"go-bassn" wrote in message
...
Good strategies Sim, nice job! I yoyo the lipless cranks in cold water
myself, if that doesn't work I burn em as fast as I can reel. Good
stuff...

That's my modus operandi Warren. And if those two fail, I get out a
spinnerbait. How crazy is that? Crazy, I know, but it works. I start out
slow rolling it and speed it up if nothing happens. Last thing I try then,
if all else fails, is using a spinnerbait like a jig. I've caught some
unsuspecting bucket mouths that way too. Especially in stained water where
the falling blades give it a little more "visual" if I have a darker skirt
on it, I guess. I still struggle with enticing fish with regular jigs, so I
am backing into it by using something I know *ok* enough to emulate one.
Last month, after the water started to cool a little, I even caught a fish
using a spinnerbait with the skirt removed, with small gold colorado type
blades, and a 4" red/flake senko on the hook as a trailor. Just bouncing it
down a riprap-ledge like a regular jig. My fishing buddy thought I was nuts
for even trying it until I hooked and boated a solid 3# fish with it. (We
only caught 3 fish all day...) I figured those poor fish see SO many c-rigs
in their lifes on that riprap, that something different might get me an
extra bite or two, and it did. Granted, our other 2 fish were caught on
c-rigged lizards that day, so it ain't all bad advice I guess.

WW

"SimRacer" wrote in message
. ..

"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.