip” when it bites. Pointing the tip of the rod toward the bass will give you a little extra time to drop the rod tip and get into position to execute a proper hookset.

Pull, don’t snatch

This is a mistake that I still make sometimes. Assuming you’ve got your rod tip dropped and at a 45-degree angle, always pull on a crankbait hookset—don’t snatch. When you snatch the crankbait during the hookset, you’re actually pulling the bait away from the bass before they can really eat it.

Next time you get a crankbait bite, reel a couple times to ensure a solid hookup and then swiftly sweep your rod tip to the side. You’ll hook more fish than you’ll lose with this technique.

Play the bass slowly

We always see pros on television making huge hooksets and skiing bass across the top of the water. That type of approach is necessary at times, but try not to do that with crankbait fish. I had a guy in my boat lose a 7-pounder on a crankbait a couple of weeks ago because he “horsed” it too much.

You can categorize the majority of crankbait bites into 2 categories—“pops” and “stops”. Most, but not all, smaller fish tend to pop the crankbait. When I feel this, I sweep to the side and slowly reel it in. Nothing too crazy. Sounds simple, right?

It gets more interesting when you get a good, old fashioned “stop”. It’s either going to be a giant bass or a big stump. Either way, it’s important to always set the hook. I’ve seen a lot of folks mistake a 5-pounder for a stump and get their hearts broken when they didn’t set the hook. If your line stops, set the hook. You can always get your crankbait unhung, but you can’t make that big bass bite again.


When I lay into a big crankbait bass, I drop to one knee on my front deck. Not to be dramatic, but to discourage the bass from jumping. While I am on one knee, my rod tip is underwater—the lower you keep your rod tip, the more unlikely the bass is to jump.

If I feel a big head shake, I stop reeling and keep steady pressure on the fish. It’s important to remember that you don’t have the bass in these situations—the bass has you. Let the bass do what it wants to do. When the head shakes stop, slowly reel the fish in while remaining on one knee. Not only does this discourage jumping, but it also puts you in position to quickly belly land a big bass if you’re without a net.

This is a great time of year to be cranking, so try these quick tips next time you’re chunking a crankbait around. Everyone does things a little different, but I’ve seen proper rod angles, a methodical hookset and patient fish fighting greatly improve anglers’ crankbait success.

Lipless crankbaits are a great way to catch transitioning spring bass

By Walker Smith

When many of us think of fishing lipless crankbaits, we tend to envision ourselves ripping them through dense vegetation on heavy braided line. While that’s definitely an exciting and effective way to catch big bass, lipless crankbaits aren’t just effective in grass-filled fisheries—they’re also an outstanding choice when targeting transitioning spring bass.

Prespawn

When bass get into their full-on prespawn mode they’re relatively easy to pattern, but the awkward transition phase leading up to that point can be downright frustrating. When you finally locate a good group of fish, it’s tough to make them bite. Lipless crankbaits are an effective remedy to these stubborn bass.

We’ve been having some productive days on the water recently by targeting secondary points, stump flats adjacent to deep water and “lead-in” banks—stretches of bank that bass use to migrate toward spawning flats. There’s a common misconception that lipless crankbaits are only suitable for use in intermediate water depths in areas void of snag-inducing cover, but we’ve been catching some giant bass in only inches of water.

To get the most out of this technique, it’s important to parallel the bank in order to keep your bait in the strike zone for as long as possible. Following a long cast, keep your rod tip straight up in the air to avoid hang-ups and retrieve your lipless crank so it barely ticks the bottom. This ticking sound is essential and can make the difference between a slow and killer day on the water.

As your bait works towards deeper water, slowly drop your rod tip and slow your retrieve to keep contact with the bottom. If you feel your rod start to load, don’t mistake it for a snag. Even the biggest won’t always eat it aggressively, so make sure to set the hook at the slightest inkling of a bite.

Prespawn cold fronts

We’ve also found lipless crankbaits to be very effective during prespawn cold fronts. With prespawn bass being especially susceptible to sudden weather changes, it can be a nightmare when a cold front pushes them away from their predictable prespawn hideouts. Fortunately, a lipless crankbait can prove to be the Great Equalizer in these situations.

Whenever a cold front hits during the prespawn, make sure to focus on break lines between shallow and deep water. If you were previously catching your bass on a flat, target areas where it transitions into deeper water. When you find the depth transition, make long casts parallel to the break line and try “worming” your lipless crank.

