Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part II

Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part II

     Well here we are in mid-August.  In most of the country bass fisherman are beginning to gear up for one of my favorite times of the year.  The shad are getting larger and the bass will soon be following them up into the shallows and the backs of creek channels.  Fall is the time of year when you can catch them on top-water all day long.  Soft weightless jerkbaits and spinnerbaits will soon be flying off the shelf as the bass make their way through their end of summer migration.

     The problem of course, I (and most of my readers) live in Arizona.  The back-to-school season is in full bloom, and of course that means we still have 3 months of summer left.  Fishing is still tough around the Phoenix area, so you only have a few options.  1.  Take a drive to the high country, there's surprisingly great bass fishing up there and with temps in the 80s you can still get away with throwing most of your post-spawn tactics.  2.  Keep tossing that dropshot rig around and have a blast catching 13 inchers out of 25 feet of water.  Or, 3.  Read my blog, then use that information to catch a toad!

     If you haven't yet, before reading this post, go click on part I of this article.  Another option, be lazy and read the following review from last week's lesson:

Step 1: Pick a brand of crankbaits.  Strike King and Rapala both have many options of baits that will allow you to effectively fish from 10 to 25 feet.  There's many great companies out there, but these two companies have the widest range of baits that will fit most angler's budgets.

Step 2: Change the hooks.  Just do it.  It won't make for a very memorable evening, but you'll be happy you took the time to do it later this weekend!

Step 3: Use the right gear.  Medium power rods with a soft tip work great for most crank baits.  As you get into the real big guys (8XD and 10XD) I suggest upping the power to a medium-heavy in order to get those bigger treble hooks to stick.

Step 4: Pick a color.  I use shad color baits 95% of the time because I fish in lakes loaded with shad.  If you decided to head up north, or to the White Mountains lakes, grab a handful of bluegill and baby bass colors, those lakes don't have shad and your bait will be unnatural to the fish.

Step 5: Map study.  Find ledges, points, and humps in the 15 to 25 foot deep range.  Stick to the main lake or channel swings where there is deep water nearby.

     Alright, on to the new stuff.  Below I'm going to discuss the finer details.  How to fish specific cover, various retrieves, setting the hook, and some more random tips that didn't really fit into a category of their own.

Step 7:  Pay attention to your sonar

     Wait, what about step 6?  Is that what you're wondering?  If so, you were lazy and just read the quick review above.  Stop it, go read part I, slacker....

     So you’ve found a location that, based on bottom contour, looks like it should hold bass.  I mentioned earlier that there will often be a “sweet spot” in these locations.  The “sweet spot” is seldom random, there’s usually something down there (a rock, brush pile, grass bed, etc.) that the fish are holding onto.  Not every piece of isolated cover will hold fish, but you should fish it anyway.  Even if you don’t see an arch on your graph, it’s worth throwing a bait to.

     The picture above shows a boulder sitting on a gravel bottom.  Hard surfaces translate as red and oranges while softer surfaces will show as blues and greens.  In this image, you can see how the bass position themselves on and behind the boulder to ambush the baitfish as they pass by.  Use that information when deciding upon your presentation.  Bass don’t like it when the bait comes up from behind them.  The best approach in this situation would be to cast out beyond the boulder and pull your bait through the cloud of baitfish and deflect it off the boulder right in front of their faces.  (Remember, the graph shows what is under your boat over time, meaning that the bait fish on the left side of the screen is now behind you, the bass on the right side are underneath you.)  In this situation an 8XD (20 to 23 feet) would be ideal because it gets deep enough to hit that boulder, but not too deep that it would dig into the gravel and get hung up on the front side of the boulder. 

     This image shows submerged grass.  Grass can be tough to fish with a crank bait, if your depth and angle is off in the slightest bit, you’ll end up with treble hooks full of grass and the bass will leave your bait alone (baitfish swimming around with 3 feet of grass dragging behind them isn’t too often a natural occurrence in the environment).  You may find bass holding on the outside edge of the grass.  These are the bass that will be more willing to bite as they are out there for a reason (looking for food).  If you find these bass use a bait that will get down to the depth they are holding at or deeper.  In this particular case I would use a 6XD or 8XD.

