Okay. Super newbie question, Please try no to laugh to hard. Been studying deep water fishing here. I found the fish with my 15 year old FF. they were in about 13 ' of water around eight feet down. Thought Id try a lipless crankbait. Fished the area out. I can only think my baits weren't getting down to them. the seemed to stay shallow no matter how slow I reeled them in, waited about ten seconds after they hit the water to start. Reeled as slow as I could and still keep the action on the lure.

Finally, the question....How do you keep the lures close to the depth you want? You may laugh now...... ;D

What Kind of line were you using and what pound test? Flouro sinks braid and mono are more boyuant.

You could also look into some crankbaits designed to dive to that depth.

fill your bath tub to about a foot of water have a stop watch and see how long it takes your bait to get to the bottom. Now you know how long it takes to fall a foot and use a count down method

Maybe they just did not want ur lipless crank bait. Try a crank bait that suspends. Maybe ur fishing too fast.

12 pound test.....I dont know what type. but I will try to figure out the rate of sink.  thanks for the imput.   

A traditional crankbait (with a bill) will control depth for you. Just pick one that will dive to the desired strike zone. Generally I have better luck with lipless cranks in 6 ft or less.

A traditional crankbait (with a bill) will control depth for you. Just pick one that will dive to the desired strike zone. Generally I have better luck with lipless cranks in 6 ft or less.

Man, thanks for saying that.......Maybe im not as stupid as I was beginning to believe      

A traditional crankbait (with a bill) will control depth for you. Just pick one that will dive to the desired strike zone. Generally I have better luck with lipless cranks in 6 ft or less.

Man, thanks for saying that.......Maybe im not as stupid as I was beginning to believe

You're being a bit hard on yourself. At least you are asking questions. That's the way you gather information to go along with time on the water.

Good luck,

Jack

Maybe so, But I'm definitely gonna have to increase the information coming in. Ive started reading the articles on here and am going to upgrade the electronics in 2 weeks ( my birthday is the 28th.) From what I'm reading so far I've got to be fishing too fast. And I need more dark colored lures. I may go to Herb Parsons This after noon and practice bouncing a jig off the bottom. But first, a trip to BPS....Mwa HA HA HA

Feel a case of G.A.S. (gear acquisition syndrome) coming on.

A GREAT question.

Depth control is absolutely critical; a basic "control" an angler needs to understand to even begin to effectively plumb the "unseen". You are very right to question whether your lure even got to those fish, but it goes well beyond those fish you saw suspended on your FF.

Keep this in mind: You're expectation should be that your lure finds the fish, not the other way around. Catching fish much of the time requires your lure reach a given "strike zone" -it may be the bottom, or any type of "edge"/"transition", and often at a particular speed and angle (path). In essence you are fishing to physical "strike zones" rather than "fish". Lures, out of the strike zone are of less interest to all but the most aggressive competitive of fish -the only ones that will "find your lure".

Basic depth control is achieved by:

Line diameter -thicker line pulls a lure back toward surface.

Lure sink rate -determined by weight, buoyancy (materials -balsa, plastic, metal, ...), and lure resistance in water (action, surface area/bulk)

One way to speed up the learning process is to go and observe this for yourself. Pitch the same lipless out close to the boat on 8lb, 12lb, and then 17lb lines and see what happens as you retrieve. You'll see that the thicker line will keep the lure up. You can do this with your single 12lb rig by just tying on (Surgeon's Knot) a length of line as a leader for test purposes. Doing this will get you understanding line effects on depth control quickly.

Top pro angler Kevin Vandam adjusts his lipless and crankbait depths by having several rods rigged with the same plug, just different line diameters. Of course he can afford to dedicate rods to this, but it is very illustrative.

I tend to use one line weight and adjust several ways:

-With a sinking lure I adjust weight and bulk. With a lipless crank, for example, and 12lb line I would fish (roughly) a 1/4oz under 4ft, a 1/2oz 4 to 8ft, and a 3/4oz for deeper than 8ft

-Speed, and retrieve type, affect depth too. Faster retrieves keep you shallower, more vertical or pauses will get you deeper.

-For lipped cranks (with "prescribed" diving depths) the actual depth varies depending on cast distance, and retrieve speed. With one "med runner" you can cover a 3 to 6ft range. To fish the shallow end of that range cast shorter and/or retrieve slower, often with pauses. To get max depth, cast further (to provide retrieve distance for gaining depth), and/or retrieve at a quicker pace. BTW: Most plugs have a certain speed they both dive, and wobble best at -know these for each lure. Some have a wider range than others. Get to know your individual lures. MUCH better to know a few lures well, than own a bunch you don't really understand.

Effective fishing is all about CONTROL -good for the Type A personality LOL. But first you have to understand what you need to control, and depth is fundamental.

I am relatively new to bass fishing (2 years) so this statement may be clarified by others to include niche situations - but as I understand, electronics help you find structure and cover primarily...also bait....but not so good for "finding fish" per se.....I think you are better off to search out structure and fish it at various depths and find the fish only by catching them.....But I am sure there are some exceptions  - of course I am fairly new so someone may need to correct me

Also, nothing wrong for us newB's not knowing - fact is I imagine many people who have fished their whole lives many times fail to ask questions or to further question conventions - never stop asking questions is my mentality - and question all assumptions - otherwise you may be stuck in the same old rut forever....at least that is my philosophy - no one on here will laught at you for sure!! 

"'Wisest is he who knows he does not know" - key element to the socratic method!!! You are already ahead of the curve - stay ahead of it!

To control the lure depth in a lipless crank you make use of:

1.- Sink rate: a lure like a 1/2 oz lipless crank sinks at a rate of ( give or take a couple of inches ) 1 ft per second, so if the fish were at 13 ft and you allowed it to sink for 10 "seconds" your bait was 3 ft too shallow. The most common mistake is to countdown with the mind instead of counting with a wrist watch, the margin of error is phenomenal.

2.- Weight of the lure vs speed retrieval: lures like lipless cranks lift when you reel them in, lighter lures will lift more than heavier lures when reeled in at the same speed; your lure begins to loose depth as it approaches you. So if you want to maintain a certain depth for the longest time and distance possible you have to play with heavier lures and slower speeds.

3.- Line diameter: heavier line also generates lift, the larger the diameter the more lure lift it creates; use lighter line.

Of course, like always, these are just recomendations however they are not instructions, you have to try until you find which works best for each lure.