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| Most people who know me tell me I'm a little weird when it comes to cranks. I almost never straight retrieve. I twitch my little jakes from the start of season(twitch my reef hawgs in almost the identical retrieve pattern), then its on to my trophy divers and big jakes, followed by even more violent twitching of my big jakes and grandmas to the point of my tennis elbow acting up as it is right now. Here lies the problem: I think i twitch too much at times. Example: My partners Greg Peterson, Don Kempen, and Chuck Schauer, all like to fish cranks as well. None of these guys twitch much if at all. There are definatley many times that I put more muskies in the boat than Greg or Don(I rarely outfish Chuck) with a twitched retreive, but sometimes it is the opposite. Greg has this straight model trophy diver in a custom color that he uses with me every time we hit a certain lake near Presque Isle WI. He cracks a nice musky almost every time we go there on that lure. Greg cranks that thing like you would not beleive, and does not twitch the thing but for maybe a pause on the upswing of the curve below the boat. Example 2: I've done more trolling this year, and my only 4-foot plus WI fish this year have come from trolling baits very quickly in a straight path with the rods in the holder going off more than the held rods.
I cannot get myself to just retreive a crankbait for more than a cast or two without starting into my usual 5 or 6 handle revolution-followed by a twitch- routine. The only time I really don't twitch as much is really late fall.
Do any of you guys have better luck with certain baits without twitching? Do you twitch jointed lures? Do you have much luck speed reeling cranks? How about in Canada, do you twitch less up there? Do fish respond better to a straight retrieve better up there?
I fish a dark flowage near my home, and I twitch alot there too, with some success(but most of my success is on big jakes).
Lets talk about the intricicies of twitching/nontwitching, and how and when you do either. |
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| I twitch and rip my crankbaits too. If i want to straight retrieve I stick on a bucktail. I guess there is something to be said about burning a crankbait though. I can troll so I do so alot. That takes care of that pattern for me.
Am am getting a liking for lipless or thin lipped cranks. You can really rip them and make them quite erratic. I seen a european lip mod for a depth raider I may try to re-find. Will tighten the wiggle and will lessen the fatigue factor greatly. I also have a bass pro slatwater big crank that has a highly modified lip, what great action and again, less effort to make it dance. |
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| Just some thougths on your question:
1: Ive noticed a straight retreive is better if your bottom bouncing across rocks ect.
2: noticed I get a lot of strikes on a straight retreive if im fishing last water and client has the fish follw his lure in.
3: Much more action on twitched and erractic action in clear water systems when using a high flash model crank.
4: easy or "slow" ripping works better than other retreives at night
5: the edge goes to straight retreves 5/1 on jointed cranks ( no pause ) but varied speeds during retreive- faste when then baitbis rising to boat.
6: definate edge to slow but vey erractic retrieves on cold font or other "tough " conditions. Hope this helps- just an opinion on something I like to keep track of.
P> S>. the shallower the bait is running the more twitched erractic retreives seem to be important |
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| I try to determine the muskies activity level by looking at the past few days with the present weather conditions. What has it been like and whats it doing today. Keeping an eye on any envoirmental factors. If I feel I need to trigger fish, I will twitch weed edges, bang/pause rock bottoms, contact weeds.
If I feel they are moving, I like a steady moderate retrieve over the weeds or ticking rock bottom.
If muskies are feeding you won't need to twitch. But since muskies seem to be inactive 90% of the time, you will problably be twitching 90% of the time. |
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| thanks for the replies guys. 7islands, very interesting observations. |
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