"go-bassn" wrote in message
...
I carry all my cranks with me at all times. One of my favorite tricks is
to
throw a long-billed crank in much shallower water than it was intended to
be
used in. Really stirs things up down there if the grass isn't too thick,
deadly where sand & rocks mix.


I agree Warren. It's worth a few snag ups here and there to bang a crankbait
off something in the water (the bottom, rocks, branches). I dunno if it
because most casual anglers just swim their baits or what, but usually I get
bit more when the bait is "swimming" into stuff.

My personal best big bass was caught in less than 2ft of water this way. I
overthrew a rat-l-trap onto a bank (cold air, cold water, fish "should've"
been deep) but some warm water runoff had the water in this particular cove
stained up. Yanked it enough to get it cleanly airborne off the bank, it
skipped off a branch sticking up out of the water about 3 feet into the
waterline, and landed right beside it, on my, the boat side of the branch. I
let it sink and sit for about 5 seconds, and within two pulls (I was
yo-yo'ing lipless cranks that day) the fish and the fight were both on.
Everyone else on the water that day were fishing jigs on deeper drop offs,
and ledges, presumably where the thermocline was. We boated that 10 lb'er
that day, and a couple that were in the 3 lb range as well and the most
other fish we saw caught were some little bitty buck bass, "maybe" keepers,
but well under that lake's slot limit (16"-20"). So even on a cold day, at
the end of February, stirring things up a little can help apparently. As
well as thinking outside the box and not thinking the rules for certain
weather conditions are set into stone. These critters are smart, and know
all the rules by now too I reckon, so I break the rules a lot just to see if
I can trick another big'un into the bought on occasion.