Shallow Water Crankbaits

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by BigBass Dez on February 4, 2011 at 10:37am

Good talking to ya yesterday PJ , hope the advise will be helpful for ya bro !!

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on February 4, 2011 at 11:53am

Thanks Dez I'd like to talk more about this later on when I start putting cranks to work.

BigBass Dez said:

Good talking to ya yesterday PJ , hope the advise will be helpful for ya bro !!

Permalink Reply by Ryan Lamb on February 7, 2011 at 10:00pm

Craig and Tim,

Thanks for the novels as a reply. Read through, make sense and thanks for the pointers.

I have thrown cranks in there w/ both square bills and longer round-ish bills.

Both seem to get hung up, I guess I was just wondering if anyone knew why I lost more when I had a fish (If it even makes a difference), but I hang up ALOT more after fighting a fish, the retrieve I have lost a few but most cranks I lose are when I am fighting a fish then, shakes it out onto a snag or gets caught up on something in the whole scramble of things

 

 

But thanks again for the info & pointers!

 

Heres something else to keep the thread going...

 

Are there times, stretches or shore, structure, and/or situations that in under 8ft in stained or murky water throwing a crank will out perform a spinnerbait or other way around?

 

reason I ask is I always hear about spinnerbaits at Silver

Craig Taylor said:

You can take this from a tournament guy that has fished Silver Lake regularly seance I was 2 1/2 years old. Given the fact that Silver is only like 8 feet at the most (give or take 2'), mostly made up of red shore brush, pads and only a few areas of laydowns, the majority of that info is good for general use, but not specifically for shallow cranks on Silver like you mentioned.

 

 I feel that the first 2 weeks of April is a good time of year to start having confidence in throwing cranks on Silver Lake. Not trying to say they can't be caught on cranks earlier then that, it's just the number of bites with cranks is not there for me in March. I pretty much toss the same few cranks from spring through fall... it is the time of year that really dictates what location I toss them though. That is WAY more important on a lake like Silver then exactly what I toss. Time of day comes next and to be honest with you 90% of the time I only use cranks early morning and evening times.

 

With Silver having so much brush and lilly pads on top of some big bass you half to do anything you can to have everything on your side when fighing a bass with cranks. Couple things to make sure of are strong hooks, replace original split rings with SPRO split rings and use heaver line then usuial (it's a shallow lake so no worries about line diameter effecting depth) These things are important not only for exicution, but also for efficantness by being able to rip through pads and other junk you get stuck in and continue fishing with the same cast. (Whats the best way to trigger a LM reaction strike with a crankbait?...bounce it off or rip it through somthing)

 

To me, crankbaits are not the best way to fish for the big pigs that Silver Lake kicks out every year. Its the "match the hatch" effect at it's best. The big bass in Silver are eating all the Bull-frogs as the main forage probably followed by crappie. But crainkbaits ara a great way to get the numbers on silver. Here are the crankbaits and colors that work best for me. Like I said earlyer, I only toss a handfull of cranks at Silver.

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bandit_Crankbaits/descpage-BCB.html 

Size 100 only

Pearl Chart Back

Brown Craw, orange belly (matches baby grass carp in Silver) I use the Footloose also in this Brown Craw color, don't remember ware I got it though (Best color for me on Silver BTW)

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bomber_Model_2A_Crankbaits/descpage-...

Fire Crawdad and fire tiger

 

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Cotton_Cordell_Super_Spot/descpage-C...

I use a red color that is disscontinued I think. Royal Red is as close is it gets with Cotton Cordell.

 

*Notice they are all small cranks, in brighter colors*

 

Spring Time ~  Regions like "the grave yard" and the mouths of little inlets from the main lake are great places to start. From that point, look for the greenest pads and the redest bushes. This area has a lot more rocks too.  Bandits and Bombers get the call in these cases

 

Summer Time ~ I spend a lot of time in the middle and edges of the big pad fields off shore looking for casting lanes in the pads when crankbaiting. If wind is blowing into a pad field, that is when I spend more time on the edge of the lilly pad field off shore. If it is sunny and calmer, i'll work one of the billed cranks with a little more finess and stop&go style. If overcast with a little chop, thats when i'll toss the Super Spot (rat L trap) in the pad lanes. Summer time is a great time to take advantage of the canals too.

 

Fall time ~ This is the time of year I do more crankbaiting on Silver (main lake only) then anyother time of year and it is usuially done with a Super Spot. My reason is because the fish are most active, gorging on food, it can handle big fish and I can cover a ton of water with it. The Timber Pt. region is a great place to just fan cast around, then you can work and pick apart the pillings that are scattered through out that region of Silver. 

 

Hope this helps, and by no means are these the only way to crankbait Silver Lake. Oh and the docks around the island are good all times of year and pounded every day. Thats why I didn't mention that area

Ryan Lamb said:

I know I sound like an idiot, but I guess asking questions is good!

 

Ill use Silver Lake Cowlitz Co. for an example...

How would you guys fish cranks there?

 

This whole tech. of throwing shallow cranks is somewhat new to me, I've thrown enough, hooked enough, but landing a fish is hard for me and so is fishing them at Silver in general.

 

I have thrown shallow divers 6ft & under there and always snag, I have had a few decent fish I believe on but I always lose them on something... (Fighting a fish then instantly goes heavy but its just snagged)

 

Are there certain cranks that deflect better off of all sorts of structure in general? Am I going wrong w/ certain hooks?

 

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