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Deep Cranking Article

18K views 26 replies 15 participants last post by  creek chub 
#1 ·
Deep crankbait Fishing. The proper gear to use, variety of lures and structure pointers.

Over the past few years I have received nothing less than a dozen private messages regarding deep cranking. Instead of answering the same questions, over and over again, I was allowed to write this basic “guide” to how I go about using deep crankbaits. There is no right way to do it, or wrong way. Everyone has their own unique form of fishing. This is just how I go about it, and in hopes, it can help someone advance a new skill.
“Deep Cranking” is a term I often see used in a great range of depth. Some anglers think Deep Cranking is anything over 6’ of water, while others think its 18’ plus. In this discussion, let’s say “deep cranking” is anywhere in the 15 to 25’ range.
Deep cranking gear has really increased in the fishing industry within the last few years. Companies are making better cranking rods, lower ratio geared reels, and crankbaits that are surpassing the 20 foot range. It is pretty critical to have a proper deep cranking setup, if you are dedicated to it and want to take advantage of its rewards. Unlike the many other fishing techniques that require a hook set, you want the crankbait rod to set the hook for you. The normal reaction on a strike, is to set the hook. When your crankbait is 20’ deep, that feeling of a “strike” is delayed to your hands. This delay actually helps allow the hooks to be set where they are supposed to be. One reason many guys drop crankbait fish is due to the automatic hook set reaction, causing you to actually pull the crankbait forward and the hooks out from where they should be planted, giving the fish a opportunity all the way to the boat to head shake, dive and dart and jump to shake the hooks before you have a chance to grab him.
Lets talk about gear. If you are targeting the 15-25’ range, in most conditions you are going to want a lower ratio reel, such as a 4.8 to a 5.4 ratio. The lower ratio creates more “torque” and allows the crankbait bill to “bite” and “dive” to get down and stay in the “strike zone” longer. Not only is this one big benefit of a lower ratio gear, but arm fatigue is another big factory. Take a 6.8 ratio reel, and fish a Lucky craft d20 on it all day long, and be prepared to take Advil when you get home, if you didn’t already put down the rod halfway through the day. Lower ratio reels greatly reduce arm fatigue noticeably throughout the day. Many company’s make lower ratio reels in today market. However, 2 reels that are great for the price point are the lews BB1 (retail at $159 but can be found around the $120 range) and the Abu Garcia Winch (same price point as the lews BB1). Given under the $200 range, for a comfortable, great feeling, deep cranking reel, these are very hard to beat, and are very reliable.
Deep cranking rods. This is often a term that gets abused by many companies. Many companies take one of their graphite rods, and slap a “cranking” notation on it, when it is no different then the graphite “flipping rod” sitting next to it. Although you have a great amount of feeling with a graphite rod, this can actually hurt you given the depth we are targeting. Graphite rods usually come in a fast action, and when you feel a strike, at 18’ deep and your reaction is to set the hook, and the fish comes unbuttoned within 5 seconds after the hook set, that was likely due to the fast action, graphite rod pulling the hooks right out of the fish’s mouth before they could be planted in the proper location. Glass rods, are a little bulkier then graphite rods, but they have a smooth, slow action parabolic bend. This slow action taper, allows the fish to “suck” the crankbait in, before you feel it, to set the hook. Essentially, the glass rod will set the hook for you, and it allows the fish to get the crankbait in his mouth farther, with the less force from a stiffer rod holding it back. Powell makes glass cranking rods, W & M has glass rods as well (even though these are heavier and bulkier then most glass rods) and Halo has 4 different glass, cranking rods that are very light, at a price of $139.00. Duckett and Dobyn’s make graphite cranking rods that have nearly a glass rod parabolic bend that many guys are happy with. When we are targeting the 15-25’ range, you will want to use a 7’6” to 8’ rod. I favor 7’10” for a good overall depth coverage. Longer rods help with casting distance, which help the crankbait stay in the strike zone longer.
One thing that seem’s to be a “Love or Hate” relationship with crankbait fisherman are Line clips. Many anglers use them with great success, while others think poorly of them. There is nothing wrong with using a quality line clip. When it comes to deep cranking, and wide wobble crankbaits bouncing off structure, tieing your line directly to the snap ring on the crankbait can cause a pre mature break off due to pinching your line in ring opening. The only disadvantage to using a quality line clip is a little loss in feeling compared to being tied directly to the crankbait. The benefits of a line clip are also time saving and easier to switch crankbaits without having to cut and re-tie everytime you are trying to figure out a color.
Crankbait Colors- Its always easier to stick to the basic’s. Lure selection in most situations is not all that complicated, however with the amount of colors and designs on the market, it can be hard to decide which one is best for the conditions. On sunny days, stick to the darker colors. A black back, silver sided crankbait is usually a good “go-to” color combination which will work in sunny conditions, or cloudy conditions. Black, Silver, White, Dark blue, Dark green’s are pretty basic colors that can produce in any sunlight to make color decisions easier. These are a good color selection also on clear water conditions. In murky water conditions, it is believed that brighter colors have the benefit. After all the head scratching and deciding on what colors are best, the best thing we can do is be in the right place, at the right time. The majority of crankbait strikes are simply out of reaction. If a bass is hunkered down on the bottom, and a crankbait comes rolling by bouncing off the bottom, bouncing right over the top of a structure positioned bass, chances are out of pure reaction they will strike the crankbait.
Fishing line. Given our target depth of 15-25’ deep, you will want a 12-14lb diameter line. I prefer monofilament in 12lb for all of my deep cranking needs, after having random break offs with fluorocarbon. This can be a personal preference, as people also use braid for deep cranking, however the “stretch” that mono allows, helps with a hookset allowing your rod to gently plant the hooks in the fishes mouth, instead of potentially tearing a wider hole on a stiffer line, giving a head shaking bass a better chance to toss the hooks. Suffix and Spyder wire make a great 12-14lb mono in clear or moss green that is very dependable.
Crankbaits. To maximize crankbait storage, the Plano Elite crankbait boxes are very hard to beat (model 3707). In one medium crankbait box for example, it can store 24 Lucky craft d20’s.

