Creative Cranking in the Winter
by Mike Gerry
Winter and cold water is an ideal time to become creative with crank bait. Using your imagination and being willing to try something different can be the key to catching deep fish in the winter!
When you’re running crank baits 20 ft. down, you can make magic happen you just have to be creative. Creative crank baiting is just easy to do; you just have to imagine what that bait is doing and make it do different things, present different looks and be a little different.
I know many people get frustrated when they are throwing crank bait and not getting bites. Then they get in a boat with someone who does it differently and it seems easy; well it is. A creative crank bait fisherman just uses all the possible parts of crank baiting to their advantage. They change the tip height, they work it in an upward position, then point it downward, work the tip with long pulls, short pulls, and they stop it and pause it and use their wrist to change the speed. All these are just elements of becoming a good crank bait fishermen; the key is to understand what these changes do to the bait and how they create strikes.
The tip of your rod is a key element to fishing a crank bait. You can change the depth by several feet just by changing the tip. If you point it down, it runs deeper. If you keep it high, it runs shallower. Making long pulls with your rod tip also adds creativity to your bait; if you want the bait to bounce and dig the bottom, long pulls will add that element to your retrieve.
Short pulls give the bait a different look. It digs then it quickly suspends or raises this causes a pause as well as a short pull adds a cadence to your retrieve. Your wrist is a key element of crank baiting as it can make movement changes in the bait just by moving your wrist. Quick movements become erratic changes, while cadence movement become rhythm movement.
There are many things you can do to be a creative crank bait fisherman; just use your knowledge do different things with the bait and see what offers the best results.
Captain Mike