Deep Crankin?

[Sore Thumbs]

Gonna try doing some deep cranking this year. Need to know when, where, depth i should target, line size, lures that work in clearer water and rod preference. A lot to cover. I would rather ask here than be fumbling about trying to figure out what the heck i'm doin. Thanks for any input.

[fishingaddiction]

There are others on this forum that have more knowledge of the Rock than me, but this topic is something I am going to try also, so here goes. I am going to use my electronics to locate fish close to the bottom on humps, channel/creek swings, long flat gravel points, and steep tapering banks and points. The cranks are the DT 16, Strike king series 6, and Bomber fat free shad 3/4 oz. I don't have any that go any deeper, but I think these will cover what I want to do. I use the veritas 7' winch series rods, with lews reels at 5:2 1 ratio with 10 lb mono or fluoro . I can sling hard pulling cranks a long way with this set up all day without much sweat. Be sure to post any good results you have. Good Luck.

Gonna try doing some deep cranking this year. Need to know when, where, depth i should target, line size, lures that work in clearer water and rod preference. A lot to cover. I would rather ask here than be fumbling about trying to figure out what the heck i'm doin. Thanks for any input.

[Jason Essary]

sk 6xd. mh parabolic 7'6" rod. 10lb floro. drag set low. roll offs and or cedars that top out around 16' deep so you can tickle it thru them. You need 5' vis or less to be effective from what I have found anyways. Deep water close, by that I mean within 60 yards or so.

[Josh Holt]

I just use norman dd22's right now you can find big kentuckies on bluffs with these baits

[Quillback]

I've thrown them around for a few casts lately but only caught one dink. I like Josh's idea of throwing them on bluffs, I'll have to try that. The walleye trollers always complain about catching bass when they are trolling cranks so the darn things must work.

[Iclass]

Caught more flatheads than bass so far this year on the dd22 and dt16.

[powerdive]

I've thrown them around for a few casts lately but only caught one dink. I like Josh's idea of throwing them on bluffs, I'll have to try that. The walleye trollers always complain about catching bass when they are trolling cranks so the darn things must work.

You could troll a pipe wrench out there and catch bass on it. But we trollers are usually running our crankbaits quite a bit deeper than you chunkers-n-winders can.

All else being equal, trolling uses significantly longer lines and consistent speed over time, so the lures get much deeper--as rps has noted many times, a DD22 can troll at 30+ feet. (Casting and retrieving a DD22 all day must absolutely kill your wrists.) But if you want more depth, you might a) use braid, cast longer and crank it farther down before starting your retrieve, or c) weight the lure by adding a rubbercore sinker or a couple splitshot about 15-18" above the crank (alternative: SuspenStrips on the belly or wire weights on the front treble). Weighting works quite well, and gives you a little extra vertical swim to help trigger bites.

[Quillback]

I might try a suspend strip or two, but doggone it, I'm not putting any rubber core sinkers on my line and casting that whole shebang.

[riverfish]

if your not commited to it you arent gonna catch them deep cranking and whatever you do don't crank a lavender shad on bluff end points with timber

[bfishn]

You could troll a pipe wrench out there and catch bass on it...

I get bass on the pipe, heck, they hit monkey wrenches too... durn hungry monkeys don't stand a chance.

Now I'm wondering... does 5 DD22s on an A-rig do 110 feet?

(sorry, I shouldn't look at this at work) :-)