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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | Okay boys, so let's have some fruitful discussion this winter. As I was tending to the mess in manland yesterday, I noticed that I have 3 baits I would say are my mainstay.
1. Bucktails (for obvious reasons)
2. Rubber, rubber, and more rubber
3. Cranks (minnow baits and true deep diving cranks)
This past year, I put close to 75% of my fish in the net using either cranks, or rubber. In July and August, as well as October, the majority of my fish came on these baits. However, whenever reading posts or articles, you rarely hear about people fishing cranks. Are that many people not using them, or do we just not hear about fish caught on these things as blades tend to get the spotlight.
Admittedly, night was the best for using cranks for me this year, and one trip to northern Wisco resulted in a 4 days fishing only 3-4 hours a night and putting 12 fish in the net, averaging 3 fish a night. While we didn't land any giants that week, we had a healthy average of 41.5"s, all on straight bodied cranks.
When do you boys break out the cranks? Could they be better utilized in some conditions verses others? Almost all of the big fish that have come into my boat over the past 5 years have come on rubber or cranks (more so than blades). What are you guys seeing? What's working, when, and how? |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Cranks suck...I hate using them!   |
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Posts: 20231
Location: oswego, il | I twitch crankbaits alot. I love using them around cover. The more erratic the better, the more wobble the better. I also throw jerkbbaits and gliders and rubber over deep water. I do not throw topwaters too much and rarely throw bucktails. |
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Posts: 175
Location: Tonka, MN | Cranks for me usually come in to play in the fall. I use them in the summer very minimally since they dont seem to produce for me. I guess I am stuck in a rut since I dont get any fish in the net with them. Like I said, I use them but not as much as I should be. The majority of the people I fish with have little faith in them for some reason. We try to bounce ideas off of each other and when that comes out of my mouth its a straight no. |
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| for me cranks perform better when they are trolled,i tend to prefer the jointed one for the summer and the straight one for cold front or late fall
when the fish is near the weed and shallow i prefer to cast some plastic or blades |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | I guess I should add, I do catch them trolling in spring summer and fall, but I guess casting seems to be underutilized. I know I tend to fish a lot of deeper water verses just pounding weeds which may be one reason, could the strain of fish matter too? Seems from what I've read and experienced (from a Wisconsin standpoint) that our fish tend to hold in deeper water, and deeper in the water column more so than our MN counterparts. With that said, I've never fished MN, so that's just a claim that could or could not be right, so take it for what it's worth.
I love picking apart weedlines, timber, and breaklines with cranks, fishing them nice and easy, and picking apart anything they run into down there. Basically like fishing a jig or worm through the weeds for bass or walleye, outside of the fact that the cranks usually float up out of the stuff on the pause verses burrying down in the cover. Suspendos love them as well, but I've had very good success (as well as others such as Travis) working deeper cover and suspendos, as well as shallower weedlines and rocks. |
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Posts: 35
| Great topic Joel. I don't have much confidence in cranks until fall, but like most I don't troll them till later in the year either. I started mixing in twitched 10" jakes which has gotten follows, short strikes, but no fish in the net. Other times we've raised fish is when they aren't going on blades or rubber so a deep crank will raise them but nothing enticing enough as they don't engage. The one thing you mention is using them at night which I've tried minimally so that's a good tip. Do many of you cast down along the break vs up on the break? |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | I will just get you warmed up with this.
Read the link on a post from the past. This will get you warmed up to my thoughts on cranks. When I get time I will add more...maybe.
http://muskie.outdoorsfirst.com/board/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=55...
I think cranks are overrated, and no one should use them!
Edited by CiscoKid 1/27/2011 11:03 AM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Also for those that may be able to get their hands on a copy. Esox Angler had a great two part article on crankbaiting from Paul Klein several years ago. Read it if you can find it. Another good start.
Here is another from Howie Meyer:
http://www.fishinfo.com/fishing-articles/article_333.shtml
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | I think that's where some are thrown off of cranks, thinking you can only troll them. I used to troll much more than I do now, but in the past, trolling in the spring and summer accounted for a lot of fish on cranks. Now I tend to change it up and use rubber or casting cranks when there's a lot of trolling pressure.
As for casting them on structure, I tend to cast parallel to quartering the structure, trying to get it as close to the cover as possible, and for as long as possible during the cast. You'll learn spots by the feel of the crank, and will understand the deeper edges much better using cranks this way. Another interesting thing at night is one Depth Raider in particular that gets chomped at night on quite a few different lakes is a straight DR in a white color. So don't think you can only throw jointed baits at night. Also, those fish that you're seeing during the day on cranks are the fish I target at night with them. We'll raise fish earlier in the evening on the same spots on other baits (including topwaters), then go back in the dark and those same fish are eating cranks for us.