     If you don’t see any fish on the graph, it’s because they are hiding inside the grass.  You can’t fish a crank bait efficiently inside the grass, but you want to get as close as possible.  Here, I wouldn’t go any deeper than a 3XD.  That bait will get you just deep enough to tap the top of the grass.  If you are still pulling up weeds with each cast, try holding your rod tip higher in the air.  A 3XD will reach about 10 feet if your rod tip is pointed down.  If held up 3 feet it will only dive to 7 feet.  Use the table at the beginning of this article, along with some simple math and you can pinpoint exactly where your lure will end up.

Step 7:  Throw it til’ your arm falls off

     There’s almost no wrong way to fish a crank bait.  A simple cast and steady retrieve will usually trigger a bite if there’s a bite to be had.  However, sometimes you need to put a bit more effort into fooling those finicky bass.  Below are a few tactics you can try to tempt even the most wary fish.

Power Fish:  Also known as “digging trenches”.  Pick a lure that runs at least 5 feet deeper than the depth of where you’re fishing.  If you’re in 10 feet of water, put on a 5XD.  Cast out and retrieve relatively quickly.  That lure will pound into bottom kicking up all kinds of dust.  This imitates a crawfish scurrying across the bottom, or even a large baitfish fleeing from a predator.

Stop and Go:  This technique imparts an erratic action to the lure, similar to a jerk bait.  It imitates a dying baitfish and does a great job attracting those finicky suspending fish.  Use a lure that runs the same depth the fish are holding.  Start retrieving with a few quick turns of the reel to get the bait down to it’s running depth.  Then simply stop and go, turning the reel handle just once or twice at a time.  This causes the bait to dart downward, then float up, dart downward, and float up.  Like a jerk bait, the bite will usually come on the pause as the lure is floating back up.

Finesse:  Like “digging trenches”, pick a lure that will dive deeper than the depth you’re fishing.  Give the reel handle a few quick turns to get the lure to the bottom, then slow it down.  Then slow it down some more.  Then, slow down.  Are you still moving the handle?  If so, slow down some more.  This slow retrieve allows the lure to lightly bounce off the bottom without kicking up too much dust.  It will look like an unsuspecting baitfish feeding on the bottom.  This technique works best in areas with sand or a fine gravel bottom.  

Fishing Up:  If you get hit within the first few cranks of the reel handle, the fish are telling you something.  Listen to them!   Schooling fish especially will feed up higher in the water column.  Use a bait that stays above where the fish are on the graph, or keep your rod tip high and keep that bait off the bottom.  When “fishing up”, your bait won’t be deflecting off anything, so any action you want to impart on it, you’ll have to add yourself with either an erratic retrieve with the reel handle, or with some pumps of the rod tip.

Step 8:  Set the hook

     Don’t trust the idea that a fish will set itself on a crank bait.  I’ve already mentioned that some of these big deep divers have huge thick wire hooks, and that any pressure you put on the hook will be divided by the number of hook points pressing into the fish.  What I haven’t talked about yet is just how easy it is for the fish to throw a crank.  These baits are big.  That means they can get leverage on it very easily and use the momentum of the bait to help throw it.  My advice is to set the hook when you get hit, and then keep setting the hook during the fight.  I’ve seen a fish jump on me with only the front hook in his lip, then by the time I get him to the boat, only the back hook is in.  If I didn’t reset that hook at some point, I likely would have lost him.

     However, don’t be afraid to wait on your hookset.  Once you get hit, watch the line.  Which direction is he swimming?  Pull your rod tight in the opposite direction.  If he goes left, turn him right with a sweeping hookset.  If he takes it down, jack him back up with an over-the-head hookset.  Most importantly, when he starts coming up drop the rod tip down and reel as fast as you can.  Dip the whole rod in the water if you have you, but don’t let him jump unless you’re trying to impress the ladies.  If you’re in a tournament with money on the line, NEVER LET THE FISH JUMP (unless you’ve got an audience of 9’s and above).  See that picture above?  Looks pretty cool, eh?  No...  I don't like seeing that one bit.

Final tips

-Invest in a “Plug Knocker”.  They can be found online for around $25, depending on the crank baits you use, it will pay for itself in just three or four trips.  This summer I snapped off probably $50 worth of crank baits/hooks before I finally decided I should get one.  Now, $75 later, I wish I would have gotten one at the start of this project.

