Chris

try slowing down

Your shallow fish will position themselves tighter to cover and deeper in cover during afternoon hours. You will find that the fish you where catching on the outside edge of the cover will be now in the cover. What changes this is wind, current, fishing pressure, and boat wakes. If your fishing and you find that the area is muddied up or sloshed around and if it gets bad enough those fish will move off and suspend in open water. Fish that where on points and bluffs lay downs standing timber will position deeper (using depth as a form of cover) or suspend out from these areas. Structure that gives a road map to deeper water bass might just follow it out to the deeper water or when they suspend they tend to hang at the same depth because of comfort but using the drop in depth as a reference point as they suspend out away from the shallow water. The real question to ask is why do the bass move from where I am fishing and where do they go and why? They move simply because of comfort zone. High sun means the bass feels more open to predators so they seek cover, shade, or depth. If the shallow cover stinks because of the waves making it dirty or fishermen flogging the water they either go deeper or suspend. (plain c they get into cover where most anglers won't throw) If the water heats up or oxygen levels drop bass move because of comfort. Also bass will go where the food moves to which is something else to consider.

The bass had a mark on them of some sort that was easy to identify. The bass I caught up the river had a piece of cartilage that protruded in the roof of its mouth. Another had part of its dorsal fin broken. Some have spots others have sores it just depends.

I have done that with a Bomber long A, buzz bait, or a bunch of other lures. All your trying to do is make the bass show itself. If your presenting a bluegill swim bait the bass will pop it to keep it out of the bed and away from eating eggs or fry... But they will also do it with any bait and most of the time once they show themselves it might take other methods to actually catch them. If your using a moving bait most of the time your fishing off colored water. It is a way to pinpoint the bed without see them either because of depth or stained or muddy conditions.

When bass are nose up to the bank the best option is to put the lure on the shore and slide it in the water. Another option is use a drop shot with the weight stuck on the bank and you twitch your lure about where you think they are. Shallow fish are hard to catch and at times if they can see you from a distance lower your profile and try your best to place the lure in the water without much splash or disturbance. Also try to keep your line up if your paralleling the bank so that the line won't lay over the bass's back which will also spook them. If you can see the fish because of how clear the water is you actually stand a good chance to still catch it. You want to use a drop bait like a soft plastic and pitch ahead of the fish and try to get their attention either on a slow fall or working the lure on the bottom. If you can't see how the fish is reacting to your presentation as they move out deeper it is kinda hard to coax them to bite mainly because you can't see them. In areas were I can't see the fish I try to use a moving bait to draw the fish to my lure. You figure they are nose up to the bank because they are either actively feeding or about to unless your dealing with spawning fish.

I would say it would depend on how much food is in the area they where released as to how long they stay in the release area and how muddy the water is that they where caught on how soon you can catch them again. Time frame is hard to determine because it really depends on a lot of factors. For example one fishermen might be able to get the same fish to react to a bait while another who has a different fishing style takes longer to get the fish in the mood to strike using other techniques. As far as fish movement to give you an example I have caught fish in a tournament and caught the same fish a few days later on the opposite shore on rip rap. I have also caught fish in a tournament and several weeks later caught either the same fish in the same area or a fish close to quality on the same stump. To give you a third example I caught a fish on rip rap on a crankbait and about a week later caught the same fish up the river on a bridge on a spinnerbait. I think the underlying deal was food source.

Years ago they opened up a lake in Fla called stick marsh and farm 13. Guys would load up on wild shiners and go down there and whack the fish but as time passed the same guys who where catching fish suddenly stopped catching the numbers they where. They bought the shiners locally because around those lakes the prices where crazy. Some of the guys felt that the fish where getting conditioned to not feed on a hooked shiner. I think what could have been more important was that a suspended shiner on a bobber after awhile of dragging the float around acted tired and didn't sit right under the float. Much less depending on how they cast the bait and hooked the bait will change how lively the bait will act when a bass is around. Also consider that they where trucking in shiners to the lake from their local tackle shop and not everyone knows how to keep shiners. The end result is the shiners didn't act like a free roaming bait fish. When I fish shiners I either don't use a float or use one that is just enough to keep it out of the weeds. I also want my bait to run the whole time. If the bait stops and just floats in one spot I change my bait because more times then not my bait is just acting like a chunk of meat and not a free roaming shiner. It is kinda the same deal with your crawfish. Bass will nose down on a bait and wild bait will move because it has figured out it is food. If the bait didn't move a bass will flare it's gills to basically push water on it trying to get the bait to move. The next thing a bass will do is pick it up and blow it out still trying to make it move. If the bait acts like it is alive and jets off in any one of the three cases it will bite it. If they loose interest because the bait didn't move then you know what to do...make it move. It isn't your line really it is the weight that the crawfish has to drag to move. When the bass was playing with it's food the crawfish stopped acting scared and the bass lost interest.

