when fishing last summer about three times when using a crankbait i would try to go for a bomb of a cast and get a nasty birdsnest.  While picking out the birdsnest and the crankbait was just floating on the water a five pound smallie absolutely nailed it.  Has anyone else had this happen to them?

I've had that happen with soft plastics, never a crank though.

oh cool

It happened to me while helping my wife. I casted my Bomber Long A, and my wife said she had problem. Thinking ahead, I left my reel in free-spool. The muskie didn't hardly make a splash, and started swimming off with my bait. Needless to say, a 41" muskie on bass tackle was quite fun.

Falcon

wow when it happened to me i thought it was just a surface, but then it jumped again and i saw my crankbait in its mouth

I've had that happen with both largemouth and smallmouth. My response........switch to a topwater bait ;D

yeah thats what i did and didnt have any luck

I had that happen today with my new pointer. I had just cast it without adjusting the brakes and was picking out a backlash. Once I had finished picking it out I moved about an inch foreward and a bass came up and swallowed it.

I guess that he was just sitting there admiring the american shad paint job when dinner started to swim away. ;D

Many times. Nothing sucks more than to have a LM bass start swimming off with your bait and you can't reel because of a birds nest in your line .

Wow, never happened with a crankbait, but I remember once it happened with a 3" senko.  I was shorefishing for smallies with my UL trout rod and 4 lb test.  I got a huge tangle in the line, and a 1 to 1.5 lb smallie took off with the senko.  I had to hand-line him in, which was not easy with 4 lb test, but I did land him.  It was a riot  ;D

Of course, the dead sticking ocassionally twitching the crank is better done with a jerkbait, that 's exactly how I nailed my first 10 pounder.

This sort of thing has happened to me also.  I think the morel of the story is that we are usually too impatient and need to let our baits sit a bit longer and fish slower.

Deadsticking works (So i've heard).  Altough when I purposly try it, I haven't got bit, but when I accidently do it (picking out backlash) I get nailed.  HMMMMM.