If fishing open water, deep to be exact.      If you are fishing in open water say 30 feet deep, and you are running a crank bait down to say 15ft, heres my question.

Can you tell if a bass came from above the bait or below the bait by the way he hooks him self?

Graph shows fish at depths above and below at times.

Is there any way we can conclude which fish is striking?

Matt

Anyone notice that strikes that occur at the boat when you are just about to lift the crank out of the water and a bass attacks from below, it seems the back hook is the one to catch it.

Maybe its just coincedence lately on that observation.      

Please, when you are cranking in the future,  and have a bass that comes up to hit it, try to make mental note of which hook or hooks  the bass was caught on.

The reason I use that example is, its the only time I know for sure a bass came up to hit it other than top water.

Matt

Wow, what a question Matt! I deep crank alot and I guess I never have asked myself that question.....and I really wouldnt know unless I had underwater footage to back it. My guess would be that a fish hitting from below would zero in on the front, or more likely the middle of the bait, causing it to be hooked with the front treble. A trailing bass would seem more likely be hooked on the back treble. If its hooked with both, who really knows what happened.  :-?

Good question.

It would be hard to tell because it has been my experience that when fishing cranks or other baits with multiple trebles, the fish may start off being hooked in one part of the mouth but during the battle a hook may come out and rehook in another part of the mouth.  This seems to be true no mater how good the hooks are.

I was under the impression that suspended fish rarely go down to get a bait.  They nearly always feed up.  I have heard this countless times on TV fishing shows, for what it's worth.

On pages 192 and 193 in Knowing Bass by Dr. Jones, here is what he says:

"The strike zone is therefore heavily foward baised.  The bass is far more likely to strike prey lying directly ahead than to the side or behind.  The zone also has a positive vertical bias.  It reaches its maximum dimensions in the area immediately ahead of the bass and 20 to 40 degrees above its horizontal plane.

When attacking, bass commonly position themselves where they can strike upwards to come up from beneath the prey.  This gives the attacking bass the advantage of being obscured by the darker, underlying depths while its prey is beter contrasted aginst a brighter surface.

No attack direction is sacred; in practice, the bss will strike from below, above, behind or in front - in short, from any direction that promises success."

OK, with that said, who actually knows where the fish came from.  All that is important is that you get a good hookset and land the baby!

I use crankbaits a lot. When fish are suspending, I usually try to choose a crank that is the same depth or where the fish are suspending.

I have found that the way the fish is hooked doesn't have so much to do with the direction the fish struck the bait, but more so the aggression level in which the fish struck. Most of the time when the fish just aren't committing fully on attacking the bait, I get a lot of poorly hooked fish that are always hooked on the back treble either just barely in the lip or somewhere outside the mouth slightly, no mater what direction the fish struck from. I think this is caused by the fish half-heartedly "slapping" at the bait.

On the contrary, when a bass is fully committed to hittng that crank, they will almost inevitably get both trebles and have the bait physicaly in their mouth. when this is happening, I don't really pay attention to which direction they are striking from, but what speed, depth, and action causes that aggressive, committed strike.

Some great thought provoking replies.    Thanks

Matt

OK, with that said, who actually knows where the fish came from.  All that is important is that you get a good hookset and land the baby!

I agree, but I believe he is asking to try and figure out wether to fish crank that will run below the suspending fish or above them, to improve the odds of catching one or all of them.  Especially for tourny situations where the less casts it takes to get one the more you can go after.

OK, with that said, who actually knows where the fish came from. All that is important is that you get a good hookset and land the baby!

I agree, but I believe he is asking to try and figure out wether to fish crank that will run below the suspending fish or above them, to improve the odds of catching one or all of them. Especially for tourny situations where the less casts it takes to get one the more you can go after.

If that's the case, I would say use a bait that will crank a little above the suspended fish.

"IF" bass are primarily looking up, would you consider the most important color on the crank to be the belly?

Most belly colors are some shade of white.      Consider a top water.

Any thoughts?

Matt

Yes and no.   :  Crankbaits like the DT series are a narrow bait so I think the sides would be important as well.  Generally, while I don't see color as the most important thing on a bait, I still think a crankbait should mimic the hatch somewhat, and most bait fish have light colored bellies and get darker toward the back.

"IF" bass are primarily looking up, would you consider the most important color on the crank to be the belly?

Good question.

With deep-running lures, I prefer the darker color to be on the underside, and the lighter color to be on top (impossible to find).

Mother Nature uses counter-shading to "hide" her creatures from predators, so I'm looking to reverse the natural pattern

to produce more contrast and make the lure more visible to predators, whether they strike from above or below.

The first thing a sick minnow loses is its equillibrium. It appears that it's nature's way of increasing the exposure

of an unfit minnow & hastening its elimination (survival of the fittest). Reverse counter-shading makes my minnow look unfit (easy).

With topwaters though I do just the opposite. I feel that the surface commotion is the attention-getter,

and prefer colors that obscure the lure and make it difficult to a get a good look, for instance, translucent white.

Roger

"IF" bass are primarily looking up, would you consider the most important color on the crank to be the belly?

Good question.

With deep-running lures, I prefer the darker color to be on the underside, and the lighter color to be on top (impossible to find).

Mother Nature uses counter-shading to "hide" her creatures from predators, so I'm looking to reverse the natural pattern

to produce more contrast and make the lure more visible to predators, whether they strike from above or below.

The first thing a sick minnow loses is its equillibrium. It appears that it's nature's way of increasing the exposure

of an unfit minnow, and hastening its elimination (survival of the fittest).

With topwaters though I do just the opposite. I feel that the surface commotion is the attention-getter,

and choose colors that obscure the lure and make it difficult to a get a good look, for instance, transparent white.

Roger

Roger, that's an interesting idea regarding having a light colored back on a deep-diving crankbait, though most sick minnows that I see don't move like a crankbait.  Maybe a weighted or carolina rigged white fluke would mimic this action.

Roger, that's an interesting idea regarding having a light colored back on a deep-diving crankbait, though most sick minnows that I see don't move like a crankbait. Maybe a weighted or carolina rigged white fluke would mimic this action.

That's true of course, but I don't credit bass with the ability to reason.

I'm basing my color choice on contrast and visibility, because I believe that once the lure has been noticed,

color has already done its job, and plays no further role in triggering a strike.

Roger

I would always want the bait above suspended fish.

the side to side wobble gives of the color(hue) of the bait.matching the hatch is only one aspect of attracting bass to a bait and for me one of the least concerns.unless your fishing really clear water the bass hone in on sound vibrations mostly,the size and shape determine that w/ color being secondary.