Chris

another view

I got bored and made this one night I'll call it the chatter crank.

Your welcome and good luck

When a bass follows another to the boat and sees you, do you think that fish will still bite after it returns to the depths? yes

Myself and a guy I went to school with decided to become partners for a upcoming tournament on East Lake Toho in Fla. Neither one of us had ever fished together and we decided to go fishing on Buck Lake to size each other up. Both of us talked a big game and it was put up or shut up. Mark was a big fan of FLW worms and in the beginning of the day would catch a fish and in a taunting voice say "look Chris FLW baby". As he continued catching these peanut fish and growing his ego we pulled around to a group of docks. One of the docks had a boat cover on it. Mark was in the front of the boat messing with his depth finder. I asked him how deep was it and he said 10 ft deep. I go into my tackle box and pull out a Berkley Frenzy and tie it on. In front of the dock was a lane and on the left was a wall of hydrilla. I made a cast up against the dock along the edge that the owner's boat cut out the weed growth. Mark said " Your not going to catch anything your using the wrong bait." Still ranting his FLW propaganda and still messing with his depth finder the boat drifted and spun. I made my cast to the left ran my bait down about 10 ft from where the weedline ended left of the covered dock and my bait stopped. I said "Mark there's one" Mark was like yeah whatever I said "Mark I got a fish!" about that time Mark looked up and 10 lbs of bass jumped out of the water in front of the boat. Mark said " you didn't tell me you had a pig" .....(Me) " I said I had a fish what did you think I was talking about." After I grabbed the fish I looked up at Mark who was shocked and said "Berkley Frenzy Baby! Screw that FLW crap." priceless..This isn't my largest bass but it meant a lot to me.

scale down, slow down, fish tight

Take a look at Pinnacle stuff in my opinion their products are the best bang for the buck great for budget guys they have reels on sale right now. https://www.pinnaclefishing.com/shop/default.aspx

If you have a boat ramp next to the dock try to fish the edge of the slab many times boats will create a depression there and fish will gang up. Fish it with a crankbait or a jig. Sometimes when people leave they dump their bait there or if you have tournaments they dump their fish there also. Some areas line the shore with rock to help with erosion and can be productive. You can fish it with a spinnerbait, jig, or a senko. Bass also like edges so the dock itself is an edge parallel the dock with a crankbait, trap, spinnerbait or buzzbait. The pilings also offer bass a vertical cover to hang on. Pitch jigs or soft plastics to your target and count it down on each of them. If you find that some are deeper than others spend more time on the ones that are different. Don't over look a jigging spoon around the pilings or a plastic worm on a jig head. Just drop the jig worm down and shake it at different depths to find fish suspended on them. On the ends of the dock parallel the shore most of the time people build docks out far enough to be on the edge of a drop. You can break it down into zones make casts about 5 to 10 feet out from each other to cover different depth zones. If the docks have boats tied up some sail boats have a ballast under them that make them different than flat bottom boats. Add rattles to your baits and do a lot of rattling and less moving to get them to strike like with your soft plastics and jigs. Add scent in the winter scent can make a difference. You can also run a spinnerbait down the edge of a dock or boat and let the bait drop next to pilings or the edge of the tied boat.

is this the channel?

You ought to try them out now they are killer on a dropshot rig this time of year.

I don't use the same rods for every bait or the same reels. I have a specific reel that I feel pitches the best and a specific reels that do other jobs better. The same with my rods. I have high end graphite for some applications and composite for others and glass for other applications. I also don't have the same length for each application and some have more back bone then others based on how I am using them. Most are medium heavy rods but that don't mean they all load the same or are of the same construction. Many rod manufactures are doing a better job of providing a rod for each lure style. The problem with that for me is that lure manufactures make a whole array of lures that react different on different rods under different applications. I have a 6'6" MH Clunn signature rod that I love to use cranking medium size crankbaits in the winter. It is actually made for jerkbaits and topwater. I didn't like the way the crankbait rod loaded. I am sure it is a great rod just wasn't for me. I have bought other rods that had the same handle/ reel seat but because of the reel I used for that application didn't feel right or was awkward. Another problem is that some have high reel seats and others low. If the line from your reel is not level from your reel to the guides or the line tapers not at a gradual change it effects casting distance. The amount of guides and guide spacing effects accuracy so lures I need to place in a spot would be different then lures I need distance. Maintaining the same feel is just preference.

I use a medium rod for light cranks and medium heavy for everything else except pitching and flipping. My medium rods I use 8-10 mono My medium heavy rods have between 10-14 mono. I also have other reels spooled with fluorocarbon if I need to swap out for more depth but are not attached to rods. I also have a glass rod that I use to roll cast both spinnerbaits and larger balsa baits which has 20 lb line. I only use it for short distance heavy cover targets. That's just me

You also need to consider that some guys are targeting depth and with some crankbaits speed and casting distance is critical to reach depth. Others use a bait that runs deeper than needed to overpower the depth required to maintain a certain depth. So speed keeps the bait from reaching its max depth to maintain a certain depth required. Some anglers don't know how to make a cast to hit a lone stump at the top of the stump it takes some skill to do this. You need to understand angles and at that distance you need to cast to do this and where you need to position your boat in order to make contact. If your fishing suspended fish you just need to hit a zone. On a slow reel lure (A) might run 10 ft on 10 lb line but if you put lure (A) on 20lb line it will run lets say 8ft with the same speed. You put the same lure (A) on a 6 to 1 reel and speed reel it the lure might run 8 ft on the same cast. You shorten the distance between you and the target you also shorten the depth of your lure. Lure (A) might now run 6ft.

Is up north of the triangles on the left the in coming river and where the pads are on the right the out going river or is it switched?

