I fished late last year with a good bud of mine,he told me all year to fish a small crankbait on a C-rig. I thought he was ready for the fish farm :'(. So he did get me to use it on our last two trips from last year. And let me tell you it did work. He uses a small crank,like a Bomber and fish it like a jerk bait.He told me that in summer he uses a bigger crank.

Now have any of you tryed this? He did get me to trust in it. We did fish it on points with rock,weed lines,ect. :

For me it's a reliable cold weather technique. (or on occasion in dog days of summer)  I prefer the baby 1- or floating rapala minnow or shad raps.  (the trick is to use something with really bouyant)

Can be a great cold water technique.

Dont know how this applies maybe it does. Read a article in Bassmaster Magazine a while back dont know what issue but a guy was talking about using a 6oz I belive pyramide sinker with the line threaded through the eye and tied to a crank bait like a slip sinker set up. He would cast the setup onto the edge of spawning beds let the sinker settle and let the crank float up and then he would pull it back down simulating the fish feeding on eggs. The crank he was using was a bluegill imitaiton I belive.

Truly a great way to use the crankbait, most just get into " chuck and wind" when there are so many ways that a crankbait can be used.

I have been using it for a good while. I also use it mostly when the water temp. is lower(fall & winter). I am sure it would work anytime you fish a c-rig though.

I used to do that a lot, and haven't for several years. Thanks for the reminder.

Cheers,

GK

Try using a Lc pointer. It works great too

Do you guys fish these in the same areas where you would use a regular C-rig set up?

The Walleye guys around here have been doing this for years, they call it the Dubuque rig.  No personal experience to share though.

I would like to throw a little twist in on this topic.When you fish this rig or a regular c-rig ,instead of using your reg c-rig weight use a pig & jig or chunk.Use the same weight of jig as the size of the weight you would use.It works gives the fish a couple of targets.I was at a BPS big spring sale a few years back and was talking to Peter T and he told me to try this.Oh yeah make sure you still use your bead in front of your knot.It dosent matter which way the eye on the jig is turned.I kinda like the eye to be straight  or inline because the jig will kinda pull sideways for more eratic action.

A little off topic but Im also hearing of guys CRigging small spinner baits, sounds weird to me. It seems like the bait would just fall on its side and sink.  Ever heard of this?

Danny

The blades on the spinnerbait keeps the bait running upright. As long as you keep the bait moving it isn't going to fall over. A lot of guys including me just put a bullet weight on the line before I tie the spinnerbait. The weight has two functions one to add weight and two to keep scum off the knot. On spinnerbaits that have a long shank hook you can just add weight to the hook and the bait will still run right and you can run the bait faster without it falling over. Most of the time I use a rubber core clam shell weight. Just take out the rubber center and slide the hook in and clamp it. With a crankbait I use a Carolina rig if I want to add depth to a crankbait. You can drag it like a regular Carolina rig but I don't use it that way often unless the water is cold. Most of the time I am using it to gain depth to hit a target depth. If you tinker with the amount of weight that you add you can get the bait to reach suspending fish with some accuracy. That other technique that was mentioned with the heavy weight sitting in a spawning bed and the lure being let to float off of it can work real well. When you bring the line tight the lure looks like it is feeding on the eggs and it can drive the bass into hitting the lure. I have seen some guys that take a minnow rapala and take off the center hook or the front hook and tie to it and fish it on a C-rig. It gives it a different action. Some guys tie to the center of the rapala when fishing schoolers to make the lure look injured. It is kinda like wacky rigging it with the weight up the line for depth. C-rigging a crankbait also works great when you need to follow tight to the contour of the bottom like on points or tapering drops. You can also get more mileage on some of your lures without the need to buy a ton of different crankbaits to reach several different depths. The very first tournament I ever fished back when I was 15 was won on a C-rig crankbait by yours truely. My fishing partner thought I was nuts too.   We where fishing a deep patch of grass and I didn't have a crankbait that could reach it. My partner was fishing a worm and caught a few so I rigged up my C-rigged crankbait with many strange looks and fired it off. We where fishing in mid summer and it was just the ticket.

thanks chris  ;D