Just as the name implies, “worming” your lipless crankbaits involves fishing it like a Texas rig to mimic a dying shad. During a cold front, prespawners are less apt to aggressively chase down a meal, making this overlooked technique deadly when faced with stubborn bass. Drag it along the bottom by lifting your rod tip slowly and dropping your rod when retrieving slack line. When it feels “mushy”, set the hook and hold on.


Although lipless crankbaits don’t have a bill to deflect the bait off of obstacles, don’t shy away from bass-holding cover such as stumps or chunk rock. These baits swim through the water nose-down, protecting the hooks from the majority of hang-ups. Some of our “tried and true” lipless crankbaits have absolutely no paint or clear coat on their noses from repeatedly ramming them into cover.

Post-spawn

When the water temperature is in the 65 to 72-degree range as the bass begin transitioning toward their deep, summertime hangouts, you can expect a solid lipless crank bite.

Spawning rituals wear out big bass and by the time it’s all over, they’re hungry and ready to devour whatever crosses their path. We’ve had great results yo-yoing lipless crankbaits to take advantage of the aggressive feeding behavior. The areas we target are almost identical to our prespawn targets, except in reverse order.

As the bass finish up their business in the shallows, they’ll start working their way toward deeper water via secondary points, creek channels, primary points and finally river channels. It’s not at all uncommon to encounter suspended bass in the post-spawn, making the yo-yo technique extremely effective.

To yo-yo your lipless crankbait, allow it to fall to the bottom and make long, upward sweeps with your rod. In order to maximize your hookup ratio, make sure to let the bait fall with controlled slack—too much slack line will hinder your ability to detect bites on the fall and a tight line won’t allow the bait to shimmy on the fall.

Be sure to keep a close watch on your line as the bait falls—we get a lot of bites with this technique while it’s falling. If you notice any sort of tick or jump in your line, reel in your slack and set the hook immediately.

Equipment

While stouter rods are desirable when ripping big lipless crankbaits through grass, we’ve found medium-action rods to be most effective when targeting transitioning spring bass. The softer, more responsive tip of a medium-action rod gives the fish more time to eat the bait, drastically decreasing the chances of accidentally ripping it from their mouths.  

Every angler has different preferences, but when it comes to line selection, we generally opt for 12 or 15-pound test. Whenever we’re “worming” or yo-yoing a lipless crankbait, we prefer fluorocarbon due to its low-stretch qualities. With these techniques, you want to feel every movement that your bait is making in order to detect the subtle bites. In situations that the bass prefer a simple chunk and wind presentation, we like monofilament to discourage premature hooksets.

Because “worming” and yo-yoing require more slack in your line, we recommend using a 7.1:1 gear ratio reel. If a bass knocks slack into your line or eats the bait on the fall, you need the ability to quickly eat up your slack for an effective hookset. When ticking the bottom, you can generally get away with more generic crankbait gear ratio reels, such as a 6.3:1 or a 6.4:1. As long as you can keep contact with the bottom, use whatever you’re most comfortable with.

Whenever we’re on a solid lipless crankbait bite, you’ll likely find several different baits, such as a Strike King Red Eye Shad, XCalibur Rattle Bait, Spro Aruku Shad , Rapala Rippin Rap and the classic Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap on our front decks. To hone in on the most productive baits, we’ll generally switch baits after approximately 50 casts until the bass “tell” us what their preference is. Lipless crankbait bites change daily, so throwing different models is an extremely important key to success.

Springtime transitioning bass can be a little tricky to catch, but a lipless crankbait is a great way to make stubborn, migrating bass commit. When you’re faced with these situations this spring, try these different retrieves to catch more bass.

Kevin Short shares when and why he uses plastic or balsa crankbaits

By Walker Smith

Crankbait fishing is one of the techniques in our sport that can be made either very simple or quite complicated. Instead of overthinking things, Vicious Fishing pro and renowned crankbait guru Kevin Short keeps crankbait fishing as simple as possible. When choosing between balsa and plastic crankbaits, he considers 3 important elements above all else. Those include the following:

• Type of cover
• Crankbait durability
• Buoyancy
  

His bait choice depends on the characteristics of each crankbait that can easily be broken down into positive and negative attributes for each type of crankbait.

Pros of balsa crankbaits

When faced with areas full of snag-inducing wood cover, Short reaches for his balsa plugs. The buoyancy of a crankbait is determined by material or the amount of air that is trapped inside its body. Balsa is a highly buoyant light wood.

“If I’m fishing around stumps, brush piles or docks, I’m going to throw a balsa bait,” Short said. “A balsa crankbait floats above and away from wood much quicker, which drastically reduces your number of hang-ups.”

