shorewhoredylan

Thank you!! Very helpful, thank you!!

This is my first fall fishing, I fish in central NY in what i think is the upper Susquehanna watershed, I know I should be throwing crankbaits but I've never caught anything with them and am probably using them wrong. For context, the Susquehanna is pretty shallow up here and there's only a few bodies of water where I can get to 5-10+ foot deep water from shore (dont have a boat sadly). There's a boat launch at goodyear lake where I can get to deeper water (about 15-20ft) with a rocky bottom, have caught 2 smallies this week there jigging stuff but bites are few and far in between. Seems like the right time and place to use a crankbait but I'm gettin nothing. I guess I'm not sure how to retrieve them effectively (i know a straight retrieve works but not sure how i should be pointing the rod, how fast i should be reeling, stops/starts, etc.) I know bigger bill means deeper dive but I feel like none of mine are diving much at all, even my squarebill along the shore where its only 3-4 feet deep, seems like they just zigzag right below the surface most of the time. Basically any advice or step-by-step explanation yall could give me on how to use them right would be greatly appreciated, I'm not ready to stop fishing for the year but getting skunked often in the cold is disheartening! thanks in advance