Hi Guys,

I have a part of the Wabash River here that is excellent habitat for smallies and walleye.

It's a lot of limestone cover with plenty of submerged downed trees.  I pull some big fish out of there.

Here's the problem:  Over the winter it gained even more cover.  Today I lost two jerkbaits, three square bill crankbaits, and even a T-rigged Jelly Worm.

The fish along here only want crankbaits most times.

I fish mono along here unless I'm using bass jigs, in which case I use 65lb Power Pro and my jungle lake rod/reel setup.  The limestone isn't sharp enough to fray the braid at all; just really smooth all around.

I need to know how you guys fish heavy cover like this.  Lure retrievers would have little chance of working due to the nature of the snags and underwater terrain.  Last time I tried a knocker it didn't even make it to the lure. 

Thoughts?

Thank you,

Josh

I'd try a chatter bait or spinner bait.  At least in the lakes I fish if they're hitting cranks, they'll usually take a chatter bait or spinnerbait too.  If the cover really is that dense, you'll probably still snag up occasionally, but the single hook will come through it way easier than a couple treble hooks.

If you're dead set on using cranks, you could try removing the rear trebles - 90% of the time you will set the front hooks on a strike, and the rear hooks are going to be the culprit with the majority of your snags. You'll still lose some lures, but not as many.