Chris

I tend to roll cast a lot to get baits under areas. If skipping with a baitcaster is a pain in the butt for you carry a spinning rod. It is a ton easier. You need to aim for a spot ahead of the dock or object and let the forward momentum carry the bait under the object. It is much like skipping a rock. Speed is key and it is what carries the bait.

http://www.thebassclinic.com/tackle.htm here ya go scroll down this page

nope it wasn't a popular lure

strikeking makes that bait

Hey Muddy how ya doing My guess is that you where catching suspending fish during the day and the same group of fish at night. 1/4 oz jig in coontail as thick as coontail gets I would doubt your jig hit the bottom. I think you found a heck of a spot and the fish just moved up and down the coontail.

Anyone know of an area that has good catfishing around Tacoma Washington? Need a place to catch mr. whiskers ...Glenn? anyone :

Give it time and bigger bass you will figure out how much of a bad idea it might be. If that snap works its way up the arm of that spinnerbait you give the fish slack or put the lure at a weird angle. Both mean lost fish. It might also pop the blade off the arm and lost fish and bait. How much of a hurry must you be in that you don't have time to tie a knot? Take the time to tie and retie your knots it is worth the trouble. If it was a closed loop spinnerbait the snap wouldn't slide up but it will help twist the line around your bait on the cast and booger it up. It isn't a great idea to use a snap if it means that you could give the bass an advantage.

I tend to use a lot of pork so black/blue-stained blue-muddy water black/chart-stained to muddy brown-clear orange-brownish water

There is also a grey area to this because you can use a lure to force feed a fish to strike if it is around cover or structure reguardless of the activity level it is called reaction strike. You can do it with a crankbait, spinnerbait, jig, rattletrap.

What is important is where the bass is positioned on cover or structure can indicate the activity level of the bass not depth. if a bass is sitting on top of a stump I would consider it being active. If the bass is sitting on the bottom or away from the stump the fish is inactive. If the bass is in the school of shad or just below it I would consider the fish to be active. If the bass is well below the school I would consider the fish to be inactive. If I was fishing a lay down and the fish was sitting on the deep side edge I would consider the fish to be active. If the fish was hugging the bottom or deep in the thick part of the tree I would consider the fish to be inactive. In most places that bass hang out there is a place where the bass goes to feed and a place where it hangs out and a place for the fish to escape or change depth if conditions change. The fish has identified areas that they go to feed and hunt for prey. Deep or shallow it doesn't matter they still find a natural flow of bait and use it as a hunting ground. Deep fish tend to use edges or breaks. So if the fish is nose to the break off the edge in deeper water I would consider the fish active. Also if the fish is on the shallow side of the break they are active. but if the fish is suspended out away from the break and you don't see bait the fish is inactive. Hope this helps

Grass that is in the process of dying stinks to fish because of the depleated oxygen but after a few weeks of the grass being dead if the baitfish move in so does the bass. Pay attention to the wind at times it will funnel baitfish to a particular shore and the bass follow or move up to feed. The main thing I look for is areas of grass that sits in the northern part of the shore. Dead grass and the protection of the northern wind is a good combo. Hard wood and rocks are other great options. (any place protected by northern wind that has a migration route to deeper water should hold fish) Watch the bottom and look for a drop in depth that is close to shore. Cover or not the break off into deeper water is structure and should hold fish.

What you want to do is tick the top of the grass and when it feels like you have weeds on it rip the rod to clean the weeds off of it. What your doing is changing the speed of the lure by ripping it and you get a reaction strike. You can also yo yo the bait which also works well. The idea with any crank style bait is to make the lure look and act alive by changing the speed, or direction. most baitfish do not swim from point (A) to point ( at the same speed or at a direct line. The faster you can get a rattletrap style bait to move the more it tends to search a little which looks like a real shad or shinner. It is like a minnow swimming in a current it looks like it is struggling to stay in one spot because of the current. With a crankbait when you hit an object your doing the same thing you are speeding the lure and changing directions. That it why a lot of people dig the lure on the bottom it does the samething.

