Does anyone fish crankbaits from the bank and not lose alot?

Square bill almost never. Lipless sometimes. From thank I usually throw a lipless 1/4 ounce lose less.  

I throw square bills a lot. And I throw them up against cover making them crack up. I have lost quite a few this year. But it has paid off with several large catches. You can't catch anything if you don't try to fish them. The old saying fits " You can't hit the ball if you never swing the bat" .

I'll fish crankbaits from the bank, but I don't throw my good ones anywhere near vegetation.  I still might lose a couple on rocks and timber, but it's really the weeds, especially reeds and water willows, that will eat them.  

 

I tend to find a lot of old crankbaits and throw cheap hooks on them and fish them from the bank where I think I might lose them.  Also, Ozark Trail crankbaits are good for this.    

 

And then sometimes I'll throw shallow diving cranks or lipless cranks and just speed them in so the don't get down deep enough to get hung up.  I really like the BPS The Egg for this, which is kind of a wakebait type of thing.  Also, floating jerkbaits can work.  

 

It kind of depends on what your dealing with.  But it can usually be done, so long as you plan ahead.  I tend to use them more in the winter months where there's less vegetation and the plants that are there are dead or dormant and more likely to either let me rip free of them, or rip them up and drag them back in with my bait.  In the middle of summer, I mostly switch to Texas rigged worms, jigs, and topwaters.  

I throw Mann's Baby 1 Minus from the bank. I very rarely lose one.

 

Dave

Yes, but I invested in a telescopic lure retriever that extends 18'.  I also use a plug knocker that I have tethered with twine.  I still buy cranks in multiples of 3 for some reason.

I only fish them from the bank along riprap. They deflect off of the rocks well, and more importantly, get bit the heck out of there too. Other than that I only use them from a kayak where I can retrieve em if they snag

If I'm pond hopping,  it might depend on which pond I go to.  For the most part, I use shallow running cranks and BFS lures.

 

If I want to hit the deepest parts in the middle,  I will bomb cast a medium divning bait and let it rise to the surface half through the retrieve.  I then make sure it doesn't dive by reeling it in slowly.  This usually keeps me from losing baits.

Thanks for all the information 

On 1/24/2024 at 3:39 PM, KP Duty said:

Yes, but I invested in a telescopic lure retriever that extends 18'.  I also use a plug knocker that I have tethered with twine.  I still buy cranks in multiples of 3 for some reason.

 

This is the best answer to losing less crankbaits from the bank.

 

Allen

I fish a lipless a lot from the bank through wood and rocks and grass in little to no water and rarely lose them.  I simply cut the hook off the front that hangs down and hooks everything but fish and I have a lot of success catching fish and not snagging.

I love throwing crank baits in the spring in the retention ponds I fish. I stop once the weeds get to be too much but like @Bankc I use a lot of Ozark Trail cranks so if I lose them it doesn’t hurt as much 😉

SBs will grind and bounce trough cover you wouldnt expect them to be able to get through...within reason.  Getting a crank that doesnt dive too deep is key though.

It really depends where I'm fishing and how many rocks, logs and other things to snag there are really. Square bills generally do pretty good, I probably break more bills on rocks than I lose. Lipless cranks are a little harder to get through rocks and wood though.

 

 

I'll fish them sometimes depending on the cover that is out in front of me.  Most of the time I will start with some type of bottom contact bait to get an idea of what is out there under the surface of the water.

Bill Dance recently put out a video on fishing cranks through cover by replacing the treble hooks with in-line circle hooks.  I've seen single hooks on a crank, but never circle hooks.   

 

 

He talks about the hook substitution starting at 8:12.