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    Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs
    Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs
    Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs
    Ebook143 pages2 hours

    Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs

    By Greg Vinall

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    About this ebook

    Crankbaits, minnows and plugs are among the most versatile and successful styles of fishing lure - yet most of us use them to 10% of their potential at best!

    That's a lot of missed fish, but it's also a fantastic opportunity for better catch rates simply by understanding these lures better and using them more effectively! With the help of this eBook you can start doing that today!

    Part of the reason that so few fisherfolk use this style of lure effectively is that the range of lures (which all work differently and require different techniques) is bewildering! And, crankbaits are still evolving quite rapidly, with lure companies constantly bringing new ideas to a hungry market.

    The evolution of crankbaits has resulted in numerous specializations, such as square bills, lipless, deep divers, broke-backs and jerkbaits, to name just a few. We now have crankbaits that will catch fish under almost any circumstances. But how many people know how to use them all?

    It's a massive confusion! What crankbait do I use and when? What color? How do I fish it?

    This eBook answer those questions by methodically discussing each crankbait style and providing simple, easy to follow tips for using them. It provides examples of suitable lures for each of the techniques described, saving you time and money buying the wrong crankbaits for your fishing needs.

    It provides dozens of facts, tips and techniques that will help you catch fish whether you fish from boat or bank, cast or troll in fresh or saltwater, for all types of fish.

    The bait styles covered include floating, sinking and suspending, lipless, jointed, square bill, shallow, medium and deep diving.

    I trust that this eBook will allow you to go forward armed with a better understanding of crankbaits and with renewed confidence for using them.

    As we all know you will always catch more when you fish with confidence!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGreg Vinall
    Release dateJun 8, 2016
    ISBN9781311514165
    Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs
    Author

    Greg Vinall

    I'm a professional aquatic scientist, passionate lure fisherman and avid lure maker. I've been teaching other people the art of making custom hard bodied fishing lures from wood and plastic for over 10 years. In recent years I have taken this passion online, publishing the most comprehensive guides to wooden lure making available anywhere online. Check out my blog and free lure making articles at https://makewoodenlures.com

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      Book preview

      Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs - Greg Vinall

      Mastering Crankbaits, Minnows And Other Fishing Plugs

      100+ Lure Fishing Tips And Tricks

      Greg Doc Lures Vinall

      Copyright ©2013 Greg Vinall

      All Rights Reserved

      Contents

      Introduction | Succeeding With Crankbaits | Crankbait Types | Tips And Tricks | Custom Crankbaits | Conclusion | Author | Free eBook And Tutorials

      FREE eBook & Video Tutorial: Wooden Lure Making 101!

      Ever considered making your own custom jerkbaits, crankbaits or other hard bodied lures?

      It's fun and it's easier than you think!

      To download a FREE pdf copy, go to makewoodenlures.com/wooden-lure-making/

      Introduction To Fishing With Crankbaits

      These days there must surely be very few, if any, serious lure fishermen out there that don't own at least a couple of crankbait style lures. They are not only one of the most commonly available lures on the market, they're also the most versatile and effective fish catchers you could hope to own, so let's have a look at this amazing group of lures and how you can use them to increase your lure fishing success.

      What's Covered In This eBook?

      Crankbaits are a very diverse group of lures, and encompass a range of body shapes, actions and fishing styles. Over the decades, the line between various lure styles has become blurred partly by the abundance of specialist styles and hybrids. This has created some confusion surrounding the naming of the various styles. To give an example, to some people the term crankbait refers to lipped lures of all types, while for others the term refers only to those short, rotund, stocky little comma or shad shaped lures that are largely intended for fishing freshwater.

      In this eBook I have taken the more liberal of the two definitions, so the information presented here covers minnow lures, plugs, shads, deep divers, shallow runners, square bills, jerkbaits, ripbaits, wobblers and bibbed/lipped lures, broke-backs, countdowns, lipless crankbaits and rattlebaits of all types. These are all different types of crankbait, in my view.

      Others may disagree with this naming convention and that's fine; I don't wish to get caught up in the debate about whether crankbaits are a category or a subcategory of lures. If you are one of those people then I hope you'll look beyond these semantics and focus on the real value presented in this e-book. Presenting the information as I have here enables me to concisely describe techniques for fishing all of these styles in the most logical and concise manner.

      Throughout this eBook I've used the terms crankbait, bait or just lures generically, but they cover all of the above styles.

      Lipped crankbaits

      As the name suggests, these lures are fitted with a plastic or metal diving lip on the underside of the lure, near the head. The diving lip creates drag when the lure is pulled through the water by the tow point, which causes it to not only dive and to stay submerged, but also to swim with an enticing wiggle as it is pulled through the water.

      Lipped crankbaits can float, sink or suspend when they are on a slack line, plus they are highly variable in terms of their diving depths and swimming action. They might contain rattles and typically carry two sets of treble hooks, although three sets of trebles is not an uncommon configuration and a few lures carry just the one set.

