Casting Cranks

Hi Everyone. Thought I would post a quick note about pool 10, and ask one question. Pool 10 has been very tough on the spirits. I have been trying everything from traditional to non-traditional to pick up walleyes and I have had my best luck down around mudhen and believe it or not in deep water. To be honest, after two solid days of hard fishing looking for agressive fish, I chose to throw a worm on a 3/8 oz white jig and fish a few of my winter hot spots in 20 to 30 feet, and to my dismay I picked up a few walleyes. I cannot tell you what that means but I thought that I would post it. Here is my question. Can anyone take a moment and explain the process of casting cranks? What cranks are the best, deepdivers,shallow? Are you always, and or usually in the main channel on wing dams? Do you anchor? Do you anchor above wingdams and cast down? Ect… Anything would help, I know that as the water levels down here begin to normalize the bite will turn on. Thanks guys for any advise. Happy Fishing! P.S Off the path of fishing I have a riddle for anyone interisted..here it goes: 80% of Columbia seniors missed this, and 80% of kingergarden children asked anwsered this corectly..

-What is greater than god?

-More evil than the devil?

-The poor have it.

-The rich need it.

-And if you eat it you will die.

I dont have the answer for the fish, But the riddle I just might.

Nothing is greater than God.

Nothing is more evil than the devil.

The poor have nothing.

The rich need nothing.

And if you eat nothing you will die.

so is the answer nothing?

Marble Eyes,

I think you’re about to get a small books worth of info because casting cranks has many applications. It’s a very broad topic you’re asking specific answers for. So I’m going to share what I have done successfully, and one other thing a good friend of mine has done well with.

I have been stationary (anchored, docked, land………..irrelevant) by a hole in light current at a tributary. I cast a crank over the hole and retrieve across/through the hole. Size of the hole doesn’t make much difference either but you will have to judge what it takes to work it properly. Try near the top, the middle, the bottom, steady retrieve, twitching, stop and go, ripping…………..you will need to determine the proper presentation because they all work. This situation has paid off best at late evening and after dark.

Another is banging shorelines while trolling or drifting. Again, you need to determine the decline rate and depth at your boat. Then try something that stays high, then sinks a bit, then dives……………whatever it takes and with what retrieve. Again, cast farther than you think you need to. This has been a great morning choice in the hot months or in the general spring/early summer times.

One thing my friend does is he finds a good sand flat near a tributary. In the fall when the frogs come a jumpin’ to bury themselves in mud, go there in late evening and stay past dark imitating a frog from the bank. Cast the lure up to the bank and “frog” it back toward you. Walleyes will congregate at these places and you will have a great time!

Lastly, there are a lot of publications out there regarding crank baits. Buy one or two and study them well. This will help you sight the possibilities that are right under your nose! Then, just go for it but ALWAYS be willing to change what you’re doing without reconsideration. You’ll end up wasting time. You want to find the acceptance as soon as possible and if the bite changes, you need to change too.

Good Luck!

