Shallow Water Cranking

 

There is nothing like seeing a bass hit your crank bait in shallow water after running into a piece of wood or rock.  Now, some anglers starting out are reluctant to throw a crank bait in and around standing or fallen timber.  Trust me I speak from experience; being afraid of getting hung-up, breaking your line with the $15 crank bait, banging  the boat around, or heaven forbid break a rod tip trying to poke the plug off a log, are all natural fears for the beginning angler.  Although, my biggest fish to date (8.6 lbs.) came from standing tree stumps in about 3ft. of water on my Balsa BII in chartreuse & black.
 

The real key to success fishing timber is to use the right equipment.  Golfer’s have anywhere from 9-10 clubs in their bag to play the game.  If one club was the best choice for everything would they carry 8-9 others?  No way!  Each one has a specific purpose.  The same goes for your fishing gear.  In this case, the best gear for fishing timber starts with the basic components, the rod and reel.  Many rod companies make techniques specific rods and if you can afford them, that is often the way to go because they are made to specifications of the pros on their staff.  I use a 7ft. Medium-Light action rod for fishing crank baits in and around wood.  The medium-light action enables me to feel everything the lure hits and the rod has enough give that it will not rip the treble hooks out of the fish's mouth when hauling the big one to the boat.    For the reel I use a Team Daiwa SOL with a 5.8:1 gear ratio.  The 5.8:1 ratio reel is what I use for all cranking applications.   The 5.8:1 gives me the ability to slow down if I need to and speed-up when I want to.  A lot of pro’s prefer the slower reels like the 5.1:1.  The only issue I have with that is that is that it is easy to slow down, but you can’t speed-up, you can only wind so fast!

 

Now that we have the rod and reel out of the way let’s focus on the crank baits themselves.  There are 2 shallow models that I prefer: the Lucky Craft BDS3 and the Lucky Craft Rick Clunn 1.5.  Both have square bills.  The square bill allows for the most deflection with fewer hang-ups.  They farther the bait deflects away from an object the less likely the bait is going to get hung-up.  The other key factor to these two baits is that they are very buoyant.  Which means they float up very fast when not being retrieved.  Buoyant baits get hung-up less because if you feel your line hitting a tree or limb you can tell when the bait is going to hit the object and you can pause your retrieve, your bait will float up and over the tree or limb.

 

The final key to fishing in the wood is to “bump the stump!”  I can’t tell you how many times I heard that and was still reluctant to run my bait around a stump or log.  I kept thinking, "I will get hung-up if I run my bait into or over that stump!"  Although, once again if you have the right equipment and baits that we mentioned before you will not get hung-up.  Many times the bass will strike after you bump your bait into an object.  “Why?”, because when your bait runs into something it makes an erratic movement similar to an injured or stunned baitfish.  Bass being predators and opportunistic feeders, will usually feed on the weakest and easiest meal that they can get.  So, “bump the stump!” It really works!

 

In conclusion, with the right equipment and crank baits you can overcome your initial fears of throwing the dangling treble hooked crank baits into the standing or fallen timber.  Also, it is very easy to make an inexpensive plug-knocker out of a large piece of lead or old spark plug that you can attach to your line and throw down into the water when you are hung-up.  90% of the time the lead weight or spark plug will knock your crank bait forward and bounce it off what it is hung on.  Also, 90% of the time the bill will be the thing that is hung-up and not the hooks!  So, get out there and get cranking in the timber, I don't think you will be disappointed!