Deep Cranking Article

[Champ188]

A fellow member asked some very good questions about deep cranking in a separate thread. The following is an article I did a few years back for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (it was later modified slightly for publication in Fishing Magazine, the former official publication of Central Pro-Am Association). The source for this article is Nicky Parson, who I consider one of the best deep crank bait anglers to ever set foot in a boat. The article was set on Grand Lake but also contains lots of viable information for the White River lakes.

Hope this helps someone catch a few more fish this summer.

DEEP THOUGHTS ON SUMMER BASS

By diving deep, fish escape the heat, but they can’t hide from Nicky Parson

BY JAMES GILZOW

ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

GROVE, Okla. — Nicky Parson considers hot-weather bass fishing a deep subject, and for good reason.
Unless they are confined in a stream or other relatively shallow waterway, most bass in Northwest Arkansas and the surrounding area head for the cool comfort of deeper water when the summer sun bears down.
Likewise, many anglers choose the air-conditioned comfort of their couches. Some turn to fishing at night, when the air is cooler and water temperatures often dip enough to draw bass into the shallows briefly to feed.
But for Parson, the heat is a minor obstacle that he refuses to let keep him from some torrid bass action.
“Actually, this is my favorite time to bass fish,” the Farmington angler said Sunday as the late-morning sun over Grand Lake mounted, giving a strong hint of what the afternoon would hold.
“It’s not peaceful fishing by any means. You’ve got the heat to contend with, and on lakes like this one, the big pleasure boats and jet skis will drive you crazy if you let them. You have to put that stuff out of your mind.”
Parson’s focus and passion were obvious as he tirelessly hurled a big Bomber Fat Free Shad crank bait far as he could, then reeled it hard back to the boat, occasionally pausing it for a split second.
“It’s work fishing these big crank baits,” he said. “But it’s all worth it when you come across a school of big ’uns and start catching a 4- or 5-pounder every throw.”
GETTING STARTED
Parson began his Sunday search just after daybreak, stopping first on a long, slow-tapering point only a quarter-mile from our launch point at the Oklahoma 10 bridge over the Elk River arm of Grand Lake.
Several anglers nearby frothed the shallow water along the banks, hoping for topwater action in the low-light conditions. But Parson stopped our boat far from shore, his mind set on catching them his way.
“We could probably catch some shallow early, but people have learned about these deep fish,” he said. “In tournaments, I used to try to catch a quick limit fishing shallow early, then move out deeper later in the day. But anymore, if you wait to hit your deep spots, someone has probably already beat them up pretty good.”
Our starting place would provide a glimpse of nearly every spot we would fish over the next eight hours. Points, especially those that slope gradually into deep water, play a big role in Parson’s deep-cranking strategy.
Bass tend to feed in shallow water during summer, herding schools of shad up onto the tops of points, then ambushing them. The lesser distance between the lake’s surface and the bottom confines their prey. When they’re full, the bass retreat to deeper water off either side or the end of the point.
“Points are good places to start looking for crank-bait fish for a couple of reasons,” Parson said. “To start with, they are natural feeding areas. But more importantly, they’re easy to see. If you’re running down an unfamiliar lake and see a flat point sloping out from the bank, you can bet that whatever you see above the surface continues below.”
Other types of structure, or bottom contour, that Parson seeks out include offshore humps and flats with a well-defined creek or river channel slicing through them. Like points, both offer shallow areas for bass to feed with deep water nearby.
DISSECTING AN AREA
Simply finding such areas, however, isn’t enough. Some won’t hold fish at all. Others will be productive one day and barren the next. And without fail, there is a key place where the fish are concentrated.
“Structure fishing is all about finding that sweet spot,” Parson said. “Every point, hump or flat will have a little place where the fish are concentrated. It can be a brush pile, a rock pile or just a single big stump.”
One advantage of deep-diving crank baits is that an angler can cover far more water with them than slower-moving lures like jigs or soft plastics. Parson pays great attention whenever his lure hits an underwater object during the retrieval.
“If you’re on a strange lake or fishing an unfamiliar area, it’s important to really cover the entire point, hump or the drop [where a flat falls into a channel] to find the sweet spots,” Parson said. “And you really need to be alert when your bait hits something other than the bottom. With some practice, you’ll learn to tell by feel whether it’s brush or rocks or whatever.
“And once you hit something like that, you need to throw back there over and over from different angles. Nine times out of 10, that’s where the fish are going to be.”
Even though Parson was working familiar waters Sunday, he was diligent in spacing his casts just a few feet apart in order to comb entire areas.
“I’ve pulled into an area a lot of times right after another boat left and caught fish after fish,” he said. “A lot of guys find the right general areas but they don’t fish them thoroughly enough.”
CONSIDER THE CONDITIONS
As with any fishing method, weather and water conditions can play a vital role in deep cranking. Sunday dawned a bit cloudy and calm for Parson’s liking, but that would change as the day progressed.
“With our deep, clear lakes in this area, we’re used to wanting it cloudy so the fish will be out roaming around,” he said. “But when I’m cranking deep, I want it sunny. That helps position the fish down on the drops and close to the cover where you can pinpoint them better.”
Parson also likes some wind with his sun, saying that seems to help the overall activity level.
“I’m not sure why that is, but I know that it sure helps,” he said. “Nothing seems to stir much when the [water’s] surface is flat. I think the wind helps move the baitfish around and triggers bass to feed.”
Crank bait experts, Parson included, also like some power generation at the dam of the lake they’re fishing. The turbines that generate electricity are powered by water releases through the dam, which pull water downlake and create current.
