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| Lure Presentation I....How to use Slammer Cranks
The lure presentation series of presentations and characteristics of a certain lure.
by Jason Smith
MuskieFIRST Managing Editor
Lure Presentation I...How to use Slammer Cranks
This is a set by step series that I am putting together on many types of baits. There are so many ways to use certain lures that most people don’t know about. The lure presentation series is a breakdown of the presentations and characteristics of a certain lure.
5” Slammer A crank bait 5” long and ¾” wide used mostly in shallow water 5’ and less. Has a slow rise and good side to side flash when twitched. Being 1” shorter then his bigger cousin, this bait has a slower rise.
6”Slammer A crank bait 6” long and 1” wide used in very shallow water 3’ and less. Has more rise and great side-to-side flash, excellent for twitching through new spring weed growth.
7”Slammer A crank bait 7” long and 1-1/2” wide with a deeper and longer cut lip for twitching 6’ down. Often used on deeper weed lines and timber. A good summertime and fall profile on most lakes, can be trolled and as well as twitched.
8”Slammer A crank bait 8” long and 2” wide, the longer bait has great side-to-side flash when twitched, but you can also propwash troll it. The large profile is great for deep twitching over schools of ciscoes.
10”Slammer A crank bait 10” long and 2-1/2” wide, trolls very good in the propwash and long lining. Used a lot to twitch shallow cover on Canadian lakes where a large profile is the key.
5” Slammer Deep Diver A deep running crank bait (specs the same as above, but round) used to troll on high-pressured lakes. Trolls 15’ deep with a good wide wobble. Can also be twitched in weed beds for amazing results. Can be trolled at 5mph.
6” Slammer Deep Diver A deep running crank bait (specs the same as above, but round) used to troll deep breaks 15’ deep, great for cranking and deep twitching weedlines. Can be trolled at 5mph. Great bait for fishing suspendos on northern Wisconsin lakes.
7” Slammer Deep Diver A deep running crank bait (specs the same as above, but round) used for a larger profile, larger vibration situation. Trolls 18’ feet deep and casts 10’ deep, very buoyant and great for deep twitching timber or deep milfoil.
10” Slammer Deep Diver A deep running crank bait (specs the same as above, but round) Has both a deep and shallow setting for either propwash trolling or deep trolling down to 25’. Very good side-to-side action and will troll at speeds over 7mph.
PROPWASH TROLLING
What I mean by propwash trolling is having the lure with in 15’ of the boat while trolling. Often used over shallow cover 10’or less and at higher speeds to find aggressive fish. When I set up a propwash trolling pattern say in 7’ of water over a large weed bed or reef I run two rods. One rod will have a 7” Slammer deep diver and it will be about 3’ from the rod tip, he other rod will have an 8” Slammer 10’ back in the prop wash. Trolling at 3 or 4mph with both baits covering a different section of the propwash gives you versatility and allows you to cover water faster. Prop wash trolling is best down with your rod holders at a 45 degree angle and point down towards the back of the boats, stuffing your rod tips in the water.
TWITCHING
What I mean by twitching is allowing the bait to stop and pause while retrieving, and consistently tapping the slack line to give the lure a side-to-side action as you retrieve it. To do this you have to get a rhythm going to allow the bait to stop, good side-to-side and shoot forward again as you bring the bait in. Counting 1,2,3 then pause helps and can get you in the right rhythm. One cold front conditions you might even want to slow it down even more. I often twitch, count to three or four and twitch again, making the bait a very easy slow moving prey for the muskie to eat. My best twitching baits are 5”, 6” and 7” Slammers. With those baits I can cover structure from 1’ in depth to 10’.
DEEP TROLLING
What I mean by deep trolling is trolling 10’ or deeper and often 15’ to 20’ deep. My typical trolling run using Slammers is four lures, 1 down rigger, one flat line and two planner boards. One the down rigger I put a 7” Slammer deep diver about 12’ from the down rigger ball, and run the ball say 10ft down when in 20’ of water, this keeps the bait in the zone when I troll up and down a deep break line and allow gives the bait a faster action when you swing in and out. I will always put a flat line out, most often with an odd color to see if something changes from my normal patterns. A great bait to do this with is a 6” Slammer deep diver and running that 60 to 80’ feet back say in 20’ of water. On the two-planner board lines I will run one crank 15’ behind the planner board and one 70’ back. This way I am covering two different zones and on my high-pressured water I use 5” Slammers to do this. The shallow setting of the one-planner board picks up those muskies suspended 10’ down over 30’ of water, many of which are good fish. On big cisco or white fish based lakes trolling 10” Slammer deep divers in the mix can be a great way to get those big slobs.
CRANKING
Cranking 6 and 7” Slammers is one of my fundamental patterns in early to late fall. This is done by simply casting the crank bait out and allowing it to bump cover as you retrieve it. When you hit cover such as milfoil or wood, just stop and give the bait a second or two to float backwards out of the cover, and then continue the retrieve. I point the rod tip at a 45 degree angle to the water and when my line is directly at the same angle, I lift my rod allowing the deep crank bait to come up below and in front of me before I bring it into a figure eight. This is most often the area where I get hit.