Cons of balsa crankbaits

Although it may seem as if a balsa crankbait is a perfect choice for all heavy cover situations, Short avoids balsa baits when he finds himself around thick grass. His reasoning may surprise you.

“If you crank around grass enough, you’re going to get it tangled on your bill and treble hooks—it’s unavoidable,” Short said. “Instead of picking the grass off with your fingers, it’s easier to simply slap the bait on the water. If you do that with a 20 dollar balsa bait, you’re going to bust it wide open and ruin it.”

Pros of plastic crankbaits


There are certain times of the year, such as winter, when big bass love to position on rocks and gravel. Plastic crankbaits are a must-have for cranking this hard cover due to their increased durability. When faced with this situation, Short keeps the balsa in his box and opts for plastic crankbaits instead.

“Any time I’m beating and banging my crankbait around hard objects, you can bet I’ll have a plastic crankbait in my hand,” Short said. “Buoyancy isn’t as big of a deal around rocks, so I want a crankbait I can use and abuse without worrying about it shattering or taking on water.”

Cons of plastic crankbaits

You’ve probably guessed it by now—plastic crankbaits aren’t always ideal for thick cover. While they still float over cover, especially when equipped with a square bill, they rise to the top more slowly than their balsa counterparts.

“You can take a balsa plug that has the same relative size and weight as a plastic plug and the balsa will have more buoyancy every single time,” Short said. “When my crankbait hits a piece of cover, I need to be able to quickly pause it and have it float above the obstruction quickly to draw those vicious reaction strikes.”

Crankbait fishing doesn’t always need to be complicated. If you pay close attention to surrounding cover and understand the pros and cons of both balsa and plastic crankbaits, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches and make fishing and catching bass on crankbaits more enjoyable.

Wishing, wanting, lusting – whatever we call our desire for new fishing tackle, it definitely comes to a head this time of year. Of course it's closing in on Christmas, but as I get older the holiday is more about eating and family time and watching my son open new presents and light up with the joy of a child on Christmas morning.

But for fishing tackle this is the time of year when all that new stuff we saw back in July becomes available to those of us who've been dying to get our hands on it. We're fortunate at Wired2fish to be the first to use a lot of the new products, sometimes before they are released at major events like ICAST and the Bassmaster Classic. It has quelled my anticipation but led me to realize we have a duty to give our take on some of our favorite new tackle this time of year.

Maybe you are letting folks know what to get you, maybe you're looking for your significant other who loves fishing and you don't know what to get them. So we all put our heads together and came up with more than 30 items that we think folks will enjoy adding to their fishing next season. These are some of my favorites for the 2012-2013 fishing seasons.  More of Walker's and Terry's favorites will be coming in the next several days.


Minn Kota Talon, $1,449

To be perfectly honest, I was a bit skeptical about the shallow water anchoring systems until I got them and used them for a season. But now, while I'm sure I can live without them, I don't want to. They have served so many purposes this year, from launching a boat alone, to flipping and even fishing shallow areas at night. It's an invaluable tool now and has made me so much more efficient. It's a high priced item that really aids your ability to deal with things like wind and pressure. I'll have a full blog on what I learned from the Talon this year in the next month. But for now, I can say I love its easy install, easy programming and operation. There's no hydraulics to worry with and the grey poles on the back of the boat have been the hot conversation piece for me at local gas stations.


Lowrance HDS Touch, from $1,299

The new Lowrance depth finders appeal to the "techno-geek" in me. They operate more like a tablet or smart phone with intuitive layouts and menus. The screen eases strain on your eyes, even in direct sunlight. I love the easier rigging with the units, with a direct connect from the Structure Scan transducer and Ethernet networking. They look great, work well and for someone who spends long days staring at a graph, they are just a joy to use.


Abu Garcia Revo 3rd Generation Baitcasting Reels, from $129

We got our first few Gen. 3 Revo reels from Abu Garcia back in the spring, and we were so excited after the first outing, we couldn't wait to start talking about them. The reels are lighter, lower profile, cosmetically appealing and cast as far and as smooth as any reels we've ever used. They offer blazing speeds up to 8:1 gear ratios and the same low-end power from their 5.4:1 models. From styling to functionality, these are truly some of the best reels we've ever used.


Denali Terry Bolton Offshore Worm and Jig Rod, $209

I reviewed this rod earlier in the year, but can say it's been a staple in my rod collection all season.  The rod works for pitching docks equally as well as it does casting big worms offshore or hopping spoons for deep bass. It's listed as a heavy action but fishes more like a medium heavy with some power on a long, deep hookset. At 7-feet, 2-inches, it gives you a good casting rod, easy to fish rod and powerful fighting rod for all your "away-from-the-bank" needs.


