Peak Months For Deep Crankbait Bite

[Sac River Jim]

i like dead sticking a boo rig with a coffin bill crank then pulling it a few feet then pausing again on flats in the 20' range. ive had some decent success this summer but it seems to work better on Stockton.

[Champ188]

I like deep cranking in "shallow" water (May-late Oct.) A Bagley DBIII churning up mud triggers strikes more often than a squarebill ever will.

My favorite color #79

I used to do this a lot in the fall ... really burned a DB3 in the very backs of creeks and pockets with shallow (8-10 feet) ditches for channels and caught some big ol' fish. Got away from it for some reason. Go figure.

[balsabee]

I used to do this a lot in the fall ... really burned a DB3 in the very backs of creeks and pockets with shallow (8-10 feet) ditches for channels and caught some big ol' fish. Got away from it for some reason. Go figure.

I think ever since Takahiro Omori won the classic on a Bagley BB2 square bill a lot of people forgot about how effective cranking the DB 2 and DB 3 can be in very shallow water. Bare, no nothing looking banks with no visible cover are sometimes the best. The bottom is what is constantly causing the deflection and not necessarily the cover. A BB2 square bill just moseying through the water column with nothing to bang it off of doesn't get much of a reaction.

[REDSOXWSCHAMP]

I usually do best on deep cranks in summer and early fall, a 5or 6xd, a dd22 in shad colors like alex said. bluffs, bridge pillars, chunk rock

[fishinwrench]

September (dove season) is the only time of the year that the (dove colored) DD-22's come out of my box, and I sure wouldn't wanna go out without them then.

[Sprint21fter]

My experience for what it is worth. Late May-October is when I typically have a big plug tied on. I don't crank no deeper than 20ft. I make 5-10 casts on specific places over a brush pile, rock pile, drop, or standing timber if I don't get a bite I move on. If you come to a spot that they are on you can catch more than one fish off of it. If you are not bouncing it off of anything you won't get bit. However, you don't have to be on bottom either. If you find fish holding at a certain depth in trees you can run that crankbait into to the trees and slowly work it through the limbs and catch them. I have caught fish where I haven't hit anything but was close enough to where the fish was holding in a tree or off a drop.

Retrieve: As fast as I can possibly reel once I hit something slight pause and then fast retrieve. Once you get the feel for what the bait is doing you will know what a bite feels like. Sometimes they will thump it but most times they come up behind it like a wiggle wart bite and it gets heavy. Most of the time when that happens its a BIGGUUN!

Deep Crankin requires alot of work and patience. Normally the quality is the payoff so throw the numbers game out the window. A good day of deep cranking is 5-15 bites with 5-8 being solid fish 3lbs or bigger.

Baits: Norman DD 22- Perch, Rainbow trout. Strike King 5-6XD- Gizzard Shad, Blue Back Herring, Sexy Shad, Chartreuse Sexy Shad, Powder Chartreuse. Bomber Fat Free Shad- Rootbeer, Gizzard Shad, Citrus Shad

Line Size: 12lb Flourocarbon

[Champ188]

My experience for what it is worth. Late May-October is when I typically have a big plug tied on. I don't crank no deeper than 20ft. I make 5-10 casts on specific places over a brush pile, rock pile, drop, or standing timber if I don't get a bite I move on. If you come to a spot that they are on you can catch more than one fish off of it. If you are not bouncing it off of anything you won't get bit. However, you don't have to be on bottom either. If you find fish holding at a certain depth in trees you can run that crankbait into to the trees and slowly work it through the limbs and catch them. I have caught fish where I haven't hit anything but was close enough to where the fish was holding in a tree or off a drop.

Retrieve: As fast as I can possibly reel once I hit something slight pause and then fast retrieve. Once you get the feel for what the bait is doing you will know what a bite feels like. Sometimes they will thump it but most times they come up behind it like a wiggle wart bite and it gets heavy. Most of the time when that happens its a BIGGUUN!

Deep Crankin requires alot of work and patience. Normally the quality is the payoff so throw the numbers game out the window. A good day of deep cranking is 5-15 bites with 5-8 being solid fish 3lbs or bigger.

Baits: Norman DD 22- Perch, Rainbow trout. Strike King 5-6XD- Gizzard Shad, Blue Back Herring, Sexy Shad, Chartreuse Sexy Shad, Powder Chartreuse. Bomber Fat Free Shad- Rootbeer, Gizzard Shad, Citrus Shad

Line Size: 12lb Flourocarbon

Good stuff.