Well, I knew I would eventually want to talk about this, so even though it’s way late at night here goes. I really had a tremendous run of fishing during the drought years of the late 1980’s. I had to sell my boat soon after as I went back to college, but there’s a new Lund in the garage so life is good again. The river got real low and real early. The walleyes were on the wingdams just as soon as their post spawn funk was over and the fishing was great. I learned alot of things about throwing cranks on wing dams during these times. A few basic principles of location always must be applied. Location, location, location. Early and higher water/flow start on the inside (closest to shore) upstream side of the wing dam and work out. As the water get lower the fish will locate farther and farther out on the dam. They can really stack up on the outer tip. I like to anchor and systematically work the dam. How far out into the river I anchor again depends on the water level and/or flow. When the fish are hot they will chase your crank and your anchor point isn’t “quite” so critical, but when the bite is waning you had better be locating your boat with precision. I remember fishing one of my favorite dams on Pigeon Island in pool 7 and I knew the fish were there but I was drawing a blank. Then I laughed when I saw how sloppy I had anchored. I quickly relocated and caught three large walleyes real fast. Now I’m not saying my way is the only way but the best way I found to efficiently fish the wingdam is to anchor fairly close to the “trough” or scour hole just upstream from the rocks. Then I try to make long casts and aggressively crank the bait laterally through as much of the trough as I can. This is not a job for wimply tackle. Try driving a Bomber Model A or a Wally Diver with spinning gear and you will have a real severe line twist problem real fast. Maybe the newer spinning rods with the newer anti twist bails are better, but I use my spinning gear for jigs, etc. That river current and fast retrieve with a hard pulling crankbait demands a baitcaster. I also learned the hard way that the rod should have some flex because those bigger walleyes will give you that last big power dive and rip the trbles out of their mouths. Again, just my experience. I like 7 foot rods for the casting distance and if they are a little soft they are more forgiving when those bigger eyes see the boat. I’ve had good luck with Abu Garcia and Shimano baitcasters, but there are many that will work well. It just takes that direct winch power of a decent baitcaster to deal with the current and retrive style of the way I fish. I used to use a quality 12 pound test line then, but now I’ve had good luck with 30# PowerPro. If you use mono, I would use a minimum of 10# and check your line often because it will take a beating. I like Wally Divers and Bomber Model A’s, but there are so many good cranks on the market it pays to experiment a bit. ShapRaps and other similar balsas are fine but they do not cast well into the seemingly constant wind and I just can’t fish a dam quite as efficiently with them, although I use them whenever they will work in a situation. Speaking of fish stacking up, I remember once up in pool 5 on a great little short dam below Alma my buddy and I were anchor just below and inside of the tip of the wingdam. A storm was rolling in and I was throwing a bigger Fat Rap. I caught 8 fish on 8 consecutive casts. I think three were northerns and the rest were walleyes. My buddy got tired of netting but his light spinning outfit simply could not drive a crankbait down to that wing dam tip. Well, I’m rambling off the deep end here and I’ve got a friend coming over in the morning to fish pool 7 with me. Hope I don’t sound like a know it all here, I’m not, I struggle plenty. I’ve been learning alot by reading this site and hopefully I can contribute a thing or two. Well, I’m off to feed Zeke, my goofy wirehair, and then to bed.

Great post Kwikstik! Thanks for sharing your philosophy on crankin dams for eyes.

Steve Hougom – FTR Webstaff

I am quite new to crankbait fishin, but found something last tear that I have rarely heard of others using on wingdams. When bite is slow, fish are not aggressive I have had some good days with a jointed rapala on a bottom bouncer or 3 way. Just anchor where I mark fish, toss the rapala in the scoure hole above the wing dam and let it set. Cranking slow every so often. It seems that the bait settting there wiggling in front of the fish aggrivates them into striking. I have also used the same rig on aggressive fish, just cast and retrieve at a much faster speed. It works for me on pool 14. I’m sure it is not the best way to catch fish, but is another thing to keep in mind.

Oh, in murky water conditions I ad a rattlin bead in front of the crank. Seems to help irritate the fish!. Hope this is some help.GOOD FISHIN’

ive also had good luck with jointed raps on 3 ways… Ive even used it with success on MileLacs…. but sometimes river fish just LOVE them…. and actually I used to use the old jointed mirrolures too……

Hey guys, great info. I’m new to this rock pile fishing thingy. I’m gonna be down Sat early a.m. to try out some wing fishing below pepin. I’ve got some, if not all the cranks mentioned above. I’m willing to try them all if I have to. I’ll let you know how I do. I bought some rattle traps last weekend, does anyone ever throw these?? I bought the 1/2 ounce models assuming I would be able to cast further, thus cover more water. I’ve never owned one of these before, anything I should know about throwing the cranks vs. throwing a shad rap??? Did I waste my money??

I tell ya, I own a 3620 tub full of these lures and I have never caught a fish on one. But Rivereyes swears by them for casting shorelines. I know plenty of people who use them and have caught fish on them so i think it’s just my timing.

There are a number of good cranks for casting. I like deeper ones like mann’s deep 10 and 15 and the stretch 20, as well as bomber model A . Sometimes they can be on top of the wingdam in 3 ft of water, the next day will be hanging at the base in 10 ft. Almost any crank will do when they are on top, but it takes a strech 20 or rapala down deep fat rap to get them out front. If the water is on the clear side, defintely use crayfish, shad, or other subtle color. If dirty, use comthing brighter. The slower the flow, fish more to the channel side. Find 2 or 3 wings holding fish and jump back and forth for constant action, rather than sitting and waiting. There are defintely times to 3-way vs. cranking, so experiment.

