Got a crankbait question for smallies out of creeks and rivers. 

Understanding there are a variety of crankbaits out there, I'm just curious if any of you out there have any special "tips" on how you fish the crank in creeks and rivers for smallies, and large mouth.  How do YOU go about presenting your lure on the cast, location, and retrieve.  Up stream?  Down stream?  Many colors available, but what is your general rule in colors with clear and not-clear water?  Fat wabble?  Skinny wabble?  Fat body?  Skinny body?  I'm talking generalizations here.  What would be your "GO TO" lure for dark or clear waters, deep or shallow etc...any comments are already appreciated.  Thanks.

Always bring the lure downstream, over or near

structure. The two I recommend are the Bandit

200 and Wiggle Wart.

http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_31580_100005001_100000000_100005000_100-5-1

http://www.stormlures.com/products/luresdetail.cfm?modelName=wiggle_wart&freshorsalt=Fresh&type=hard_lures

Thanks-I've noticed that fishing up stream seemed to produce better but I just didn't know.  Most of my fishing has been down stream and even though I do pretty good I think I'm gonna have to tweek my approach and make an effort to fish up stream and learn the nuances of it.  Have any idea why up stream seems to get a reaction better outta the fish?  It seems like the lure would be in the zone of the fish up or down stream the same amount of time.  Does the coming at them style from upstream make them aggressive? 

Predators (smallmouth) generally face upstream

waiting on baitfish to come to them.

8-)

I have had success fishing up and down stream. I totally agree with RW about fish facing up stream but I feel like there are times when bringing the bait upstream keeps it in the strike zone longer.

My best baits have been the Bandit 200 and a Rapala DT 6.

If you are talking knee deep wade fishing creeks then I would look at the Ultralight Pradco stuff (Rebels and Bombers)  The 200 Bandits will stay on the bottom a little too much.  Bandit makes an UL size but I have never seen one.  My favorite UL crank for creeks is a Rebel Tenny Wee Craw.  Generally do better quartering a cast too.  Casting into current allows the current to push the bait.  You may never get some cranks wobbling in certain flows.  The flow and the bouancy of the bait will keep you reeling with no dive time. Fishing down stream in a shallow setting around rock can be very effective.  You can "hot shot" a crank into the fish. Drop it back behind a rock and hang on.   

Ern, sound advice again, easy to see what your describing.  What your saying makes sense and I appreciate it.  I am fishing generally shallower water, small creeks alot, and I found the same problem with the faster water "pushing" the bait and the bait not getting down.  Makes more sense to quarter or work down now.  Thanks for the info---Fish on, John.

I rarely fish cranks straight downstream for some of the reasons already described. Across or quartering makes it much easier to get the bait down. I focus a lot on seams and eddylines.

For larger bank eddies, one of my favorite tactics is to cast perpendicular across the eddy line, far enough into the eddy that the crank gets down, crank it out to the eddy line then let it sweep downstream right along the line.

For midstream eddy lines, I will quarter a cast into the main current, then bring the crank across the line and into the eddy. Try hitting the eddy line both high and low. Often the big ones will hang at the bottom of the eddy.

Last, but certainly not least, don't overlook the eddy in FRONT of big rocks: that's often where the big ones hang out.