Indian Creek, Nov. 22

[Quillback]

Forecast was for a cool, windy, and cloudy day and that is what it was.  Based on that forecast I decided I was going to roll with a Rock Crawler all day.  I did, and in 7.5 hours of mostly cranking I caught 15 bass with 4 of them being decent keepers.  Smallest keeper was a 16" smallmouth, largest a 3.5 lb. largemouth.

For those of you that fish the lower end of the lake, you know there are miles of good looking bank structure to fish a crank bait.  I covered a lot of ground throwing the Crawler, lots of no bite bank, but when I did catch one there were usually one or two other bites to be had in close proximity.  I had fun, but made a lot of casts and my 68 year old shoulders are barking at me this morning.

With the wind, there was very little top water striper activity.

I fished a few places with a Ned, but other than a couple of 4 inch smallmouth, nothing seemed interested in the Ned.

WT 61-62

 

[breeves2245]

Thanks for the report. At a very soon to be 67, I don't think I'm up for 7.5hrs of cranking, but good on you for powering through.

I'm a fair weather fisherman for sure. The window is closing on my fishing season. But one good report from you next April, and I'm good to go!

From the looks of the lip on the bait, is that about a 8-10' diving crank?

[rps]

2 hours ago, breeves2245 said:

Thanks for the report. At a very soon to be 67, I don't think I'm up for 7.5hrs of cranking, but good on you for powering through.

I'm a fair weather fisherman for sure. The window is closing on my fishing season. But one good report from you next April, and I'm good to go!

From the looks of the lip on the bait, is that about a 8-10' diving crank?

Depending on line size, a Rock Crawler runs 2-3 feet deeper than a Wart. On 10# flouro hybrid, 8-10 is a reasonable estimate. Small tip. do not grind a Rock Crawler on the bottom like you would a wart. The bill breaks. If you are going to fish 3-7 foot water, switch to the wart.

[Quillback]

13 hours ago, breeves2245 said:

Thanks for the report. At a very soon to be 67, I don't think I'm up for 7.5hrs of cranking, but good on you for powering through.

I'm a fair weather fisherman for sure. The window is closing on my fishing season. But one good report from you next April, and I'm good to go!

From the looks of the lip on the bait, is that about a 8-10' diving crank?

It's a Rock Crawler 55.  Supposed to get down to 9-12 feet or something like that.  You need a really long cast and relatively light line to get it down to 10 feet.  There is also a mid-depth Crawler that is supposed to run 4-8 feet.

Rock Crawler prices have really jumped, $12.50-$15 each depending on where you get them.  Warts, as RPS mentioned, are more economical.  They work pretty well too.   Inflation has struck the crankbait market, prices are high.