Awesome info on casting cranks, and working wingdams. Thank you all for the good info and the time you all spend on responding to posts of mine and others. This might sound odd but one of the first things I do after 10 to 12 hrs of construction work , family time and shower, is to come to this site. I really enjoy the information provided….I have almost become obsessed with the info, to the point of having a running binder folder of all of the info that applies to me and it is in my dry box in my boat for reference….a little odd huh..:) But anyway I really enjoy the info…I can tell you though..pool 10 has been tough this year(for me anyways), and over the last year coming to this site I think I am even more frustrated with my fishing because I know soooo much more and have not really had a GOOD day out yet….What keeps my rods in the boat though is the challenge that walleyes present. I do not mean to diss any other species of fish, but I truly pride myself on trying to become a good walleye fisherman, it is a journey for me that is very rewarding. I have just a few questions..1) for stillakid2- when you say you cast across a tributary, is it best to work across instead of casting down current and retrieve up curretn, does this apply to wingdams also, to cast parrallel with the dam instead of up and over the dam to the anchored boat above the dam?

2) So I do not necessarily have to be on the bottom to get a walleye strike?

3)Kwikstik- when I look at a wingdam the slack water(calm) is actually where the location of the dam is…correct. Do you normally get just above this slack/calm looking water? And then cast parallel with the dam?

4)Rooster- I have an x85 lowrance Do you actually see fish on the wingdams..I have seem very few true archs. What do you see? I remember one of the posts explaining that in a river I may see more of a defined line coming up from bottom, I do see this often.

5) Randyk- I have been told the chartruce color is generally the best, do you guys have better luck with the crawdad colors?

Well again thanks all, illl be excited to get to the river again…Good luck fishing!

And yes jigger2001 “nothing” is the answer..:)

MarblEyes, regarding your question for me, yes, much of the time the dam is just upstream of the ripples. This can vary a fair amount depending on the flow and the wind. The ripples are of course the turbulance created by the current pushing over the dam. Just remember that same current carries the turbulance downstream a bit before it reaches the surface, so the rocks are always slightly upstream of the ripples, unless there is extemely low water levels, low flow, or a very high wing dam (rocks very close to the surface. With a deep dam, high water, and/or very fast flow, the wing dam can be considerably upstream from the ripples. A strong wind pushing up from the upstream side, like today’s north wind, can suppress the ripples and make the dam seem farther upstrem.

I try to anchor well above the dam and ease myself closer with letting out more and more rope until im pretty close to the scour hole “trough.” Then I cast as parallel as I can. You cannot in most cases cast perfectly parallel if you are right over the trough because the current will swing your lure right onto or over the rocks. For that reason I usually try to place the boat right slightly upsteam of the trough and cast shallow angles as far as I can. Cast Cast Cast! I really focus on driving the bait deep into the trough unless I know the fish are right on top. Work your position thoroughly, then repostion the boat another casts distance away righ or left and do it over. Then it’s off to another wingdam on your milk run. Work it hard. You sound like you do. Most guys I fish with do not want to work as hard as it takes sometimes. It can be physically demanding to really work these baits like this. Pay attention to the details, work it hard, and it will come.

I primarly use an old X-4 Lowrance, and also an older Lawrance flasher. I generally have to reduce the sensitivity on the X-4 on wings to reduce the current “noise” that often shows up with turbulent water, then look for fish on the face or in the scoure hole in front of the dam. Quite often I will fish an area because I see bait fish, not larger fish on the dam on bottom. If the bait fish are there, good chance the eyes are too! I generally anchor so my boat settles in 10-30 feet above the beginning elevation of the wing dam. The slack water and ripples below can be decieving, depending on wind direction and speed, the ripple witch should be below the dam slighty may be right on top of it.

First of all, I should clarify that staying high is in reference to shallow waters. I don’t mean to imply a surface lure, but something that only dives 1-2ft. Reason being that fish more commonly respond to things at their level or above. An aggressive walleye sitting on the upper edge of a hole is in “ambush” mode and will come out of that hole a foot or two to nail and easy meal. No, bottom is not necessary, but also keep in mind that my success with these techniques has been in the last 45minutes of daylight and a couple hours past sunset.

The deal with the tribs may or may not be direction sensitive, I just haven’t had enough time in this situation to say for sure. When I was in it though, I only took hits crossing perpendicular to the current flow or slightly with it. After dark, a shallow diving rattle anything seemed to work great in a rip retrieve. That’s when you pull the lure hard with the rod in a back sweeping motion and then reel up the slack as you bring the rod back to the forward position, and repeat. The closest hole you can find in the trib in relation to the main water is the best one. All spring/summer long the eyes will hang around these areas for night feeding. Outlet or inlet hasn’t mattered for me, but I have had better numbers at the outlets. I think they tend to let the trib bring food into the main water at the inlets so those tribs don’t get traveled as much. Once they’re in these “holes”, they’re really active but a rattling suspending lure will give you the most versatility on finding the presentation they like best. Sometimes, they like ’em all and those are fun days!

