Casting, not trolling

The impending cold front was making a maelstrom of the reef: wind fueled white caps were making the little shoal into a surfer's dream... 2 foot breakers and a current flow to make a river proud. Underneath, perch and bluegills were darting about, grabbing invertebrates and plankton with sheer abandon. A Crusty Crayfish, invasive in these northern Minn. waters, grabbed a piece of "what the >&*^ is that?" and scurried back(we eat those things?) to her hidey-hole. Lurking, unseen, was danger in waters roiled. Thirty-five inches of spotted skin and sharp teeth hid in a non-descript clump of Cabbage weeds.

Suddenly, a loud PLOP! veered the attention of all predators. It hung in the waves for a moment, and just sorta ambled off, wiggling back and forth, kinda mechanical in movement, and it rattled(what kind of fish rattles?), maybe a little flash, but really was more spooky than edible. None of the adult fish made a moved on it, and it shortly just went away. Moments later, another splash grabbed the attention of the reef-dwellers. Rather drab-minnow in color, it hung on the surface for just a second, and quickly dove for some unseen morsel, stopping at 3ft...and just as quickly, it jetted away, another 3-4ft. for another piece of flotsam. Sensing an easy meal, 22in. of bronze muscle exploded from her lair and inhaled the hapless prize.

Hopelessly outmatched, the lucky angler simply held on for dear life, and 4lbs. of thunder simply ground the 8lb. test mono to shreds on a handy log. 7 bucks of debris floated to the surface an hour later, when the human intruder was trailering his vessel.

Let's talk crankbaits. Our most expensive tool, these guys take up the bulk of a tacklebox. In northern waters, I'm a CD-9 guy: cast good, work good, hook good. Gold/black...silver/black.....nuff said
. Action is the game, erratic is the game.

Excellent description. Haven't used a Countdown in a long time. Took some to the Keys one time and the barracudas loved them but pretty well destroyed them (saltwater pike, or, are pike freshwater barracudas?). I really like the DT series, they also cast well. I take less crankbaits to the Q every year. This year will only take about 7 or 8. Seems like Plastics, topwater and spinnerbaits are my go to baits.

I should own Gene Larew stock!

Get a few huskie Jerks and work 'em like your trying to snap your line. Zing, Zick, Zing, zick...WHAM! And I ain't talking about George Michaels.

Excellent description Arlo. It isn't a jerk that imposes the best action on the husky jerks or x-raps, it is a snap. Big difference.... about the same difference between George Michaels and ZZ Top...

I dont use cranks nearly as much as I use to, but the Purple descent Taildancer, the black and silver shad rap, and the db6 are probably my 3 favorite cranks that I use .

Yeah....run 'em down...snap, snap, pause....snap, snap, pause...run a few feet and repeat. The more neutrally buoyant, the better.

wow bassnut are you a writer? Catsing cranks is like playing a slot machine. I hate losing the 5 to 7 bucks but always toss anther one in.

I'm not a writer, sorta a wannabe...got published once, but I don't write "nice" stuff.
The one place I use cranks a lot is trolling. Troll to find active pods of fish. If you can catch fish a couple of similar places, you.ve got the makin's of a pattern...then you can just peruse a map and find similar places and clean up. It's called Pattern Fishing.
Partner and I use 2 very different types of cranks, at different depths. He likes a 1/4oz. Hot-N-Tot, trolls to 8-14ft. and makes a wide wobble. I like a SR8-9 Shap Rap, trolls to 10-20ft., and makes a narrow to medium wobble. So we are appealing to a wide range of activity levels of the fish. Wide for more active fish, and more subtle to neutral fish. We also vary speed, from one person paddling to both, briskly.
Important to know the casting and trolling depth of the lures. Trolling a whole different animal...anything can be trolled: minnow-worm spinner rigs, cranks, jigs(on May trip will be experimenting with 1/2 to 1oz. shadheads and 4-6in. swimbaits(Big Hammer).

I might add that the crank slot machine has paid off many times as well as taken my money