Think of a spinnerbait as a weedless crankbait and throw it in stained to muddy water close to laydows and weed edges or flats and give it time and you will catch on. With a trap style bait I tend to use it most on grass flats, weed edges, up against bridge walls, any edge I can find. Crankbaits on the other hand I tend to throw either in a zone of depth or around hard cover. That is not to say that they will not work around weeds because they do but I find that wood cranks work better for weeds because the way they float up and backwards when they get stuck. Hard cover the lip on the crankbait acts as a guard and deflects the bait from the hooks hanging up. Single objects like a lone stump a coffin bill works best for general shallow water a square bill works best. A rounded shallow bill does deflect the bait away from the cover but because of the lack of kick out points the bait will travel close to the object when it strikes it and moves around it. This also means that with a round bill the bait will end up on the front side of the object faster because it didn't kick out away from the object as far. So if a bass sets up at the base of the stump you about hit it on the head. The longer the bill the more depth the lure will dive given that the lure has enough running room to reach its max depth. A crankbait is a heck of a bait and my opinion it is one of the best lures in your box to catch fish year round and under most conditions. Tinker with them and figure out what personality each bait has it is worth it. Good Luck

Think of a blade bait like a rattle trap and anywhere you fish a trap a blade bait will also work. I have caught fish year round on blade baits. I like them a lot in stained to muddy water because they do throw off a great vibration. Gay blade, silverbuddy, zip lure, all are great baits. This bait can really shine around schools of shad but are not limited to it. I have thrown the Gay blade for years and I do mean years with great success fishing it like a rattletrap. Jigging a blade bait can catch you some fish but for me I like a good old jigging spoon the best for this style of fishing mainly because it has less hooks to hang up. Don't be afraid to explore other options with this bait at times it can be a heck of a bait. good luck

Early spring I use a red rattle trap on 35 lb braid. (the braid floats and helps slow down the bait) I also like to use a balsa crankbait because I can slow it down without loosing action. I also break out countdown crankbaits throughout winter into spring. Jerkbaits can be killers in the spring suspending ones are best. Spinnerbaits slow rolled with a pork trailer can land you a good chunk. Topwater spook and buzzbaits also work at times. good luck

I use a palomar knot on just about everything I tie on. With a spook I like this knot because I can position the knot in different places on the eye to make the bait do some wild stuff. Sometimes this makes a difference. (I did say eye not split ring)

slow down and fish the docks on the ends towards the deep water and any stumps that are on the edge of the drop next to the deeper water. areas like this funnel baitfish and give the bass a ambush point to corner the bait and gives the bass a highway to deep water. good luck

I have found that it take about 3 days for a bass to adjust to the front. Fish will be tight to cover when the front moves through waiting for better conditions before the front they do feed up. Fronts are not the end of the world and personally I like fronts because it positions the fish in the cover and takes most of the guess work out of the equation. The strike zone will be small and you might need to put the bait in front of them several times to tempt them. Slow down and bump the cover if your throwing cranks and spinnerbaits. If jigs and worms are what you want to throw make perfect pitches in the heart of the cover and work the area slow and methodical.