“That can be a big factor,” Parson said. “I’ve seen days on Beaver Lake when it would be 1 o’clock and I hadn’t caught a fish. Then they’d start generating at the dam and the fish would turn on almost instantly.”
Another aspect of water conditions that hasn’t been favorable for deep cranking this year is lake level. With average rainfall, lakes in the Ozarks and surrounding area generally are at or below normal pool by early summer. But because of this spring’s heavy rains, most are well into flood pool. Beaver Lake, for instance, has hovered within a foot or so of the top of flood pool for months.
“That’s bad news for guys like me,” Parson said. “There is so much shoreline cover in the water that the fish scatter instead of gathering out on the points and drops. I’m a firm believer that bass will stay close to the banks even in summer if there’s enough cover and water depth for them to be comfortable, and this year there is tons of it.”
Too much cover even at normal lake levels presents problems with deep cranking, which is one reason Parson concentrates his efforts on most lakes in the river arms. Standing timber is so prevalent on the lower end of Beaver Lake that the bass scatter out in it.
Also, the water is so clear that the fish tend to go deeper than even a deep crank bait will reach, or they suspend, following schools of shad around in open water.
“I’ve just never had much success cranking on the lower end of most lakes or in clear water,” Parson said. “I’ve done lots better in the river arms where the water is a little off-colored and the cover is more isolated. It makes it a lot easier to figure out where the fish are holding and tends to concentrate them on those areas.”
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
In part because of the sheer size and weight of deep-diving crank baits, it’s critical that anglers choose a rod well suited for the technique. Parson recommends a 7-footer in medium heavy/fast action.
He also suggests using the best baitcasting reel an angler can afford, preferably one with a midrange gear ratio of 6:2:1 or 6:3:1 — not too slow and not too fast.
The primary reason is that such an outfit allows the lure to be cast a long way, meaning it will be in the “strike zone” as long as possible as it arcs back to the boat.
“It’s very important to get that bait out there as far you can,” said Parson, whose personal rod-andreel choice is a G.Loomis 7-footer specially designed for crank baits and a Shimano Chronarch reel. “The reason is that on the first part of the retrieve the lure is diving. Then in the middle stage, it’s at its maximum depth, which is when you want it bumping the bottom or whatever cover the fish are holding on. The last part of the retrieve, it’s coming back up to you.
“Nearly all of your bites will come during the middle stage of the retrieve. The farther you’re able to throw it, the longer it will stay at that maximum depth and the more chance you have of getting bit.”
As for lures, Parson keeps his choices pretty basic. On Sunday, he used a 3/4-ounce Bomber Fat Free Shad in the citrus shad color almost exclusively, occasionally picking up a similar-colored Rapala DT 16.
“I’ve tried pretty well all of the deep-diving crank baits out there and it’s hard to beat that big Fat Free Shad,” he said. “It’s my goto lure.”
Another consideration when choosing a rod is hooking and playing fish. The medium heavy/ fast model features plenty of backbone in the butt section for handling a big fish but also a limber tip for allowing the fish to grab the lure without the angler jerking it away.
“You don’t want a real stiff tip or you’ll miss a lot of bites,” Parson said. “Also, you don’t want to jerk when one bites. I just keep reeling and let the rod load up, then lean back into the fish and start playing him. Modern hooks are sharp enough that they’ll do their job just by a guy applying steady pressure. When you jerk hard, you risk ripping the hooks completely out of the fish.”
Even more so than with his lures, Parson doesn’t experiment much with line. He favors Seaguar Carbon Pro exclusively, and nearly always in 10-pound test. The 100 percent fluorocarbon line is nearly invisible underwater, it sinks by nature and has very little stretch.
“You don’t want to go much bigger than 10-pound or you’ll lose depth with your crank bait,” he said. “If you play a fish right, you won’t break them off and if you’ll carry a lure retriever for when you hang up, you won’t lose many baits either.”
PATIENCE PAYS
Although deep cranking is an active method of fishing, Parson says it rarely provides constant action.
“That’s kind of the nature of this type of fishing,” he said. “You can go hours without a bite, but when you hit the right spot at the right time, you can load the boat in a hurry.”
Sunday proved a bit unusual in that Parson picked off one bass here and another there, eventually building a catch of 20-21 pounds on a five-fish tournament limit standard.
One of those bass came on a War Eagle jig dragged along the bottom in an area that he’d already raked for 30 minutes with the Fat Free Shad.
“Dragging a jig through the same areas is an alternative when the bite is slow or if you’ve already caught a fish or two off a spot with a crank bait,” he said.
“I think what happened today is that although [Grand Lake] isn’t as high as Beaver or other lakes at home, it’s still high enough that the fish really weren’t ganged up on my deep spots. But by being patient, we ended up catching a big sack. That’s what that crank bait will do if a guy will stick with it.”

[flyman]

Good article. Thanks for sharing.

[Quillback]

Great article, thanks for posting!

[Chunk Rock]

Good reading, deep cranking has never been good to me,on the rock,to many lures to pick from

but might give some of those a try.Thanks

[Sore Thumbs]

If you saw Nick in person you would never think he was a fisherman. Nice guy and one hell of a fisherman.

[Sore Thumbs]

Thanks for the article champ

[Bill Babler]

Like to see more stuff like that. Know you get paid to do it. Just wanted to say we really appreciate those kind of deals.

Excellent read. BB

[Champ188]

I'll try to post more from time to time. A lot of what I do these days is probably not quite specific enough for this crowd but some of it might be.

[powerdive]

Well written. Touché!

[fishingaddiction]

Nice read Champ. I certainly pay attention to anything Nicky says about fishing highland lakes. Thanks for posting.