13 Fishing Omen Baitcasting Rod, $99

13 Fishing impressed us with their introduction at the 2012 ICAST show in Orlando. From the way they talked about their products and fishing to their "design and manufacture everything" mentality, they show a unique insight to building quality tackle. Their Envy rods are amazing great rods, but we're equally impressed with their $100 offering, the Omen series. These rods feature great styling, a small frame Japanese high modulus blank, custom made components like a split grip that allows you to touch the rod blank with the tip of your finger. Their styling and quality will make this rod very popular among anglers in 2013.


Megabass Ito Vision 110 FX or FX Knuckle 60 , $27

We thought Megabass did a good job of making some lures more practical to the situations anglers face. Two of those baits that debuted at ICAST really proved their forward thinking in designing tackle. The Ito Vision 100 FX expanded on their weight-transfer system that already helped make their slender and lively jerkbaits cast better in windy conditions by adding a collapsing bill that greatly reduces a jerkbait's tendency to helicopter on the lip's turbulence in the wind. 

Meanwhile the Knuckle 60 gives you a square bill and sub-surface crankbait for fishing over the top of shallow grass in one. With a lip that locks in place in two positions you can fish 2-4 feet deep or just 1 foot deep with the snap of the lip. The bait has a great casting weight, hunts and tracks well and swims well over and through cover. The colors are the same great Megabass colors anglers have come to demand.


Browning MPACT Zeiss Fishing Collection Sunglasses, $179

I've been wearing these shades most of the year while fishing. They are light, comfortable and fairly stylish. But the real draw is in their Zeiss optics and Ripel water and grime protection that is built into the lenses. The lenses stay clear even in a down pour and they are easily cleaned with a wipe to keep your vision under the water at maximum potential. Their Back Country lens is the best early morning low-light lens we've used to date. We know several pros who were using these in those sight fishing slugfests to finish in the top of the pack by finding more beds in practice than their competitors. A great set of glasses for an avid angler.


TH Marine G-Force Handle, $30

This would make a great present for any angler that owns a boat and trolling motor. As a guy who has literally been flung out of a boat when a trolling motor cord snapped, I can tell you I have a new found love for this seemingly simple gadget. I'm an angler who moves a lot because I know fish generally bite when you put a bait near them. So I try to hit as much water in a day as I can. That's a lot of lifting and dropping of the trolling motor. This cable reduces the effort, makes snug or worn trolling motors pop in and out of place so much better.


Strike King KVD Jerkbait, $9

I'm always on the lookout for jerkbaits that look a little different, act a little different, but perform very well in terms of casting and erratic dancing on slack-line twitch. Jerkbaits tend to have a narrow window of opportunity in an angler's strategy, but for $9, you're going to want to have a few of these in your jerkbait box this winter. They have great colors, two different sizes, they get down well and suspend well and dart lively. They sound good and look good and that's reason enough to own a few to me.


Rapala DT Custom Ink Crankbaits, $7

Generally "new colors" in lures don't thrill us much as anglers. But sometimes a new color or set of colors comes out that really produces and it's hard not to get on the new color band wagon. The DT line of crankbaits have been a staple. The DT 6 is a coldwater killer and the DT 10 is the perfect mid-range crankbait while the DT 16 and 20 catch a lot of deep bass on offshore structure. Now with the new Ike's Custom Ink colors producing so well, our confidence has increased with this crankbait line. The blueback herring and Smash colors have fooled a bunch of bass this year for me and I'll be getting a bunch more in the different sizes of these two colors.


Zoom WEC E2, $20

It was tough to review this crankbait because it's one of those baits to keep under wraps but it's just too good not to share. It's a wide wobbling, hunting lure that can wreck the bass around shallow wood cover. And as a little side note, the smallmouth hate this crankbait. Each bait is hand assembled, hand painted, clear coated and packaged. They are not readily available everywhere so that sort of adds to my confidence with the cranks when I find a shallow cranking bite.


Heddon Chug'n Spook, $7

This bait remained hush-hush though the fall topwater bite, but several anglers revealed the power of the new Heddon Chug'n Spook as something "the bass hadn't seen before." It's big, makes a big commotion, loud, casts a country mile and comes in great colors. The hooks are cheap and need to be replaced, but the bait is solid for a little less than $7. Folks underestimate the power of a big walking lure. If you don't have one in your box, this is a good one to start.