One thing I've learned from Travis is that ripping hard on cranks can get their attention and get them to eat as well (during the day, as I don't tend to fish as erratic at night). This seems to call them in from a ways away. I'll defer that to Travis though, as I've learned alot about that approach from Travis.
nate_r21 - 1/27/2011 10:50 AM
Great topic Joel. I don't have much confidence in cranks until fall, but like most I don't troll them till later in the year either. I started mixing in twitched 10" jakes which has gotten follows, short strikes, but no fish in the net. Other times we've raised fish is when they aren't going on blades or rubber so a deep crank will raise them but nothing enticing enough as they don't engage. The one thing you mention is using them at night which I've tried minimally so that's a good tip. Do many of you cast down along the break vs up on the break? |
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Posts: 172
| I do use cranks maybe 40% of the time. Only success I had is at Wisconsin and one specific lake in minn. I should use cranks at night.
Joel do u use rattle or no rattle crank at night? U reel them in straight when a couple rip per cast? |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | I don't like rattles much at all in my cranks. I'm sure there are times and places for them, and I have seen some days where I need to have a rattle. With that being said, at night, I typically am throwing something with no rattles in it. Just using the vibration from the bait to make the "noise". I don't rip and twitch them at night much outside of popping it off of weeds and sometimes throwing way shallow and pounding the bottom. I usually try to contact the cover though at night when fishing structure which does put out some extra disturbance. |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Joel doesn't your white night bait have rattles?
I run my cranks with jerks night and day. Maybe a few less jerks at night sometimes, but usually every fish that eats a crank at night for me is after the jerk.
I run probably 50/50 with rattle cranks and non rattle cranks. If you don't like rattles you are missing out on some of the best cranks out there (Ernies, Jakes, DR's).
Hmmm, having troubles on where to start on this without writing a book.
Edited by CiscoKid 1/27/2011 12:37 PM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | #1 key to cranks is getting the crank to kick-out sideways. Joel mentioned the hard jerk. It isn't always hard. Each crank requires a different jerk. A jerk that just shoots the bait forward in a faster wiggle isn't as good as a jerk that makes the bait jump sideways, or up. It should be a quick, short jerk, or POP. Not a big sweeping type of jerk you would see from guys working dawgs like Lejewski (sp?).
Pop-pop. or pop-pop...pop! |
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Posts: 785
| I guess I'll chime in as the guy who never throws them. I use big minnow baits a lot but never the deep divers, own lots, just don't use them. Maybe a mistake in some situations but have been having pretty solid success with tails and rubber. I also fish a lot of coontail and junk weeds which bucktails and big spinnerbaits just work well in. I almost never throw gliders or topwater baits either. |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | CiscoKid - 1/27/2011 12:33 PM
Joel doesn't your white night bait have rattles?
IHmmm, having troubles on where to start on this without writing a book.
That particular one doesn't have rattles (I had to go check to make sure, and it doesn't). I do have the same one with rattles, and do catch fish on it as well, but this particular one seems to get bit more for me for some reason. |
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Posts: 3488
Location: Elk River, Minnesota | Hiya,
I actually favor the smaller cranks and minnow baits in spring. Give me a 6" grandma with heavier hooks on it, and I won't change baits all day. Twitch Twitch, pause.... the thing will just hang there... Couple more twitches, pause... All of this done with a flick of the wrist, not a pull. Gets a little tiring and I do have sore forearms after a day of doing this, but it is well worth it!!
I will throw deep diving cranks all year. I rip them a bit, but there is always a pause in there somewhere.
At night, I'll crank them straight and let them hit and bang vegetation, keeping the rod tip parallel to the water's surface and lower it when the bait is directly below me for a finishing figure 8. Hit a weed...pause..maybe twitch it, then slow crank...hit another weed...pause... Same routine. Deadly!!
Steve |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Windy days when fish don't want to come up and eat - these are my preferred weather instances when I'll break out a DDD or DepthRaider.
I don't necessarily relate seasons to crankbaits, as I saw someone mentioned Autumn as their preferred time to use them - I'd be interested in understand that, though. After fishing rubber for so long, I've personally been able to attack most of the depths I need to be consistently, so I suppose it's maybe a matter of preference if I decide to throw rubber or hard plastic to get down.
I've jumped around with the idea that the intense wobble of a rip retrieve with a crank may create more water displacement, or underwater wake then say, rubber. Rubber have wide and round heads that push water, sort of leaving an underwater "wake" in it's tracks, plus the erratic tail creates some turbulance, but maybe not as much as that wobble-wobble retrieve from a crank. Then you have the visual perspective to consider between rubber and cranks. In clearer water it may not matter, but maybe the flash of an orange bellied crank as it belly rolls and wobbles side to side could have more calling power than a blurry shade of yellow or green, what have you, gliding past. . . So I suppose I'm leaning towards darker water here.