-Get a pair of marker buoys, not just “a” marker buoy.  With two, you can mark a long extended ledge.  If you only need one to mark the end of a point or a hump, keep the other ready to drop when you get hit.  That way you can make the same cast over again.  So many times one piece of cover will hold several fish and they will only bite if the bait comes from one particular angle.  Once you find that angle, mark it and keep repeating the same cast.

-Buy more than one of the same color/model of each lure.  Often times, only one color will be working that day, and that’s the one that will get snagged bad enough to snap off.

- If you’re part of the 99%, don’t spend more than $15 on a crank bait.  Most of those lures are better at catching fisherman than fish.  Remember, a crank bait is a reaction bait.  It moves fast (usually) and the fish won’t get a good look at it anyway.  You don’t need a custom hand painted bait to catch a lot of fish.

- Don’t waste the flip!  The flip comes at the end of the retrieve, when the bait passes the end of your rod and is directly under the boat.  It will flip around before coming back up.  Occasionally, that quick flip will trigger a strike.  If you just reel quickly at the end and horse that lure back up, you’re missing out on this opportunity.  The majority of goon-fish I catch on cranks (mostly catfish) will hit just after the flip.

- Snaps and swivels.  Don’t use them.  Tie a knot like a man. 

                              I can only assume that the owner of this lure is an eight year-old.

     If you’ve made it this far, good for you.  Personally, I lost interest 15 minutes ago.  To reward you for making it to the end of this article (or two if I make this a two-parter) I will let you in on my final, yet most important bit of advice:  Always know where your bait is.  Not just how far out horizontally, but the depth at that point!  The important part of this is the “2/3 Rule”.  (Shout out to Gene Jensen for that one!)  Any crank, regardless of brand/model/color/bill will reach its maximum diving depth about 2/3 of the way in.  This means everything when it comes to boat positioning.  If you’re targeting a deep boulder, you need to be close to that boulder, real close.  Like, no more than 15 to 20 feet away from that boulder.  This is why long casts are important.  Regardless of the type of lure you’re throwing, you want to keep it in the strike zone as long as possible and a long cast is the key to doing that.

     Now, get out there and throw some cranks.  You’ll catch some nice fish, and you can skip “arm day” at the gym.  Like always, if you learned anything here that catches you a fish next time out, let me know in the comments below.  I’m a teacher at heart.  I get a bigger kick out of helping you catch a fish than catching one myself!

Deep Crankin' for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part I

Deep Crankin’ for Mid Summer Largemouth: Part I

     Today’s high in Phoenix, Arizona hit a blistering 115 degrees.  Most of you are lucky enough to be sitting in an office.  In the back ground you hear fingers clicking away on the keyboard in the cubical next to you along with the soft hum of the air conditioner, chugging along like nobody’s business pumping out a cool 76 degrees.  If you’re not at the office, you’re probably in your truck sitting in rush-hour traffic on the I-10.  You’re late for work, but you don’t care.  As that max AC blows straight through your face you can send all the emails you need to right from your phone, lucky you.

     Well not me.  I’m a teacher.  It’s the middle of July and the responsibilities that will eventually haunt my sleep for the next 9 months are just a blur off in the far away horizon.  Now I know I should feel blessed.  I have a career that I can survive uncomfortably on that gives me 3 months off to do whatever my heart pleases.  But why (and yes, I know I just began a sentence with the word “but”) do those three months have to be during the toughest time of the year for bass fishing?  Would it destroy society as we know it if the school year lasted from May to January?

     As you’re sitting there in your comfy office chair reading fishing reports behind your boss’s back, I’m out here sweating it out in the trenches to bring you those reports.  This summer’s field research project deals with a technique that I think many anglers overlook during a time when everyone is focused on slowing down their presentations in order to tempt a hot, lethargic, summer bass:  Deep cranking.