      Lipless crankbaits

      Obviously these are not fitted with a diving lip but are instead designed to create a swimming action and vibration using the shape of the lure body itself, the careful placement of the tow point and the internal weighting to create balance.

      Lipless crankbaits usually tend to be sinking lures, although there are a few floating ones around. A large proportion of lipless crankbaits contain one or more internal rattles to create plenty of noise, and most can be retrieved or trolled much faster than a lipped crankbait.

      Must Know Crankbait Essentials!

      My aim in publishing this eBook is to provide you with a whole bunch of tips, tricks, techniques and ideas for getting the most out of fishing with crankbaits. But before you start launching into hardcore crankbait fishing there are some basic things that you have to do right.

      For regular crankbait users this stuff is second nature, so rather than put it up front in this eBook I've simply summarized here and have provided more information in an appendix at the end of the eBook.

      Choosing Tackle For Crankbaiting

      Whether you are tossing lures for bass or other freshwater quarry, or are out on the sea chasing pelagic gamefish, you'll have greater success if your rod, reel, line and crankbait are properly matched and balanced. Line selection is particularly important, as it affects the diving depth and swimming characteristics of your lure. The above link will provide guidance on crankbaiting tackle.

      Attaching A Crankbait To Your Line

      A mistake made by a lot of newcomers is to attach their crankbait to the line using a snap swivel or to tie the line directly to the tow point. Both can quickly ruin the action of a delicately balanced crankbait. Small lure snaps can be ok at times, but I recommend learning to tie a loop knot directly to the tow point. The above link will take you to directions for tying my preferred knot, the Lefty's loop.

      Tuning A Crankbait To Swim True

      Not all crankbaits work perfectly straight out of the packet and it is sometimes necessary to tune your brand new lure to get it to swim true. The link above will show you how to do this correctly.

      Success With Crankbaits – 5 Pro Tips Get You Started

      Pro Tip 1: Know the working depth of your crankbait

      Bass Pro Mike McClelland famously wrote in his excellent book Walleye Troubleshooting:

      "The foundation of effective crankbait fishing is very simple; know the depth your crankbaits run. Until this knowledge is in hand, all the other crankbait questions are very insignificant. After all, if you can't get the bait to the fish, how could color, shape, action, or models of crankbaits make any difference whatsoever……"

      He went on to add:

      "……. trolling below suspended fish doesn't produce"

      It’s a fact that the vast majority of strikes come from below or to the side of a crankbait and that it is relatively rare for a fish to take a lure that is worked below it. This is particularly true when fish are suspended mid water.

      My personal experience in both fresh and saltwater indicates that there is a sweet spot of 2 to 6 feet (1-2 m) above a fish that seems to be the optimum distance for maximising hookups. So if my sounder shows fish suspending at 10 feet (3m), I’ll start with a bait that works at around 6 feet (2 m) and see what response I get. If I draw a blank, I'll go a little deeper and try again. Experience tells me that in this situation running a bait at a depth of 10-12 feet (3-3.7m) will most likely result in no strikes.

      It’s important to know that the working depth of a particular crankbait isn’t the same under every circumstance, either. For example, a lure worked in saltwater will have a slightly shallower diving depth than the same lure in freshwater, one worked on heavier line doesn’t dive as deep as the same lure on lighter line and a crankbait worked on braid will go deeper than one worked on mono.

      Pro Tip 2: Fishing to hunger and reaction strikes

      Serious crankbait fishermen often talk about hunger strikes and reaction strikes as the two reasons why fish get their lips wrapped around a bait, but what do these terms actually mean?

      Hunger strikes occur when the fish are actively hunting and feeding - in other words they hit your lure because they are hungry, as the name suggests. They may be stimulated into hunting aggressively by events such as a baitfish migration, warming water or pre-spawn conditioning. Or they may be lazily foraging and picking off food items that they come across.

      Strikes are usually easy to get when fish are already in an aggressive feeding mode - it is usually a case of matching the hatch by selecting a crankbait that is the right size, shape and (sometimes) color to imitate the natural food source. Then it’s a case of presenting it well and imparting the right kind of action.

      That's not always the case though, and most crankbait fishermen have experienced situations where the fish have been aggressively feeding but don't seem to take anything we throw at them, no matter how close it might look to their food source in our eyes. There's no doubt that those can be frustrating days, and there is little to do but keep experimenting with different lures or different retrieves until you stumble upon a formula that works.

      Reaction strikes happen when a fish hits a lure out of aggression, annoyance, self defence, territorialism, or for any reason other than hunger. In my opinion, we probably underestimate the proportion of our strikes that are actually reaction strikes.

      Like hunger strikes, reaction strikes can be aggressive or they can be passive. For example, a fish that aggressively defends its territory or is engaged in spawning might be fierce at keeping other fish away and can slam a passing crankbait very hard. Meanwhile, a fish in cooler water or in a lazy mood might not show any interest in a crankbait until it has been pestered with 8 or 12 or 20 casts, at which point it might become annoyed enough to attack the

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