The water temperature was 64 degrees as we entered the cove. This made it clear that we would either be dealing with the tail end of the spawn or post-spawn period for largemouth bass.
Fishing should be tough by everything we had read. We planned to find out just how tough in a hurry, though, because the clear water usually made it easy to see the bass on the spawning beds. Unfortunately, a week's worth of high winds had turned the water murky, and our thoughts of quickly determining the phase of the spawn disappeared.
My partner threw a plastic lizard and I threw a spinnerbait so that we could cover the shallow, murky water and determine if the bass were in close.
The cove we were fishing historically held the majority of the bass in the lake from spring through early-summer, so we knew the percentages were in our favor. An hour of fishing produced two small fish on the lizard, but no strikes on the spinnerbait.
The results of the first hour, having covered prime territory with minimal success, led me to believe that the fish were deeper and had finished spawning. I switched to a jig-and-pig combination and my partner switched to a small 1/4-ounce crankbait.
Ten casts later he had a two-pounder. A few more casts and the crankbait produced a three-pounder. Within the next hour he caught three more fish on the crankbait to my one on a jig-and-pig, and all his were larger. To top it off, I was making the first cast to the best spots, and the crankbait was running through the same area after the jig, and catching the fish. Needless to say, I quickly switched to a crankbait, and we boated 12 more largemouth bass up to four pounds, and 10 white bass during the rest of the day.
This brought back memories of when I fished reservoirs in central and southern Illinois; then all I really fished was crankbaits. I bounced them off of rocks, wood, or weeds, and the bass had to either hit the bait or get out of the way.
There is no doubt that when the bass want crankbaits there is no use fishing anything else. Even better, crankbaits are relatively easy to fish, cover water quickly, and hook fish well.
Still, some lessons need to be relearned. For the last several years I have concentrated on fishing finesse presentations and have steered away from grabbing the crankbait first, perhaps as a result of fishing some heavily pressured waters.
But the experience my partner and I had fishing bass that spring day really drove home a point--fish fast first! Cover water with a high percentage bait. And when it comes to largemouth bass, nothing quite matches a small crankbait for covering water and catching bass during summer.
A common misconception is that you need heavy equipment to fish crankbaits for bass. I prefer to use a medium-action spinning rod, such as a six-foot Team Daiwa finesse spinning rod. The lighter rod allows the smaller lure to be cast easily and the bass can easily inhale the bait as the rod flexes.
I match the rod with a Regal Z spinning reel and eight-pound test Stren Supertough. The line is thin but durable to withstand bouncing off objects. It is perfect for fishing crankbaits. Primarily, I use 1/8- to 1/4-ounce "fat" crankbaits such as a Mann's 10+ or a Bomber Model A. These larger-lipped, yet smaller, crankbaits bounce and crawl through cover without getting hung, and really hook fish.
My favorite colors are shad, chartreuse, or crawfish. I have several styles and sizes of crankbaits in these three colors, and they all seem to work. Generally, the shad works well in clearer waters and the chartreuse works well in murky waters. The crawfish is used in both situations depending on cover and forage; it always has been a top producer in rocky areas. Overall, for fishing from post-spawn into early-summer these smaller crankbaits seem to work best.
I begin my retrieve by quickly cranking the bait several times to achieve depth, then back off to a medium to medium-fast retrieve. I am trying to trigger strikes, making contact either with the cover or bass. Obviously, I don't throw the bait in the center of a tree, but I get pretty close. I throw the crankbait along riprap banks, around weed cover, or any deeper breaklines--anywhere the bass may be holding after the spawn and into the summer.
In natural lakes the bass will spawn in the shallower bays or channels and move deeper to an adjacent weed flat or edge. This is a prime time to crankbait the flats and edges. In early-summer the weed growth will not be as high and you can throw the crankbait over the weed flat and take fish. Try a stop-and-go retrieve, letting the crankbait pause over pockets in the weeds. As the summer progresses the weeds will become thicker and fishing a crankbait through them becomes very difficult. Then try fishing parallel to the weed edge. Make shorter, precise casts and concentrate on turns along the weed edge. Usually a smaller area will hold a group of fish.
In many reservoirs, the cove or creek arm that held shallow, spawning bass will still have fish after the spawn, but as summer progresses they may move deeper to the edge of the creek channel or hold on points in the creek arm or on main-lake points. Don't forget riprap banks. These areas seem to hold some bass all year long.
One final note on crankbait fishing: keep moving and experimenting. You'll be surprised when you discover a "key depth" how many bass you can catch on crankbaits. Finally, when the fishing slows in a particular area, you may have caught the majority of the aggressive bass. If you slow down and use a finesse presentation, you may catch a few more bass. Then, if there are areas similar to the one where you've been catching fish, move to them and get your crankbait going again.
Copyright (c) 1996 Jim Saric. All rights reserved.
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