Question: What is the perfect Rod and Reel setup for cranking in regard to reel gear ratios and rod length and action that will allow you to get the best action out of the crank and increase hook up ratios? I use several different set ups depending on what I am throwing where. For example if I was roll casting big shallow runners to targets in shallow dirty water I like to use a lews cranking stick 6'6" with a 5:1 ratio reel with 14 LB excel green line. I use the same set up for single blade spinnerbaits. I like glass for this for the give because I am short range fishing and the lure thumps like mad but the rod is still a medium heavy rod. For long casting I use a 7' graphite medium heavy rod IM8 10 LB line 5:1 reel. For general rod for smaller cranks I like a 6'6" graphite rod still with a 5:1 reel. I use the same action rod for all my cranking because when I change rods all of them act the same. I use the same 5:1 ratio reel because it fits me and my style of fishing and forces me to slow down. Tips: 1) You don't want to throw a tight vibrating bait in heavy stained water because bass would have a hard time finding it and it will not stand out. 2) Tight wiggle baits are for clear water because bass feed mainly by sight not sound or vibration. Medium wiggle baits I use for clear to stained water and wide wiggle baits are for stained to muddy. I do this because the less distance a bass can see under water the more a bass uses its hearing. 3) Bait signature is the vibration and water displacement that every bait has. The more water a bait displaces the greater the bait signature. This means the more water displacement the better a bass can find your bait in low visibility. This is important in choosing the right vibration with the right water clarity. 4) Distressed live bait: If you ever watched a shad get spooked you should know that it darts around trying to get away from a would be predator. Shad and other live bait act completely different when they figure out that they are on the dinner plate. They boogie in a random direction to try to get away. Many fishermen try to bounce their bait on the bottom to make it have a random action. 5) If you take a wood bait and tune it slightly out of tune your bait will do some wild stuff. You don't need to bounce it off of anything just reel. Some "special crankbaits" will search a good distance right and left. 6) Baits that have a lot of rattle or an odd vibration or action strikes the curiosity of a bass. In some cases it turns the bass off. 7) tuning: A medium and deep bait that is perfectly tuned when you throw it out and point your rod at your lure and reel should run almost under it and the very front of the lip should be what you see as it reaches the surface. It should not run right or left of center at the boat. A perfectly tuned bait will dive the deepest and vibrate the most when it is tuned correctly. Bait runs right bend the eye left. Bait runs left bend right. It just takes a slight bend in most cases and if it takes a dramatic twist you might want to ditch the bait. 8) Casting distance will effect the amount of room the bait has to reach its deepest running depth. Its kinda a game of angles if you get good at it you can hit structure or a depth zone with some consistency. 9) If you want to gain depth on a crankbait you can drop down in line size or add a bullet weight ahead of your line tie either as a Carolina rig or free sliding. 10) Triple grip hooks are the most snag free of the hooks out there. 11) Round bend hooks tend to stick the fish that just come up to sniff your crankbait. 12) When fishing the thick stuff don't forget to beef up your set up it helps to ******, turn, and drag a fish out of the stuff. 13) Sharpen hooks often when fishing around hard cover and check your line. 14) Thin crankbaits are great winter late fall lures. When Fall rolls around till the water temp reaches the 47 degree mark most guys start breaking out the thin homemade crankbaits. Fall is one of the best seasons tailor made for this bait. When the temperature starts to fall the bass head for the flats and put on their feed bag. Thin crankbaits have just the right action to mimic those shad that gang up on flats. 15) If you can not feel the steady thump of your lure how can you feel when it stops (something to think about) 16) night fishing with white crankbaits on full moon nights can be killer 17) If your waiting for the fish to hook itself you might loose the waiting game. 18) Late spring early summer green is a good color. 19) Early spring when the crappie are up splatterback black is a good color. 20) Don't forget the belly color it is important it is the last color a bass sees before it hits it. (orange dark water, white clear water, chart stained water) 21) When plowing the bottom with your crankbait the top color is most important. 22) You can sharpen the lip of the crankbait to gain a little depth. 23) The larger the line thickness the more resistance it has going through the water and the harder it makes the lure work to gain depth. Always read and compare line thickness between companies of the same pound test line with most of them there is a difference and it will effect the running depth of your lure. 24) If you tie directly to the line eye without the split ring it will tone down the action as will larger pound line. Sometimes if you want to give the fish a different look at your lure this works. 25) Lakes that are clear most of the year then a storm muddies it up this is when it is wise to slow down and use more vibration because the bass is still in the clear water mode. 26) The real beauty with a wood crankbait is when your fishing heavy traffic water you will be fishing a lure that is different from everyone. 27) Largemouth bass are not made to chase down prey for long distances. They rather just take a short burst of speed to ****** up something than run it down over long distances particularly big bass. Because they want to conserve energy they take up a spot to ambush rather than hunt down. Your bait needs to act REAL for it to tempt a big fish. This goes beyond just chucking and reeling your bait. Bait fish in a normal environment do not swim from point (A) to point ( in a straight line. Bait fish act different around a big bass that might eat it. Bait fish that are unaware of the presents of a big fish do not duck and dive or swim fast. Shad are not fast swimmers, crawfish do not skip along the bottom at 100 mph, bluegills don't swim a 100 yd dash in record time even when chased. Live bait can move short distances at a rapid pace but cannot run any races. So make your crankbait look alive and slow it down a tad. 28) Ambush points are places that hold active bass. Bass only go there to hunt. It is like a spot within a spot. You take a point for instance you might find fish on your depth finder hanging all over the point scattered. You fish it one way then you change directions. You fish both directions and at different angles. Then all of a sudden bam you get a hit. The next thing you know you caught a few bass. On any given cover or structure there is a natural direction that bait will swim on that cover or structure. If you figure out that direction and you figure out the sweet spot things change...you catch fish. (food for thought) 29) Sometimes if you make repeated casts to an object or break line you might tick off one fish enough to bite which will turn on the rest. 30) You have got to fish for today and forget about yesterday or even the cast before. If you get caught up in the idea that the day is going to stink you already beat yourself. Let the fish tell you what they want don't go by what you feel like throwing because it worked last week. If I fish a 5 day stretch I might use 8 different kinds of crankbaits to stay catching fish because conditions and mood changes. To many people get stuck in a rut and use the same stuff over and over and wonder why they are not catching as many fish.