Blades get all sorts of attention on the boards - their the most widely used.. probably because their easy and a staple. |
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Posts: 20231
Location: oswego, il | Travis is nailing it. I rip and twitch cranks. Make them go crazy. I cannot think of a place I regularly fish that I have not caught them on crankbaits. They are also not the same. Some work alot better than others. The more erratic the better unless the water is really cold. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | The erraticness is what I particularly love about the D's. At the end of a rip the tail tends to swing or glide out, kind of like a car turning 90 degrees during an abrupt stop. Now they don't swing one way or the other the same on every rip, and that's the best bit about them, their movement is unpredictable. DR's tend to have a tighter wobble and finish laterally on the rip. . Good point, Todd. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | CiscoKid - 1/27/2011 12:40 PM #1 key to cranks is getting the crank to kick-out sideways. Exactly |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Sam Ubl - 1/27/2011 2:12 PM
The erraticness is what I particularly love about the D's. At the end of a rip the tail tends to swing or glide out, kind of like a car turning 90 degrees during an abrupt stop. Now they don't swing one way or the other the same on every rip, and that's the best bit about them, their movement is unpredictable. DR's tend to have a tighter wobble and finish laterally on the rip. . Good point, Todd.
Most cranks will kick out like the DDD's! Some better than others. It's all in knowing what to do with the crank. Some cranks will have a much more serious kick out than the DDD!
The DDD just popularized the kickout as it is easy to do with it. |
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Posts: 2865
Location: Brookfield, WI | I believe some fishermen just have a better touch when it comes to working certain kinds of baits, and cranks fall into that category. Twitching, ripping, etc., some people are just flat out better at it, and those that aren't rarely have the patience or stamina to learn the techniques.
Being successful with crank and twitch baits is the equivalent of having a good short game in golf.
Kevin
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Location: SE Wisconsin | I'll say one thing about the DDD's that's maybe not as positive sounding as how I usually refer to them. I think they sink too slow and sometimes force you to make long sweeping rips just to get down to where you want to be, which might mean it's staying dry in instances where I'd prefer to pop-pop...pop with twiches - suppose that's where a sinking Ernie might come into play. |
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Location: SE Wisconsin | Kevin, I think you're right about that. Realistically, the majority of us face limited precious time on the water and that makes for a decision to be made between fishing with something you know how to use and have confidence in, even if conditions don't necessarily call for it, OR dedicating a trip or two towards using a lure that's been riding the pine for too long but must have been mfg'ed for a reason In my case, a few expensive H2O Hardheads have been dry for all too long so I asked for guidance (Travis) and plan to give that proven lure it's time to shine after spending a day learning how to get the basics down. . . I remember Travis, slow and straight retrieve with subtle pops on occasion...right?  |
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Posts: 35
| I'm more confident with the bigger cranks 10"+ since I've seen more fish on them so I keep throwing them. I got a couple DDD's, a little ernie, and a 6" slammer which are smaller in size, but just don't stay clipped on long and mostly after nothing else works.
That's true that its a more specialized technique then casting and retrieving a topwater, but I think most even occasional muskie guys would like a more well rounded game. Helps you get through those days of struggling on the water! |
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Location: Not far enough north! | This is an interesting topic from my perspective. Down here in IL I grew up fishing cranks; Jakes and depthraiders mainly until the addition of some of the newer ones. I do really like the DDDs with the neutral bouyancy you can get them down to depth and they stay there. Interesting note 10" jakes twitch easier than 8" but do not have near the swing... To this day I have never caught a fish on a bucktail in IL! had follows and fish in the boat on them but never on my rod. Spinner baits are a different story caught fish on them here. The exact is opposite in my canadian experiences (Summer only) have boated one fish on a jake and all the rest have been either on bucktails or spinners. It seems like up there when the fish are on they will eat a bucktail and that is easy... Raised plenty on cranks and rubber but went back and hair usually gets um at the right time.
One of my favorite presentations happens to be twitching a legend outcast. Magic for twitchin over weeds! If you can throw a bucktail over weeds bet your arse there is a crank that will fit the application too...
I wonder if it has something to do with the forage?
Rick
Edited by Farmer Rick 1/27/2011 3:59 PM
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Posts: 2361
| I think it has more to do with the depth. Cranks are situational, as are most baits. |
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Posts: 1530
| c ranks are underated but. Used as a tool are deadly. Afloating crank casted can be twitched and pulled where another bait will sink.. on the other end cranks that troll are deadly on suspended fish. learning where to run cranks in the water column will greatly increase catch rates.wooden cranks have more wander and walk that triggers fish.. if you ever pull planer boards you could only agree. cranks wwwalk and rock. |
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| I use three main lures from December through March. Here in the Southern resevoirs some of the best fishing of the year is the cold months. For me, a Gliders, Rubber and Cranks are the ticket. Ripping or twitching cranks have produced year after year. I like a 6-inch straight crank with a curly tail trailor. Like some of you said, the more eratic, the better. I don't put the cranks up in the spring or summer either.
Hickster |
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