Lazer Trokar EWG Treble TK310, $7

Trokar brought a new sharpness to fishing hooks and now they've brought it to treble hooks. Not to say they are the sharpest but they are a new sharp. They've made it vogue to pressure set on fish and this type of edge on a fishing hook makes more sense to me on a treble hook. The price will be inhibitive to some anglers, but I can tell you a handful of my favorite baits are rocking the new EWG and short-shank hooks from Lazer Trokar.

Stay tuned to Wired2fish.com for more Wishlists from other staff members in the next few days.

Red hooks really do have an application in bass fishing, according to Marty Stone

Photos and Article by Walker Smith

If you’re like us, you don’t have enough fingers or toes to count the number of times you’ve heard fellow anglers banter back and forth about the effectiveness, or perceived lack thereof, of red hooks. You’ll find a couple of them scattered about in random compartments of many anglers’ boats, but most of us never pay them much attention. Truth be told, I only buy red hooks when I’m in a rush to the lake and the local tackle shop is out of black hooks. Sure, they look sexy, but do fish really care what color hook you’re using?

A recent conversation with bass fishing legend Jimmy Houston has turned Vicious Fishing pro Marty Stone into a bona fide believer in red hooks. Under the right conditions, he has had some monster days with his Daiichi Bleeding Bait hooks. Recently, Stone shed some light on the colored hook conundrum and provided us with a lot of interesting food for thought.

The marketing misnomer

Remember when red fishing line was the big talk in the fishing industry? As a young teenager, I thought it was the bee’s knees, guaranteed to turn me into a pro overnight. The allure of red line was simple—the fish couldn’t see it, and when your line is virtually invisible, you’re going to catch a lot more fish.

Now, let’s look at it from an alternative perspective. While many fishing line companies were adamant that their red line was indiscernible, there were some hook companies claiming their red hooks to be the ultimate difference maker on the water.

So let’s get this straight—red line is invisible, but red hooks make bass more apt to attack a bait? At this point, it doesn’t really matter who was wrong or right. Common knowledge would lead us to believe that someone, whether it was the line companies or the hook manufacturers, had to be wrong. Not so fast, says Stone.

Seeing red

Stone got the answer he had been looking for during a recent conversation with Jimmy Houston, who had taken part in a light penetration study. His findings were interesting, to say the least.


“In water of normal stain, considered to be 12- to 24-inches of visibility, a red hook is, indeed, very visible from 5-feet or less,” said Stone. “On the contrary, anything red—whether it’s fishing line or a hook—is going to disappear in more than 5-feet of water.”

Technically, both sides are right. Since learning that red hooks are, in fact, visible from less than 5-feet away in water of normal stain, Stone has noticed a substantial increase in his shallow water fishing success.

When to use red hooks

The use of red hooks is something that is becoming increasingly popular amongst the world’s top professional anglers. While not ideal in every situation, Stone has developed some very effective techniques for exposing bass’ weakness for red.

“Any time I’m flipping shallow water with a normal stain, I almost exclusively use a red hook,” Stone said. “If you’re struggling during a tough day on the water, don’t be afraid to tie on a red hook. It may take a bit to get used to, but I truly believe that you will catch more fish.”


The use of red hooks should not be limited to just flipping and pitching, however. Stone loves chunking shallow crankbaits, which has allowed him to experiment at length with red treble hooks. While effective, It’s not always as simple as throwing on some red trebles and going to town.

“If I’m throwing a squarebill that dives less than 5-feet deep, I always replace the front hook with a red treble hook,” Stone said. “I never put red hooks on the back because I want that big bass to attack the middle of the bait, giving me a great chance at getting a really solid hookup.”


Because bass can be triggered by a subtle flash of red like gills on a fish, red trailer hooks are outstanding on bladed baits, as well. When targeting sluggish shallow fish holding tight to cover, Stone uses red trailer hooks on his spinnerbaits and buzzbaits to give the bass a little extra “something” to hone in on.

Although he has had an enormous amount of success using red hooks, Stone believes that changing hook colors makes the biggest difference on bright, sunny days.

“The cloudier the day and the lower the light, the less that red is a factor,” Stone said. “For that light penetration to do what it’s supposed to do, you need to have a sunny day in order to get the maximum benefits from red hooks.”

The next time you are having a tough day on the water or getting a lot of short-strikes on a crankbait, switch to a red hook. While it may take some time to get confidence in it, you just might crack the code and enjoy some killer fishing. All it takes is one monster bass to make you a believer.