Now that we have a clean, organized storage figured out, lets talk about the crankbaits themselves.
Starting at the 1st crankbait (the square bill) heading down, dives from shallowest to deepest. Square bill crankbaits generally run 2-5’ and are available in different wobbles and rattles. Under the squarebill, are the 7-10’ cranks. Rule of thumb is you can usually get a idea of the diving depth by the size of the bill. As we move down to the 2nd photo, we are looking at the 12-18’ divers, and in the last photo, 20-25’ crankbaits.



The one thing strongly recommend to do to all of your crankbaits is change out the factory rear hooks to the Mustad wide gap triple grip hooks. These hooks, hands down greatly improve your chances of getting a crankbait fish into the boat

Identifying and maximizing potential deep cranking locations.
Just like every other fishing technique, there is a time and a place for deep crankbaiting, and prime locations. Early spring as the lakes are warming up, those bass that spent the winter lethargic, are now seeking out the warmest water areas in the lake. More times then not, in the spring this is going to be on the windiest bank, point or big shallow flat. Shallow running squarebill crankbaits, suspending jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits (also called rattle traps) and hard to beat in these conditions and can produce fish, quickly in big numbers, with the potential of a big one. Often in the spring, if you can find a shallower weed flat, that has deeper water somewhere near by, at some point during the warm up days of spring there will be some bigger bass that have pulled up into the shallows to feed and sun bath. This is why targeting big bass in the spring is much easier, as it makes the bigger fish more vulnerable to be caught.
After the spawn is over, and we are deep into the post spawn the majority of big bass have now made their travels to off shore areas in deeper water, which they will spend most of their time for the rest of the year. However on shallower, weedy lakes, they will most likely be positioned somewhere around the deeper weed edges, whether its right on the weed edge, or a few yards in. Targeting off shore, deeper structured areas can be the key to many successful days at this point until the snow flys. Learning how to read your sonar can make great improvements in your off shore capabilities. Deeper rocky banks, with over hanging wood can be a top, deep cranking location throughout the months as well. One thing that is often over looked is the diving depth on the crankbaits. If you are targeting a 10’ deep piece of structure, tie on a crankbait that will dive 14+ feet, cast well beyond (infront) of your target so your crankbait is making contact with your target location. Often people think that because it’s a “deep diving crankbait” it can only be used in the deep water, however that “max depth reach” is just that. The max depth the crankbait CAN reach. If the bottom is weed free, there really is no shallow limitations to using a deep crankbait if you want to run it out to deeper water. Here is a example. You have a ledge that is 6’ ontop and gradually slopes down to 18’ of water. You can position yourself out in 18” of water, a little ways beyond your target area, and cast a 20’+ deep diver up to 6’ of water and run it bouncing on the bottom all the way out. Bottom contact with crankbaits is the #1 key to successfully enticing strikes. If your not hitting the bottom, you will not be getting strikes.
On one outing this season, I recorded over 2 hours if structure scan footage on area’s productive to deep cranking. These are off shore area’s, in the middle of the lake, or a distance out from the bank. Here are several prime locations to target for deep cranking.
 
