Finer Points Of Deep Crankin'

Paul Elias became known for deep cranking after his "kneel and reel" technique helped him win the 1982 BASS Masters Classic on the Alabama River in Montgomery, Ala. The reason he was kneeling and reeling was because at that time, deep-diving crankbaits didn't exist.

But Mann's Bait Co. and Elias saw the potential. They got together, and a few years later Mann's came out with the 20+ crankbait.

While that and subsequent baits from other manufacturers made it easier to fish crankbaits deeper, to fish them successfully isn't a matter of just casting and reeling. You have to understand the finer points.

Provoke the Bass

"Crankbaits provoke fish into striking," Elias says. "One of the main reasons is because of the way they deflect off the bottom, and off cover on and near the bottom.

"There may be a school of bass in an area that's not active, but when you throw crankbaits you can make them active. And once you get them active, the whole school starts feeding. That's the real plus of crankbait fishing. You can quickly catch a good stringer of fish."

Best Times

The best times for deep-cranking are spring and summer, Elias says.

"The most productive time is post-spawn into the summer, when fish leave shallow water and go to their deeper-water hangouts, or places closer to deep water. In the South and Central part of the U.S., it's good from May all the way through October, though the better part is May-July."

He notes that many anglers think this is water 20 feet or deeper, but he's talking about "anywhere from 5 to 15 feet with deeper water close by."

The other productive time Elias lists for deep cranking is pre-spawn, particularly on Southern reservoirs that have shallow ledges. "The fish get in the same places they get during post-spawn, but they're not on as many places as in the post-spawn," he says. These ledges can be near spawning cover or in open water near river channels.

An example of where this pattern works well is Lake Eufaula in Alabama, he says. "You can catch lot of schooling fish in February and March -- they tend to spawn in March and April -- on summer ledges. But you only have a short window, about 4-6 weeks, when fish move out of the deeper winter habitat" onto those ledge areas.

Understanding the Baits

What deep-diving crankbait to use is a question that "confuses a lot of anglers," Elias says. "They look at a Mann's 20+ and see that as meaning it's supposed to run 20 feet deep, or a Norman DD22 is supposed to run 22 feet deep. But that's a myth to a certain extent because you can't get that bait to go that deep on a normal cast."

Elias explained: "Say you make 40-yard cast with a 7-foot rod. A 20+ will probably get in the 14- to 17-foot range, depending on the diameter of the line. That's probably about as deep as you will get it.

"So the thing that you normally do with deep-diving crankbaits is to overpower the water you're fishing. In other words, a Mann's 20+ works very well in depths of 8-12 feet. That bait gets down to that depth sooner, so you're in the strike zone much sooner and longer than you would be with a bait designed to run only 8-10 feet deep."

The Right Action

But that means you'll be scraping bottom, right? "Most of the time, the main thing you want is that bait digging in the bottom," Elias says. "That's the most important thing."

That said, "the most productive areas in the places you're fishing normally have some type of cover on them, and you want that bait deflecting of that cover. If you have the bait digging into the bottom, when it runs off a rockpile or stump or whatever's down there, it will shoot off and provoke a strike."

The Right Retrieve

The next major question is how to retrieve the bait. Elias says he typically uses a steady retrieve until he feels it hit some type of cover.

"I think of it as a potential place where fish live," he says. "When I feel the bait hit it, I remember that I'm trying to make the bait look real. So I stop it and then speed it up, like a baitfish trying to get away. That can cause a reaction strike from a bass that might not be in a feeding mode."

Deep-Cranking Gear

Even with all of that knowledge under your belt, you need the right gear to pull it off. Here's Elias' deep-cranking equipment:

> A 7-foot Quantum Tour Edition cranking rod (fiberglass)

> A Quantum Energy reel -- "You want no more than 5.1:1 (retrieve ratio)," he says. "Anywhere from 4.4:1 to 5.1:1. My favorite is a 4.4:1. It's a lot less work on you when you're working the reel, and I also feel like the bait gets deeper with a slower retrieve."

> Trilene XT 12-pound-test line (clear)

> "My main deep-running crankbait is the Mann's 20+," he says. "Another standby bait is the Mann's Paul's Crankbait." His favorite color is chartreuse/brown back. "To me that represents a bluegill-type color, and that's probably the main forage for most of the bass in the country."