Simple the live bait didn't have fear or didn't act like it was chased. It would be like the difference between a wild shiner and a domesticated shiner. The wild shiner knows it is food and has been chased by bass it's whole life the domestic just waves hi.

I will also add that if you have a lure that acts like live bait bass have a hard time rejecting the lure because it doesn't give off cue's that point out it is fake. The lure swims or acts real so they attack it even if it may not have the perfect finish that looks like a fish...it is the live action that takes over and causes the fish to hit it given you appeal to the way a bass's brain works. When bass are hungry they hit lures that act like what they have been feeding on which goes along with activity level. When your dealing with neutral fish activity level is less so you need to use lures in a way that makes it to good to pass up like a hurt shad for example. When bass are not in the mood to feed you got to force the fish to respond to the lure what I call force feeding them. You bring the lure at an angle so that it surprises the fish when it is in front of it's face and they bite out of response. Bass because they are predators like to take out the weak and don't like things that try to get away from them much like a cat if you drag some yarn by it. The cat is not pouncing on the yarn because it is hungry it is attacking the yarn because it is trying to get away. Also with big fish they tend to hang in the best place within cover or the best place to intercept bait. If you present a lure that in the bass's mind is invading the fishes territory the bass will hit the lure because it is trying to defend it's feeding area. When a lure doesn't act real like what I posted above the natural response changes because the bass may not feel it is real food, something alive or a threat to their feeding area or in the case of a spawning fish a threat to the fry. Bass know that bait fish swim and act a certain way and you might trick them fishing lures a certain way but in the long run to continue to trick the same bass you need to make your lure act more real or change the vibration pattern so that the fish think it is something other than the lure you caught the fish on the previous day. this is because in the bass's mind they associate that lure you caught that fish on with a bad response...it hooked him. I hope that helps you out

It is also amazing how old stuff works better than some new stuff or the difference between the original and a copy could be like night and day in how productive they are.

They remember through conditioning. They associate something with either a good or bad response. This is mostly associated with mechanical movement. This means if a bait that gives a specific vibration pattern or swimming motion that doesn't look or sound real. Bass will not hit it a second time because it doesn't change any. The lure didn't act alive or real. The direction didn't change like live bait. The vibration pattern didn't change like a real bait fish. The lure didn't swim at the same posture as a live bait....Because of this they get conditioned and reject some lures. Soft plastics and other lures if fished correct have random action which bass have a hard time figuring out if it is fake or live prey.

Take your Poe's for example David Fritts took some of his deep divers and drilled the front so that he could pour lead in the lure so it balanced different. Lee Sisson developed a lead button on the lip to counter the pressure put on the tail which was used by Bagley. Rapala DT was designed by David Fritts and uses a concaved bill to counter the pressure put on the tail along with a how it is weighted, shape to keep the drag of the lure pulling through the water at a minimum. The problem is that most crankbaits when fished is still set in the diving position when they are trying to hit cover. The fishermen think they have hit the max depth but that isn't the case. The max depth is the point where the lure stops diving, lays flat, before it makes its upward climb. Some lures might take more than half the cast just to dig to the depth because it is diving at a shallow rate. Lures that dive steep stay at their max depth the longest. Meaning the lure lays flat and acts like a bait fish swimming the way a bait fish should the longest.

