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Steve Waters: Hi folks, it's Steve Waters here from Thundermist Lure Company and what a day we have today. The sun is out, it's early morning, and we are going to be Crankbaiting today, and the target is smallmouth Bass.
Today I am going to run a crayfish style crankbait, and the reason for that is these smallies have been feeding on big fish all spring, and now they are on the crayfish feed. So, I am going to run this crayfish imitator crankbait, and we are working in shallow water here. It's about 10 feet, 10 to 12 feet, and what we are going to do is, basically work these crankbaits and see if we can hook into a smallie.
One thing to keep in mind of these crankbaits, once they hit the water, they start to dive down. They are going to hit their maximum depth, and then come back up towards the boat. So what you want to do is, you want to get that crankbait to dive down to its deepest depth as quick as possible. So in order to do so, what you do is, put your rod tip right down, close to the water like so, and start cranking right away, and that will allow your bait to get down there quicker, and also it puts you in a great position to set the hook. When your rod is down here, once you get a hit, you can easily set the hook like so. So there's a couple of advantages of doing it that way.
This is our first one of the day. He is just a little guy. I don't even think I am going to use the net to land him. Here we go, and there's a good start, nothing big, got a nice little smallie. Lots of fun on these crankbaits, little guy. Okay, we are going to go back at him, get this crayfish crankbait out there and keep cranking.
Another thing to keep in mind when cranking, once you cast it out there, let it sit, just for one second. If there is a Bass in the neighborhood, he's seen that splash; he has got his eyes on it. Then you start cranking, and what will happen a lot of times is those Bass will come right up and hit that bait once they see it going. Also, if you are not catching fish, and you are cranking at a certain speed, try slowing it down a bit or speeding your speed up a bit, crank a little faster. Find out what those fish want and then tailor your retrieve to what their liking is. And thirdly, the other thing you could do when you are cranking, or you can have a little bit of fun with it.
So, once you get your line down there, you can get the odd little twitch in between cranks, just to stir things up again. And again, find out what the fish are after, find out how aggressive they are, and work your retrieve to match the aggressiveness of the fish.
Our fish with her brother Tony today, and he has just sucked into a -- ha, another small Bass. Looks like that's what we are catching today folks, small Bass, but that's okay. We are having lots of fun. Crankbaiting fish, crankbaiting smallies, beautiful day, the sun is out, you can't beat it.
Another thing you want to do when you are cranking. Especially when you're fishing in clear water like this, you want to cast as far away from the boat as possible. The reason for that is the fish won't be spooked as they are coming close to the boat, and secondly, you are also covering a lot more ground that way. So, there's many good reasons to cast as far as you can. And in order to do so, if you have a longer rod, you will get further cast. With -- I am using a 6 foot rod today, but ideally a 7 foot rod will get me out there that much further, and that's what I would recommend for cranking, 7 foot rod, get your cast out there as far as you can, begin the retrieves, and start catching fish.
Steve Waters: Little guy Tony, oh, he is feeling drag, nice. Notice how Tony has put his rod down. If you don't want that Bass to jump, keep your rod tip pointing down, and you will force that Bass to swim down. Now mind you, if you put your rod tip up, and you want to have some fun, you will force them up to the boat, but that doesn't look like a Bass, Tony.
Tony: I am going to drop it.
Steve Waters: That's Mr. Sheep Head. Oh, you have put a tubo on. You took the crankbait off, you put a tubo on, and you got Mr. Sheep Head, while you can catch those Sheep Head. I am going to go back after Mr. Smallie.
Another thing to keep in mind when crankbaiting, a lot of times you will have fish follow your crankbait but not hit. When that happens, be prepared with another bait, and as you can see here, I have got a rod rig with a tube. So, if I happen to notice the fish following my crankbait, but not hitting, I'll drop that line, grab this one quick and toss that tubo to him, 9 times out of 10, that fish will hit.
Steve Waters: Here another one, Tony.
Tony: Yeah, a small one.
Steve Waters: Little guy, crankbait.
Tony: Now, I will spin it.
Steve Waters: Oh, you have changed your spindle rate, okay, good idea. All we have been catching are small fish this morning, folks. Another little guy. You know what, that might just be the order of the day, small fish, that's okay. We are going to keep having fun. I love it. Till next time, folks, good luck, keep cranking and good fishing.
Actually folks, before we sign off, I got to tell you about this one. Now, stone that little frog crankbaiting in this shallow water, and I had this Bass come up after it, and swim away, exactly as you we were talking about earlier, and I gave him the one two punch, he's round of way. I dropped my rod here, I just put this rod down with the frog, dropped the tube down, and he came right out to tube, and hammered it. Beautiful, you got to love that. That is what we call, that's what we call the one two punch. Always-always-always, keep a tune handy, and get ready for those follow up fish.
Okay, now we will sign out folks, till next time, good fishing!
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Steve Waters: One nice thing folks, feel free to sign up to our videos by pushing the button found on this page. It will either be on the left or on the right. They are moving around from time to time, but we have got a lot of fine fishing ahead of us, and we want to share some more good times with you.
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