Step 1:  Pick a crank bait

     So which crank bait should you try?  Like the menu at Taco Bell, It really doesn’t matter, it’s all the same stuff wrapped up under a different branding.  However, I suggest you stick with a single company that has a wide range of deep divers.  I find that it’s easier to learn one company’s system for their whole line of baits rather than picking and choosing random models from five different makers.  For this reason I chose to go with Strike King and their XD line of baits.  Take the number, multiply it by three and you will get fairly close to it’s maximum diving depth.  Below is a chart I’ve compiled of how deep each one will run given how heavy of line you use: 

Step 2:  Change the hooks

     Story time; about 6 weeks ago I fished a motorless night tournament at Saguaro Lake.  I got my ass handed to me (more like thrown in my face by the left hand of a 2001 Randy Johnson).  I went 0 for 7 on decent sized bass that hit my 5XD and immediately swam up and spit the hook while airborne.  Heartbroken, I returned to weigh in two hours early empty handed to find 5 gallons of water in my kayak’s hull (but that’s a different story).

     The next day I changed my hooks.  I was never a big proponent of changing hooks.  I thought it was just something the hook companies wanted you to believe was important, but I put on a fresh new set of Gamakatsus anyway, and it paid off.  Two weeks later I hooked up over 20 fish and only lost one when he got tangled up in a dropshot rig I had dangling over the bow.  I won that tournament with a three fish limit of over 58 inches.  That was enough to convince me that these factory hooks are an issue.  In the diagram below you’ll see the hook size I recommend for each bait I’ve been testing:   

Step 3:  Use the right gear

     Ideally I’d love to be able to take nine crankin’ sticks out with me each day.  In the perfect world I’d have three 6 foot medium-fast action, three 7 foot medium-fast actions, and three 7 foot medium heavy-fast actions.  On each of the three I’d have one rigged with 8 lb, 10 lb, and 12 lb test fluorocarbon line.  With those nine rods, I could efficiently fish crank baits from 8 to 25 feet hitting nearly every depth in between.  Remember though, I’m a teacher…  So I use two.

     For baits up to the 6XD, I use a 6’6” medium-fast action.  I prefer using a glass rod as it has more of a parabolic bend.  That longer bend will give you more cushion on the hook set.  What I mean by this is, when you set the hook, the rod will give in a bit more, delaying the hook set by a fraction of a second.  That little delay will allow the bass to take the bait just a bit deeper to give you more of a chance to hook him with both treble hooks.

     For the bigger 8XD and 10XD I use a 7 foot medium heavy rod, basically my jig rod.  There’s a few reasons for this:  For one, it’s a big, heavy, bait.  Throw one of these bad boys on a light rod and you’re likely to snap the tip on the cast.  Another reason is that the hooks on these guys are beasts.  These are not your standard little trebles, these hooks are thick.  You need quite a bit of power in your rod to get these suckers to stick to the fish.  Unlike a smaller crank, the fish typically won’t “set itself” on these thicker hooks, you need to rear back on them the same way you would a jig or Texas-rig, perhaps even more.  Think of it this way:  The force you put behind a hook set on a single hook (like a jig) will be divided by the number of hook points that are pressing into the fish.  It’s the same concept being used when a street performer lies on a bed of nails.  You really have to hammer that dude to get any of those nails to break the skin!

     I don’t have a preference for rod makers.  Nah, that’s a lie, I do.  However, until someone give me free gear and pays my tournament entries, I don’t have a preference for rod makers. ;)

Step 4: Pick a color 

     I use the K.I.S.S model when it comes to selecting colors.  What kind of bait fish are in your lake?  Shad?  Use a shad color.  Bluegill?  Use a bluegill color.  The lakes around the Phoenix area are filled with shad.  I can’t take a piss out on the lake without stirring up a school of these guys.  Honestly, I don’t even put much thought into water clarity when choosing the color of crank baits.  They are reaction baits that put out lots of vibrations and rattling sounds.  The visual aspect is, in my opinion, the least important factor.  With all the crankin’ I did this summer, I only used two colors.  During the day I used the “sexy shad” color pictured above. 

     At night, I switch it up with the “green gizzard shad”.  I really like this color at night.  It’s dark, which creates a silhouette, but it’s also metallic and reflective.  Every now and then it will catch just a glimpse of moonlight, or light from a nearby boat dock or head lamp.  That quick little flash of dim light is just enough to catch the attention of any nearby bass.