When crankbaits where introduced they where made of wood. A very popular lure for anglers was a bomber mud bug. With this lure because the lip was made of metal and the way it was weighted the lure had more of a downward posture in the water before you started reeling. The lure posture changed when you started reeling the lure and because of the downward pressure of the water on the tail made the lure not only act like a crawfish because the tail bobbed around but that downward pressure lifted the lip to give the lure a better sonic vibration than other lures. The lure was designed to be a heavy cover lure. If you ran the lure into cover you could let up on the pressure from you pulling the lure so that the lure would float tail up out of the cover. The designer of the lure had the design patented. If you look up that patent there is as part of the patent document the line tie metal clip that if bent or straight was still covered by the patent. With this lure if you bent the line clip the lure would wildly hunt. Search- move a short distance left or right while still swimming upright. Hunt- acts more like live bait and has a more erratic less predictable action.. the lure doesn't swim upright the whole way and every cast is completely different and acts like a jerkbait without the pause. The secret to this bait was the way the lure was weighted thin bill, and bill angle. Fred Youngs Big O was weighed the same or under the same principals and when the lure was made into plastic the weight was placed different because of the properties of plastic. The lip angle was also different because of the properties of plastic. This means if they built the plastic Big O the same as the wooden Big O the lure wouldn't run correct. The demand for the Big O was to great that to make the public happy they made it plastic to fill orders. Fred Young's Big O design was a way to make a lure of the same quality as the mudbug and the same action as the bent line clip to go around their patent. Most of the "special" Big O's where the lures that the weight was off center and made the lure act like a live shad. The problem with the Big O's design was because that belly would swing unpredictably which gives the lure a wild action the lure could not run deep. The second problem is when the belly is moving wildly because the weight is slightly off center it hangs cover more. The third problem was that the lip would over time soak up water which would change the balance of the lure and make the lip more heavy. So anglers put up the lures that wildly searched for more open water areas or places where your not going to get hung up as much like nothing banks. Lures started being built with a belly weight which pins the lure with more upright so it has less drag from it flopping around which gives you more depth. By pinning the belly down and the amount of hook the body of the lure covers the hook you can hit cover head on and between the bill and the belly down position you clear more cover without hanging your lure. When you take a lure that has the belly weight and you overpower the lure with speed the belly starts to shift to one side which changes its direction slightly what they call searching action. You also lift the bill slightly because you putting more water pressure on the tail making it swim more flat. Because of the weight of plastic or the amount of belly weight and lip angle and weight of the bill in wood it makes it hard to get the lure to plane which makes it hunt if weighted right otherwise it just searches. If you off center the weight in the right place you make it hunt at slow speeds. This is something you can not make a plastic lure do because the air is not distributed the same. Many shallow wood crankbaits are made like plastic in respect to where they weight them which really is not giving you the best of what a wood lure can offer. Many "pro's" would take a wood lure and sand one side of the lure to make it hunt. Some would weight it different to make them do it. Bagley did it by mistake when they didn't line up the lip right or did they change where they placed the weight because they brought in Lee Sisson and wanted a lure that would dive deeper. I guess it depends on who you hear the story from I wasn't there it was before my time. I do know if you bend the eye on a original Big O made out of wood weighted other than a plastic lure center of the body the lure will hunt. I have also made lures from scratch that hunt and you don't build them with a weight set at the belly. Lures that search tend to break up the vibration pattern. It is that break up in vibration pattern that make fish commit to the lure. It also makes the bass think it is real. Lures that search will still hit cover head on provided that the lure is built correct will hang up less than a lure that wildly hunts. Wild hunters are not the best lures in cover but do catch fish in more open areas and clear water. If they are built with a round body with the same wild action you can use them in heavy cover if built right the body and lip deflects hang ups. Some "pro's" use smaller size hooks to make sure the lure covers the hook which is why they say they loose fish on crankbaits. The real problem is that they are using the wrong designed lure in cover instead of using something built like the old wooden mudbug or built with the same design principals. Crankbaits are tools and using the right tool for the job can make all the difference.

With a straight billed lure when it hits its max depth and if the tail is not to buoyant the bait will swim more flat. If the lure bill has an angle to it and if the weight is not weighted right it will never swim flat. With balsa it has a tendency to be able to have action even at a slow rate of speed. Which means even when the lure swims flat it still has action. With plastic lures if you add weight so that the lure will lay flat you can not get the lure as deep as wood. The air is not distributed in a plastic lure it is just one big bubble. Plastic lures achieve its action either because the water pushes down on the tail which brings up the lip or the water pressure is not evenly distributed on the lip which gives you the side to side action or both. If you put enough pressure on the tail you loose depth because it brings the lip up. Plastic lure companies then build lures with heavy lips to counterbalance the downward pressure put on the tail or they add weight to the bill or use more of a concaved bill. The problem with this is that the lure will never swim flat. Even if the lure swims flat the plastic will not swim like wood because it is to heavy and the air is not distributed and can't quiver and search like wood. You will always catch more fish and bigger fish on a wood lure because it can act like real bait if made correctly.