(Pictured crankbait is a CS 4x4) *Tips* 1) When you are fishing shallow water you can change the running depth of a crankbait to run shallower by changing the speed of retrieve, using a large test line, or raising the rod tip. 2) Wood or plastic (yeah I know the big debate) truth is with a wood bait you can slow the bait down more than plastic crank and it will not kill the action. In dirty water you want run the bait slower to give the fish more time to locate the lure. 3) In muddy conditions bright colors and larger lures tend to draw more strikes. 4) Rattles are not the most important element in a crankbait when it comes to a fish locating the bait. Rattles tend to give and area of noise and direction of origin. Vibration is the most important element because it helps the bass track it and pinpoint it in muddy conditions. 5) Pay attention to how the bass is taking your bait because it will clue you in to the activity level of the fish. 6) Always pay attention to what your bait is doing at all times. By doing this you can pick up on the kind of cover your running through, bottom hardness, and fish bumping the lure. 7) Catching the wrong fish isn't a bad thing it is just telling you that your doing something right and might need to make a slight adjustment to catch the right fish. 8) When the fish are up sometimes reeling the crankbait just under the surface and leaving a wake can be just the ticket. 9) Most people fish a crankbait way to fast and might be missing out on larger fish because of it. 10) Speed cranking at times will force a fish to react to the bait and can get a few fish in the boat. 11) Random motion is the key factor that will make a fish think your crankbait is real. 12) In muddy water or low light conditions steady vibration and movement tend to draw more strikes because the fish can track it better. 13) As ambush fish bass will react to a lure deflected off a stump more often then a crankbait that runs around the object without hitting it. 14) Knowing the limitations of each crankbait that you own will make you a better crankbait fishermen. 15) High floating balsa crankbaits work best in weed cover. 16) Coffin bill crankbaits tend to be a good choice when fishing single lone objects like a stump because of the two kick out points that force the lure away from the object upon impact which will draw strikes. 17) In heavy cover a coffin bill is not the best choice because the lure tends to bounce off one object and hang up in another a square bill is a better choice. 18) A round bill is a good choice if you want the bait to travel tight to an object after impact like for example if you think a bass is sitting on the deep side of a tree. 19) Deep bill crankbaits can be effective in shallow water the larger bill acts as a weed guard around hard cover. 20) Countdown crankbaits are a great bait in late fall through winter. 21) As the water cools off and the fish slow down so should your cranking speed. 22) All lures are not the same some either because of the rattle, the way it is tweaked, made, or bait signature one will always produce more so than another of the same lure. There are "pet or special lures" 23) A lure that runs straight will always dive the deepest, come through cover the best, and catch the most fish more so than another of the same lure. 24) Graphite rods are great rods for cranking cold water because you can feel everything and they will put a few more fish in the boat. 25) The running depth on most crankbaits are determined by the factory by using 10 test line. 26) The longer you can cast the deeper your bait will run. 27) Depth control is the biggest down fall of most crankbait fishermen they don't understand the true depth the lure is running. Without knowing this, it is hard to determine what depth the lure is running in relationship to where the fish sitting at and it is hard for them to target that specific depth or fish. 28) The best hook set for cranking is a sweep set. 29) Think of a crankbait much like a spinnerbait and use the right vibration for the water your fishing and if you can not feel the vibration of the crankbait you might want to change your set up. (it shouldn't feel like a dead pull) 30) Being able to cast a crankbait with accuracy is everything when shallow cranking and can mean the difference.

We have a winner Those bass are suspended out deep away from the shore. If you catch a day that is overcast, lowlight or night, or when the water has some stain to it those bass will move up.

I would say ya scale is a little off : the top photo I would call it at 3 lbs the second I would call it at 3 1/2 maybe 4

Also don't overlook blade baits like Gayblade, or silver buddy, sonar, they also can be killer at times and tend to stay deep beter.

I don't know about Billy but... I have found that when the shad are schooled up and I am fishing targets I catch them on saltcraws or jigs. When the frogs are out in numbers I catch them on frogs. When shad are schooled up and run into ambush points I catch them on cranks, spinnerbaits, swimming a jig. When the crawfish come out in the spring I catch them on saltcraws. When the bluegills are spawning I catch them on senkos. When the fry is schooled up after the bass spawn I catch them on senkos. Depending on how you work the bait depends on what the bass thinks the bait is. Most of the time bass just see an opportunity and activity level determines if they will chase it or strike it. If a bass has been feeding on a certain item it will continue feeding on that item or something that acts like it as far as speed and motion. If the bass is not active it will feed on something less active. Just because something is plentiful don't always mean that it is the item that they are feeding on. Most of the time what they are feeding on depends on where the bass is and what is available and what activity level they are in.

If it was me I would skip a tube with a light weight or no weight and work it through the area leading the fish. A small slider worm tends to do the trick or a wacky rigged soft plastic. If the fish are shallow they might be up there to feed on small minnows or bluegills. Stick with clear colors like watermelon, sand, smoke, and such. If you need to make the cast then strip off line as you back off the area to stay out of eye shot of the fish. If you have trees or something to break up your out line use it and stand next to it like hunting. If your walking up and down the bank the fish can hear you so walk softly like your sneaking up on it. You can mark the area with a bobber and line and weight to anchor it to the bottom or stick something to mark it on the shore then go back to it.