Step 5:  Find a spot

     One of the toughest parts of this summer’s deep crankin’ experiment was forcing myself to pull away from the bank.  I grew up throwing squarebills, topwater poppers, and Texas-rigs.  Targeting shallow, visible cover was the only fishing I had ever done.  I rarely looked at topo maps, and I didn’t own any marker buoys.  Does this sound like you?  If so, the best tip I can give you is to visualize what the lake would look like with 20 feet of less water in it, place marker buoys along the drop-offs, then fish it as if those marker buoys were the shore line.  Many lakes around the Phoenix area already have a lot of great areas clearly marked with various kinds of buoys.  Even if those buoys aren’t set up along long stretches of bottom structure, something is anchoring them to the bottom, and that something might just be holding fish.  Try running a bait by it and see what happens!  Below you’ll see two of my favorite types of bottom structure.

Ledges: 

     Above is an example of a ledge.  Navionics makes it pretty easy to find ledges on their webapp.  The areas in blue are typically less than 20 feet deep, so look for areas where the contour lines bunch up together and have blue on one side, and white on the other.  These are ideal ledges for deep cranking as the fish will typically bunch up on them in 15 to 25 feet of water in during mid-day.  Use two (or more) marker buoys to mark where the ledge is, then fish the path between your buoys as if it were the bank.

     Ledges will usually have a “sweet spot” that will hold multiple fish, so once you catch one stick around and make the same cast over and over, most likely there are more where that came from.  A third marker buoy will help you make this same cast.  I like to keep one right by my feet, that way the second I get hit, I can quickly kick it over the side to mark the exact place my boat was when the strike occurred.  At the same time, take a mental note of the shore off in the distance, look for a landmark that you can remember casting toward so that you can copy the same angle again.  A fish can pull you around quite a bit in a kayak and the wind can blow you a good deal while you unhook the fish and take pictures.  When you’re far off the bank, it’s difficult to remember exactly where you were just fishing. You may think you’re making the same cast over again, but you could easily be 20 yards off the mark if you are extra observant.  When the strike zone may only be a small 5 foot wide diameter, that can be the difference between a 20 lb limit and just one single fish for the day.

Points: 

     Points (and secondary points) are another key location to look for deep summer bass.  Like ledges, look on Navionics for “peninsulas of blue”.  As you can see in the example above, you can’t always rely on the shoreline to find points.  In this example the bank is a long, straight, wall of riprap.  The point is entirely submerged, you need a topo map, depth finder, or a Carolina rig and a lot of time on your hands to find it.  Like I mentioned earlier, imagine that there is 20 feet of less water in the lake.  If that were the case, you would see the point as a shoreline point.  If you struggle to visualize the point, drop a marker buoy at the end of the point and make casts in several directions everywhere between your buoy and the shore.  Every thing about the marker buoys apply to points just as they did about ledges.  On a tough day, the angle of your cast could mean everything.  If there is a breeze or current, I’ll start by casting into it and retrieving the bait back across the point with the direction of the breeze or current.  If that’s unsuccessful I’ll work my way around the entire point casting to the shallow water and working down the slope on all sides.

     You may have noticed this particular point has a hump on the end.  There are quite a bit of examples like this throughout the Salt River chain of lakes.  You’ll also find the occasional isolated hump all on it’s own.  For practicality’s sake, a hump is just a point with four sides instead of three.  Fish it the same way.

Step 6:  Consider what you are doing

     You've been working hard all week to support yourself and your family.  Now the weekend is here and you want to go spend the day in 110 degree heat chasing after a fish that you are just going to release back to the water after looking at it for a minute or two?  How much money did you spend on the equipment for this?  How many hours did you work to earn that money?  Shouldn't you probably use all this effort and money to make the world a better place?  You could have slept in today, but instead you wake up even earlier than on days you have to go to work?

     No?  Still want to go piss off a fish by feeding him a fake breakfast full of hooks?  Cool, me too.  Check back here next week for the last four steps of Deep Crankin'.  I'm going to tell you all you need to know about finding the "sweet spot" I mentioned above, as well as a few different ways to work a crank bait, and more of my opinions on hook sets and fighting the fish.

     Let me know what you think down in the comments or on social media.  If any of this has helped you catch a fish on your latest trip, let me know!  As a teacher I always get more of a kick out of helping you catch fish than catching them myself!