What I have done for several years is take a lighter bitsy jig 1/8 oz or under and take the middle size zoom jig chunk and instead of placing it on the jig like a pork chunk thread the hook like you would with a grub. This flares out the skirt and the jig will glide more on the fall. Rig it fatty side up on the hook. This has been a great rig for me that works well cold water.

Full size crappie tail waving at me. Didn't catch it but saw about a 2 lb bass struggling in a big bass's mouth all I saw was white belly wiggling as it disappeared into the depths.

Your Welcome

trout magnet- http://www.secretbait.com/magnetpacks.htm To me it looks like a beetle spin body on a shad dart head. I generally use either a feather jig,tube jig, sassy shad, or a roadrunner. I generally use 6lb line mono. There is the link maybe some else has welcome to the forum

Doc is effected by temperature, light and barometric pressure (altitude). Dissolved oxygen decreases as water temperature rises and increases as barometric pressure increases. Oxygen enters the water from plants and wind. Clear water that has good underwater plant life tends to have better oxygen than muddy water. Because of muddy water blocks out the sun plants are unable to produce as much oxygen. When oxygen levels drop by 25% fish become inactive and don't feed as often and move to a new area and at 50% could die from suffocation. The higher the water temperature the more a bass uses oxygen. Fish try to locate the best areas that have the most Doc like the thermocline. Your fish might be up because that is the layer that has the best oxygen. The higher the oxygen content the more active the fish are going to relative to the water temperature.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_90570____SearchResults[highlight "extra power on the retrieve." David Fritts 1993 Bassmaster Classic® Champion The first word out of our Product Development Manager's mouth: ''This reel casts a honkin' mile!'' The pros, customers, everybody -- they can't get over how far they can put their lure; it'll outcast any other reel! The reason? This reel has a taller, slightly heavier spool and a consistently narrower line angle, which generates incredible inertia on the cast -- so not only can you cast big cranks all day without undue arm strain, you can also position your boat farther from the target. The extra-long aluminum handle adds power to your crankin' stroke, giving you the leverage to horse that lunker in from a distance. And we've designed a powerful drag system which produces up to 10 lbs. of drag pressure. Machined-aluminum frame and spool; graphite side-plates; 4-bearing system with double-shielded premium stainless steel ball bearings; 6-pin centrifugal cast control. DF10HC has PowerLock instant anti-reverse; other models have dual-pawl anti-reverse. " ''This reel casts a honkin' mile!'' The longer you can cast the more depth your bait will run. The extra-long aluminum handle adds power to your crankin' stroke, giving you the leverage to horse that lunker in from a distance. This is your lever and what makes cranking hard pulling crankbaits easier to crank. And we've designed a powerful drag system which produces up to 10 lbs. of drag pressure. A good drag prevents a lure from pulling drag on the retrieve which effects the max running depth on your lure. This also gives you direct contact with your lure. 4-bearing system with double-shielded premium stainless steel ball bearings The more bearings you put in a reel the less vibration transfer you have. The bearings begin to get in the way of transferring vibration to the side plate on the palm side. DF10HC has PowerLock instant anti-reverse; other models have dual-pawl anti-reverse. " This reduces slop in the worm gear and beefs up durability. I own the older model of this reel which is 4.3 to 1. I actually replaced the gear in the reel with a higher gear ratio because like I said it wasn't for me. This model now is not offered in the lower gear because it didn't sell well. When I asked David Fritts in person he said that he changed the handle on the reel he has because it didn't feel right with an old Lews handle. This was with the first reel BPS came out with not this model up above. I personally own high dollar reels Team Diawa, Shimano Chronarch, to name a few. So I don't want to give the impression that I choose the older style reels for cranking from being cheap because that isn't the case. With most people you have a certain rhythm that you have grown accustomed to reeling at. Most people have a hard time remembering to slow down with deep cranking so when they pick up a low gear reel it forces them to slow down without changing the retrieve rhythm that you have grown accustomed to with your higher gear reels.

I also agree it has a durability issue. Top bait in this picture is after one tournament. The paint job is trashed and I had to fill it with epoxy to protect the bare wood that shows. The second lure is John Mills crankbait that I asked him to make for me and is still kicking out toads and in great shape. The third one is a Tim Hughes custom baits HT crankbait that the lip fell out on the second fish I caught had to epoxy a new lip.

Wow, I sure have learned a lot from this thread. Thanks for all of the replies. So Chris, what reels have the characteristics you listed? I guess I need to take Crankbaits 101. I didn't know that going slow made the bait go deeper. I actually thought you were supposed to reel fast initially to get it to dive. So that is not correct? It depends on the crankbait and how it is weighted and the posture it has at the waters surface. Years ago when Lee Sisson was building Bagley crankbaits he developed a lead button that was attached under the line tie. This put the lip in a downward posture that made the bait dive on the first crank. The angle of the dive effects the rate the lure reaches it's max depth. Rapala and other companies adopted this idea. Lures that have a different angle might need to be started to get the bait at it's dive angle. After you get the lure to dig the water a slower retrieve helps it continue to dive. I generally use older reels because as the years have gone by manufacturers have added things that I feel get in the way of direct contact with my lures vibration. Garcia yo yo reels would be a good example, old Daiwa, old Shimano, Lews, David Fritts had a decent reel made by Bass Pro. Also understand my old reels have been updated so they are not what they where when I bought them.

here is a hint http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1129970015/45

you can clean your skirts with armor all

I like to use handpoured soft plastics for dropshotting because of it's softness and most of them float. I also like other salt lures for drop shotting like a cut tail, small trick worm, meathead, and a slider worms. It just depends on what I am trying to do for the situation.