as stillapup mentioned…. I love to cast “traps”…. BUT… they work best if the fish are very active…. on wingdams they pretty much have to be on top, or on the inner half for a trap to stir them up…. I also like the 1/2 oz size… you can really fling them….. these lures are awesome on whitebass, particularly on wingdams… but really pretty much ANY where they are feeding…. (just in case you like fast action and a great fight!)…. love those whities! many times on a wing dam your going to need to go with more of a deep diver to drive down to the fish…… but this has already been covered…

still dont give up on traps… give em a try! Ive used them with good success on the croix, they look very much shad like so game fish often really jump on em….

You guys are awesome!!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this site rocks!!! I learned more in 5 minutes of reading here than I would have in 2-3 hours of trial and error. Thank You all for the great info!!

Rivereyes, I tied on a trap last night, so I’ll be reporting my success(hopefully) on Sunday or Monday. I picked up the shad, crawdad and a chrome colors last weekend. I’ll let you know how I do.

Thanks again everyone!!!

I’ve had some pretty good luck with traps, especially early when the walleyes are making their way back to the river (in a NORMAL year) from some tributary fingers I fish. They give you great depth control for those medium to shallow areas. Last year I tied on one my buddie’s young son’s line to basically keep him above the snags and he outfished us pretty good. It was a very small chartreuse trap (we were using #5 ShadRaps). Good tool to have in your bag of tricks!

yeah…. I though I prefer throwing the 1/2 oz traps… there are days when the fish jump all over 1/4 oz….. and pretty much leave 1/2 alone… I think it depends on the size of shad they are nailing…. kind of a match the hatch thing I guess…..

as for colors… well chrome or shad are my favs… but cant deny that fire tiger and/or chartruese are good too, when the water is a bit murkier…. as for crawdad I have to guess it would work pretty good… I used it a lot for smallies on the upper miss and caught quite a few walleyes on it too…..

Here’s are my go-to techniques that I always start out with:

Rattle trap/rattling rap: Casting shorelines, in particular rip-rapped shorelines. The 1/2 ounce almost always produce better for me than the 1/4 ounce models. My favorite colors (pools 10 and 11) are firetiger and crawdad. The more they bang off rocks, the more fish they produce. Rattling raps usually produce better for me than the Rattle Traps.

Wally divers: casting wing dams from an anchored position. The shad raps work well, but the wally divers are just so much easier to cast that I usually stick to them.

Shad raps (usually #7, sometimes #5): Trolling the face of wing dams. I love this technique on fairly straight wing dams that I know well. It’s a very quick way to search for walleyes.

marbleyes,

As far as color and visibility, I use either chartruese, firetiger, or orange(with black back walleyediver) when visibility is poor, say less than 10 inches. If I can see a bright lure more than a foot down, I will take it off and put on crayfish in summer or shad/silver in late summer/fall. Side by side tests with a fishing partner has taught me this, at least way down here on pool 14, where it is rare to see more than 18 inches down (except in the dead of winter). Maybe the guys in the upper pools have better guidance for clearer waters than I encounter. Good luck!

I agree with waterfowler this is a cool site. Thaks everyone, like waterfowler said in a few minutes, even though I have not applied these techniques yet, I am really excited to get back to the river to try all of the great tips. Just one more question run-on question if you dont mind. Are these techniques good to work walleyes with most of the year, or is it a seasonal technique? I assume it is good all year after ice-out and up to freeze up because there are wing dams usually considerably close to the dams. Thanks everyone! Wish you all the best of luck.

well…. few things work year round… but stay tuned and we will get to the seasonal stuff during or just before the season….. as far as I know there is a distinct difference between cold water periods and warm….. the fish are located in different areas and respond differently….. so if you have a specific seasonal/technique question put it on the board Im sure you will get plenty of advice!

Waterfowler

About those traps…. I love traps and they’re super on shallow fish, but you’ll need a deeper diving crank like those raps or wally divers when the fish move deeper. I basically keep one rod rigged with one of each and throw both to cover the entire area from shallow out to the deeper water.

You certainly didn’t waste your money buying them.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

MarbleEyes

We do see a much greater visibility levels then you likely do that far south. Particularly on the lower end of Pepin and in the river immediately south. In the fall a guy can see 5-6+ feet down, no problem. Because of that, once the water clears in late spring, we do go to more of the natural patterns, perch, subtle craw, etc.

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net