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#2 ·
Here we have a channel running straight through a shallower, shale rock pile. Up in the top left corner, is the shallowest part of this rock pile, coming up to just under 9’ of water. The actual channel running through, is 17 feet deep, with obvious rock’s and cuts all around it. This is one location where you can really load up on some deep crankbait fish, coming off of the shallower rock pile down into the channel. This is a prime ambush location for bass to sit in the channel and feed on bait balls passing by.

Below is another channel cutting through a different location. The same tactic applies as above.


Below on your left you have a flat bottom, however on the right, there is a small shelf that steps up and is surrounded by rocks. In the middle to the far right, you can actually see a small school of fish ( the circle of dots in the dark spot).


Below is a section of a rock pile that comes up to 11’ of water. The bass are positioned on the front side, ontop and on the back side. When bass are holding tight to the bottom, most likely they can be caught. This is a signature deep cranking location.

Below you have a school of bass holding on the front side gradually sloping down to deeper water, and after the shallower top, that comes up to 10’ in a pocket in the shale there is another small school of bass. These are two locations the fish are positioning themselves to feed in the current.


Above is a big school of either pan fish, shad or alewives in a shallower location on the rock pile.

Below is a school is bass suspended over 20’ of water, holding in 11’ of water. You can also see the school suspended on the right hand side in the structure scan image. When fish are suspended like they, they are often not catchable deep cranking, but you might be able to get a few with a drop shot or anything you can vertical jig. If the water clarity is good, a suspending deep diving jerkbait might get a few fired up. However, I rarely spend much time trying to catch suspended fish. We are looking for fish holding tight to the bottom.

Below is another school of fish located around a hole in the hard bottom. To the right, in the structure scan image you can get a idea of how high they are suspended off the bottom, given the size of the shadow seen under them. The higher off the bottom, the bigger the shadow. Closer to the bottom, the smaller the shadow. These fish are catchable on a lucky craft d20, Strike king 6-8xd, norman dd22 , Duo Realis g87 and many other big deep diving crankbaits.

Below you can see some bass holding tight to a rock that comes up a few feet off the bottom.

One thing to consider is boat positioning often plays a big roll in catching crankbait fish. Often, off shore fish are positioned a certain way, and they are usually stationed around structure where they can ambush a easy meal. Sometimes it takes changing your casting position two or 3 times before getting a active fish to bite, and if you do pay attention to the direction you were casting and retrieving and this could help you get a few more bites. Often when it comes to off shore bass, they are rarely alone and if you can get one to bite you might be able to fire up a few more to be caught.
 
#4 ·
Andrew: just an EXCELLENT article!

I just made one small correction of a funny typo, changing the Abu Garcia "Wench" back to "Winch"..lol....they are a great company, but I don't think they are supplying woman yet, along with their reels! HAHAHAHAH.......

your sonar pictures are also fantastic; looks like a Lowrance HDS of some sort?
 
#5 ·
Your welcome mike.