With crankbaits every lure has it's own max depth. If anglers know the correct depth the lure dives it can make all the difference in the world. Learning diving angles and driving curves of a crankbait can catch you more fish. By the same token knowing at what point the lure is about to make its journey to the surface can also make a difference. Visualize this take a golf club putter and hold it at a 90 degree to your body. Notice the head of the putter is pointed to the sky and the back part of the putter is pointed to the the ground. Now bring the putter in a half circle motion by dropping your arm so that the heel of the putter hits your foot. If you notice the underside of the putter is laying flat as it would be if you where about to make a putt. With a wood crankbait which is weighted in such a way so that the bill counterbalances the downward pressure of the tail it makes the lure swim flat like a swimbait at the point just before the lure makes it's upward climb. It is at that point where you want to hit an object or have your bait in the right area that you think the fish might be hanging at. It is also at that angle where a deep diving wood lure will start to search and act like a live bait. If the bait is still sitting tail up because it is plastic or not weighted correct at the same point on your retrieve you do not get this effect. Years ago while tweaking crankbaits I took Lee Sisson Tennessee tuffy and cut the bill. I cut the bill short so that the split ring just hung over the end of the lip. At the time the lip was made of a thick lexan material. I took the bait and tied it to a rod and pitched it into the shiner tank in the back of the bait shop where I was working at the time. As I reeled the lure because of the vibration pattern, the way it searched, the angle to which the lure would swim at, the wild shiners thought my lure was the lead shiner in the school and would follow my lure around the tank. When you make a cast and intentionally put your line over the cover your trying to fish it changes the angle of your lure. Like for example you have a stump and you lay the line over the top of the stump. Your lure will dig nose down until it reaches a point where because of the elevated place where your line is (because it is over the top of the stump)changes the degree or angle the lure is swimming. It lifts the bill and the lure will swim more flat and will search until it hits or deflects off the object. The slower you reel the more time you give the bass to notice and hit your lure while it is doing something magical..while it is searching. This is provided that the wood lure is weighted correct and not to tail buoyant.

if you want the blades to turn free and fluid you need to have the cup side down facing the wire...if you want the second blade to spin intermittently cup up.

The picture posted is the original both work the same but the skitter pop face will blend more with the water and look more like a shiner or shad. I think the reason why it didn't catch on was the draw string. Every pro angler was yelling don't set the hook on a slack line and that draw string made slack line and people thought they would loose fish on it. Under certain conditions like shad kills and and thrown on schoolers busting shad this lure can be killer.

It also could be your drag setting which will also effect your lures running depth if it isn't tight enough. You want to have the drag set high enough for the hook set then backed off for the fight especially if your getting bit at a distance.

It could be one of many things that make you loose fish on a crankbait. It could be your fast tip that is making you rip the hooks out. It could be that your line is old and lost it's spring or stretch or water logged. It could be your hooks are not the right size or style that makes the hooks not stick the fish as good as they should so they pull off. It could be that the fish are attacking the bait from above and pinning the bait and not the hook.

I still fish them and also like to tip them with a white pork frog...Welcome to the forum

http://store.jobabylures.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=J&Category_Code=SKL

If I want more distance on a crankbait besides doing some tinkering just add a worm sinker up your line then tie to the lure. The weight when you pull the lure shouldn't mess with the lures action much or you can change out the back hook to a heavier weighted hook which also works.

Anything shallow or the old bank, I fish usually a short arm spinnerbait, jig, or a square bill or a deeper crankbait depending on which one I am fishing.

more stuff When you build plastic crankbaits you take two halves glue them together and fill them with rattles hook hangers. Companies take great care to make sure that everything lines up and measures right so that the lure runs perfect in the water. They do this to build a lure that when copied will run the same look the same as the others and makes production easier. When you buy and use a plastic lure you can rest assured that it will act like the ten others that landed in the trees or lost in some stick up. (If your not loosing lures your not trying hard enough or close enough ) If all plastic crankbaits of the same kind is the same what would cause one bait out of many to fish different or become more productive? I say it is the rattle more important is a lower pitch single rattle....why? If a normal crankbait of a set lure style makes one sound and you pull another that sounds different it is either going to be louder or higher ping which means the noise making rattle is free to move and make racket. If the lure has a lower pitch rattle then the rattle is not traveling the whole distance of the rattling chamber. (which means the bait is weighted unequal) Perfect lures made by computers and machines will track perfect and give you that great mechanical action. For wood lures it is the imperfect material and human factor that makes them great fish producers. In the case of plastic, it is the rejects that catches more fish. I choose a single rattle because it is the only weight keeping the lure belly down. With a second rattle if the first rattle is obstructed in any way will take up the slack to keep the lure running equal and balanced. A single rattle makes it easier to pick out (off the rack) the higher percentage plastic crankbait that will catch more fish. When that rattle is off centered because it is not moving the full distance in the rattling chamber in a plastic lure it acts different, runs different, and catches more fish than others of the same style.

Most anglers are shallow water anglers so they tend to worry about surface temp more. I have a hand held temp gage that I use myself that I can drop down to whatever depth I choose. Also have the wire marked off every 2 ft so I know what depth I am marking.