CRANKBAITS FOR ALL SEASONS

 Everybody including myself has been faced with the task of finding where are the walleyes today especially when we take on the challenge of a new lake or reservoir.

Where do I go and what do I use. Even stops at the bait shops can leave questions in our minds. The best way to locate the walleyes the quickest and to get to know new waters can be the crankbait. This doesn’t matter what time of year. Just after ice out we know that the walleyes are headed to spawning beds but on the reservoirs out west with water levels changing every year these spawning areas move and the quickest way to locate the walleyes is with a crankbait.

Water temperature doesn’t matter it only tells us sometimes the type of action we should start with on the crankbait. Early in the year semi aggressive action usually fits the bill while later on as water temperatures warm up the more aggressive type actions work better but cranks work for all seasons and most of the time the crankbait will trigger the bigger fish in the schools that we locate.

One stop at a bait shop on a new lake the owner told me that crankbaits had not worked for over a month on that particular body of water. So like I always do with water temps in the low 40s and the spawn just coming to an end I filled the baitwells with minnows. In two hours time and only one small walleye and several missed strikes I decided it was time to go cover some ground. We switched to crankbaits and over the next three hours we boated and released over thirty walleyes and every strike was a bone jarring strike.

No more peck peck and oh I missed another one. I’ve had many repeat days just like this several times over the years. Early summer walleyes can be caught on anything it seems like but crankbaits will still catch the bigger fish and just as much as live bait.

Then come the dog days of summer. Forage numbers are at their highest numbers and walleyes are full and it seems like we can dangle live bait in front of them forever before they will take it. With water temperatures very high and fish that are scattered this time of year this is an ideal situation for a crankbait. Cover ground and expose our crankbait to as many walleyes as we can. These walleyes are full and they don’t have to exert to much energy to feed with all the abundance of forage but that crankbait is something different and it’s acting different and moving faster and a walleye can’t let that crank pass without hitting before it gets away. To escape the heat of the day, some fisherman only fish at night. I don’t let the heat push me off the water anymore. There have been countless times that I have started pulling crankbaits right in the middle of the day when most other fisherman have went to find shade and a nap that I’ve caught and released several limits of walleyes. Several of my biggest walleyes ever have come at this time of day. It’s a great time to be fishing since I have the lake to myself on days like this.

Fall comes and the water temperature drops and the walleyes put on the feedbag getting ready for winter. Again the crankbait can put numbers in the boat and almost always again these fish will be the biggest fish of the day. In each situation we have to experiment with speed color and which crankbait to use but once that’s discovered switch everybody over the same crankbait and the trip will be one to remember. Normark makes a great selection to cover all the situations we’ve been talking about. The shadrap is usually my first crank to use especially the suspending rattling shadrap. It can be fished slow to fast and anywhere in between to give the walleyes what they want. The new tail dancer can also fill the bill on certain days and if it’s a real aggressive action with a rattle the walleyes want the down deep husky jerk does the job. All of these baits come in a wide variety of colors and sizes so that we can experiment until we find what the walleyes want on any given day. Normark is always coming up with new colors and styles every year and each time the new baits catch walleyes.

What speed and depth? Questions I always get asked. Let the walleyes determine that for us. Watch the electronics to see what depth most of the fish are holding. Look in the Precision Trolling guide to determine line length. Snap weights or lead core can be used to get down to the deeper fish. The advantage here is we can use smaller crankbaits or shallow diving cranks and still get down to the depths necessary for any given situation. What line to use is you’re choice. I like the superlines myself but others prefer mono. Use what you are the most comfortable with and have the most familiarity with. The main thing we want to experiment with here is which crankbait, which depth and what speed is it going to take to catch these fish.

Do crankbaits work for all seasons? Yes they do and the results can be surprising with both the numbers and the size of the fish they catch. Give them a try at various times of the year and the results will keep you coming back for more.

Good Luck and great fishing.

Terry L Wilson