John, lol thanks for the typo correction. Granted their are many other reels that fit the requirements but those 2 models I gave for the most part for everyone's budget.

I have a hds 8 at my console and a hds 10 on my bow. I have a lss1 module with a lss2 transducer. My hds 10 on the trolling motor has it own transducer and my hds 8 on the console has its own thru hull transducer, and then they both use the lss2 transducer. My units are linked.
 
#6 ·
I have a hds 8 at my console and a hds 10 on my bow. I have a lss1 module with a lss2 transducer. My hds 10 on the trolling motor has it own transducer and my hds 8 on the console has its own thru hull transducer, and then they both use the lss2 transducer. My units are linked.
that is awesome...worthy of another article in itself....
 
#7 ·
I love them. They are the insight models also so they have all the internal mapping and hot spots. It's lowrances version of navionics (which lowrance owns). I have humminbird units before these, and the structure scan vs side imaging is a night and day difference in clarity and detail.
 
#11 ·
Great article... I add a bit from a historical perspective...
I fished the b.a.s.s. invitationals way back on southern "crank in" lakes... 20 years ago!
Line choice back then... 10# big game... I still use it... cheap and easy to get... strong...
Rods... browning or diawa glass rods... I still have 2 of the TD glass rods... still use them fun to fish with...
Reels... less reels were in every boat... low ratio...
Baits... fat free shad, dd22 Mann's 20+... dd22 is kinda forgotten but has a neat swimming action...
Lot has changed but these old set ups still might work...
Line snaps... I like the owner weedless snaps...
Floro... I dislike... breaks too easy... casts crappy...
I like braid for the shallower baits... usually means weeds... go with the big game mono for the deeper bottom bump in stuff...
I fished non boater last 2 years in tourneys... caught bass on a crankbait just about every day out... not deep but shallower ones... gonna retool this winter and have crank in rods ready...
Alotta of small lakes here in upstate can be crank in friendly...
 
#16 ·
Thanks guys.

Like stated in the article, there is no right way or wrong way to do it. I am not trying to say "this is how you do it" but more so, this can benefit if you do it this way.

Deeping cranking starting in post spawn days all the way until the snow falls can load the boat. Schools of fish are bigger in deeper water around certain structured areas, and more so then not, the fish are bigger as well.

for example, I have found a spot up on champlain that is a big weed flat but right before a deep, rocky bank there is a deeper, rocky channel that has a very detailed king of rough rock on the bottom. On a south wind, more times then not I have loaded the boat in this spot. Its only 10' deep, but thats a big difference with a 6' deep weed flat next to it and a straight down deep, rocky bank behind it.
 
#17 ·
Awesome article Andrew! Really appreciate all the details and time you put into it. You definitely provided enough information to get any member interested in deep crankin' started. I utilized some of these techniques in 2015 for the first time thanks to information/tecniques you provided me last year. It was a lot of fun and I had some good numbers and quality days I would not have had without deep crankin' in my arsenal. Thanks again for sharing.
 
#19 ·
Good article for people that like to crank, like myself. If fish are deep, like in the summer, I'd always rather deep crank instead of drop shot. I've caught plenty of bigguns.

-Old anchor ropes with anchors attached
-Giant branches in the middle of the lake
-70 year old spoons with heavy gauge wire

-Some big fish here and there :)
 
#20 ·
drop shot and deep cranking rods are usually on my deck at the same time...and the reason behind that is, alot of times when I mark something close to the boat, or directly below me while I am deep cranking, I pick up the drop shot and drop it on their face. I have caught a ton of fish this way. Its very helpful when you are targeting these off shore area's and the fish are cruising in and out of them...I also use the drop shot as a search bait sometimes, such as casting it out and walking it back like a jig...works wonders.
 
#22 ·
#26 ·
There have been several new deep cranks added to the market since I created this article.

The 6th Sense Cloud 9 are a very affordable, but HIGH quality deep crank bait that just came out. The quality hooks (mustard wide gap) and the paints are very high quality. Actually, I rate them higher then Lucky craft and they are several dollars cheaper.
 
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