I am new to crankbait fishing but not fishing. I live in the northern part of michigans lower peninsula. Most of the lakes around here have soft mud and silt bottoms. I know most people crank rocks and shell beds and stuff like that. Can you fish crankbaits on those soft bottoms and be successful?

Yep!  it may not always be my first choice, but it can be really effective at kicking up a mess on the bottom like a flying baitfish or crayfish.  The key is finding soft bottom areas that hold fish without thick weeds that would make presenting a treble hook bait a nightmare. Around good structure dotted with rocks, stumps, submerged timber, or sparse vegetation it can be a really good technique.  Learning to fish them through cover can be tricky, and certainly has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be very effective.

 

6 minutes ago, Turkey sandwich said:

Yep!  it may not always be my first choice, but it can be really effective at kicking up a mess on the bottom like a flying baitfish or crayfish.  The key is finding soft bottom areas that hold fish without thick weeds that would make presenting a treble hook bait a nightmare. Around good structure dotted with rocks, stumps, submerged timber, or sparse vegetation it can be a really good technique.  Learning to fish them through cover can be tricky, and certainly has a bit of a learning curve, but it can be very effective.

I live near a decent size river that is dammed up in 5 different place which created 5 reservoirs. They all have submerged trees and brush. I need to get some decent electronics now so i can find them a little easier! Thanks for the input!

Crankbaits dont need to be run on bottom to catch fish.  I fish a lot of silty vegetated lakes and one of my top producers is a shallow running crank that I smack into laydowns or buzz over tops of grass and outside lily pad edges.

In addition to the replies above, you can use a lipless crank in a lake like that with good results. Rat L Trap makes a floating model as well.

Of course you can.

you can  i would look for transition points from soft to hard bottom or use a lipless but i would also suggest a bladed jig it can be fished around grass it's fairly weedless, most of the lakes i fish are similar and from what i've found they prefer to feed higher in the water column not so much in the silt and dead leaves on the bottom.

All the time, especially over grass

No, they look and act too much like crawdads, the #1 enemy of bass.

 

It can be difficult in some places  . I fish a silted in bay off the Mississippi river that is difficult to crank . I like to use  a shallow diving  Bagley Balsa lure there . 

My buddy uses a BPS crappie sized bubble gum crank over grass in a shallow lake. He'll just reel it down a few cranks and stop it and let it float up a bit. He has caught a few big gals on this method. I would think a smaller crank with less of an aggressive bill might work well. Like maybe the Bomber A.

 

5 hours ago, the reel ess said:

My buddy uses a BPS crappie sized bubble gum crank over grass in a shallow lake. He'll just reel it down a few cranks and stop it and let it float up a bit. He has caught a few big gals on this method. I would think a smaller crank with less of an aggressive bill might work well. Like maybe the Bomber A.

 

You nailed it. I caught my PB doing exactly what you described with a Mann's Baby One- Minus in a fire crystashad