SHALLOW TWITCHING
When twitching in 2’ of water or less the trick is let the 5 or 6” Slammer rise and touch the surface after every twitch. I have caught many muskies doing this up tight in very shallow water in the early spring. Muskies will most often then not eat the bait when it touches the surface.
SUSPENDO TWITCHING
Casting cranks over deep water as become a big thing on northern Wisconsin waters because of the law preventing trolling. The trick is to find large schools of baitfish in deep water and using the wind drift over casting cranks. One method of cranking 7” Slammers down 10’ and then twitching them to the boat has been a very good pattern.
IN CONCLUSION
Slammer cranks as well as many other crank baits on the market are very versatile and allow you to cover many zones with the same lure, put one deep diving crank bait this summer and see what different things you can do with it. You will be surprised at the versatility!
Jason Smith
Managing Editor
MuskieFIRST.com
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| Great article! As I have mostly used plstics and jigs in the past, it can be very confusing switching over to cranks,etc. With all the different types,models and configurations it sometimes gets to be overwhelming. I plan to compile a notebook for my tackle box. Thanks Jason. Keep 'em coming.I would like to see input from others on their techniques for the same baits[;)] |
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| Jason,
Good job. Great explanantions on everything. Keep the information coming.
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| Great descriptions, makes me want to get them all to be sure I'm ready for any situation. (8" slammer paragraph has "but can you can" in it.)
A chart would be cool, showing casting depth and trolling depth, twitching yes/no, for each type of crank. The chart could be copied out of the article, laminated and taped to the inside lid of a tackle box. Or, maybe put the chart on the back of each package.
Anyway, great data and fishing tips. |
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| Thanks Ranger...I cant believe I missed that.[:bigsmile:] |
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| Ranger I am working on a chart for bill. Will try to make it with at least 2 or 3 line sizes. I was thinking of TUFF LINE 50lbs,POWER PRO 80lbs and maybe a mono 17lbs. This should cover most people. The problem is gamefishing is not open on pewaukee and dont think pulling baits without hooks will be as accurate as I would like. Hang in there its in the making,will have it all done sometime in may. |
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| Hey Jason!
Good information, as I am a new Slammer Junkie!!
Let's continue the series with a piece on Undertakers. I will contribute, and you can wrap it up with input from Brian. Think that will work?[8)] |
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| jason, great idea and some pretty good writing! Only one thing I don't understand: how can you speed-troll with the rodtip plunged in the water? Can you still feel strikes?
also: where can we get the 5" deep divers? I managed to get a 6" one from Jomusky (thanks again!) and it's great. So a 5" one would be cool for trolling and twitching over deep water for pike
one tip, and this is something I have been thinking about myself (maybe we can work on this together in the future?): it would be a good idea to ask everybody who is interested to do the same for their favourite bait. Be it a jerkbait, crankbait, shad, plastic bait or creatures, spoons, ... I'm busy doing the same thing just for jerkbaits because many anglers that are new to this type of bait here in Belgium and Holland don't know what to expect when they buy one of these baits. Action, sizes, depthrange, retrieve styles + different response from baits, ... Seeing as I have tried many baits so far, I have a good idea but not the inside knowledge most of you guys have. Therefore I wanted to suggest this to you. What do you think? |
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| Oh yes, you can feel the strikes!
Stuffing the rod tips in the water, keeps weeds off the line and keeps the bait down in the prop wash.
Email Bill Schwartz from Slammer and he might be able to sell you some of those custom 5" deep divers. |
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| Jason,
Very good,great descriptions,makes me want buy them all. Bill needs to make some more 10" Slammer Deep Divers soon,season is getting near and most here want one or two at least.
Capt. Larry |
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MuskieFIRST will be covering:
Bucher tackle, Maina tackle, Land O Lakes tackle, Suick, Musky Buster, and many more!!
This series is meant to assist anglers with presentations using the popular, and not so popular baits on the market today. MuskieFIRST will cover a wide cross section of muskie baits onsite covering most of the builders out there.
Lure Presentation II is coming..[;)] [:bigsmile:] [:)] [:)] |
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| Jason;
Thanks for the Slammer series. Now I know how to use these baits for what they were intended for. Looking forward to additional series hopefully before opening day!. Can you teach me how to use the other 70 baits that hang in my Plano by then?!
BigO
daveolson
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| I think it's great stuff. I remember that I had NO idea what to do with a Suick until I had a guide show me. So I think that stuff has great value. I'll admit that I'm not familiar with Slammer baits specifically (don't own any, but with this hobby, I could probably add an honest 'yet') I wouldn't sweat the brand-specific stuff, otherwise it could get pretty ridiculous in a hurry. "This one crankbait, that kinda looks like um, well, I can't say that company either, um, well it wiggles, and um..." I mean a Slammer is a Slammer, a Rap is a Rap, and a Reef Hawg is a Reef Hawg. No two ways around it.
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| jason, I emailed him. Thanks! |
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