Bass Fishing Hacks
Simple Hacks and Tips to Help You Catch More Bass
What is a good crankbait rod for bass?
A good crankbait rod will be a slow action rod, meaning that the top 3/4 of the rod will bend when you apply pressure to it. A slow action rod has advantages over a fast action rod like casting farther and applying less pressure to the end of the line when you set your hooks. This helps prevent your hooks from tearing free during the fight with the fish.
You will want a responsive fishing rod with a good feel for what the lure is doing on the end of your line. The key to catching bass with a crankbait is often contact with underwater structures like rocks, stumps or submerged limbs. The crankbait is designed to bump into things without getting snagged on those things.
It is very important to bump into things with a crankbait to maximize your bass fishing success. The bass see it as a prey item of some sort trying to escape from them. This will often cause them to strike your lure out of instinct even if the bass are not in the mood to eat.
I am a Bass Fishing Charter Guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been catching bass in the ponds, canals and lakes all over Florida from more than 40 years. In the article below, I will teach you what I know about using a crankbait and the proper gear for effectively fishing with a crankbait for big bass.
Let’s get started.
Watch the video below and learn the best rods and reels for crankbait fishing.
What is good action for a crankbait rod?
You need a good, strong slow action when you are using a crankbait. This can come in the form of a baitcasting rod and reel or a spinning rod and reel. Either way you will most likely be fishing with a rod that has medium power and slow action.
The more bend that your rod has throughout its length, the slower the action will be. This means that your rod has some give to it as you are burning it through the water column. That give will allow you to get a good hook set on the bass without tearing your lure from their mouths. A stiffer rod may tear the lure right out of the fishes’ mouths.
A slower action rod is not as quick to let you know that a fish has just hit your crankbait. This gives the fish a second or two more time to get the crankbait in their mouths before you apply pressure on that fish. This second or two lag time might be a reason why you catch more bass versus miss more bass when you are fishing with a crankbait.
What is a crankbait rod made out of?
Crankbait rods are made out of fiberglass, graphite, carbon fibers or a hybrid of the substances most of the time. Fiberglass is the cheapest of the various rods because they are easier to make and fiberglass is abundant. Fiberglass rods are usually less sensitive than graphite and carbon fiber rods.
Graphite rods are more sensitive than the fiberglass rods are. Graphite rods are very expensive and you can pay upwards of $200 just for the rod. By the time that you get a reel your crankbait rod and reel combo will cost $250 to $300. That is expensive if you ask me.
Then there are the composite rods that are a hybrid of various substances. Composite rods are usually better than fiberglass rods but under perform versus graphite rods. You also can expect to pay less for a composite rod than you would for a graphite rod. However they are more expensive than a fiberglass fishing rod.
Composite rods perform somewhere in between a fiberglass rod and a graphite rod. You will have to decide what kind of rod is best for you and your bass fishing abilities. Most of the decent rods that you can find will cost you at least $60.
I have found that to be the least amount that you want to pay for a fishing rod. When you get one cheaper than that, they usually are not worth using and will fail you. That is the last thing that you need to happen when you have your personal best fish on the end of your line, right?
How do I improve my casting distance when I fish a crankbait?
There are lots of ways to improve your casting distance when you fish with lures.
1) You can increase your rod length. The longer the rod, the further you can cast. That is why those surf casting rods that beach fishermen use can be 14 feet long. Those rods can cast 100 yards or more. Increase your rod length to increase your casting distance.
2) You can decrease your fishing line diameter. The smaller the diameter that your line is, the more efficiently it will leave your reel spool. This is why a light braided line can increase your casting distance by quite a bit.
3) A slow action rod will have more bend to it and you can use that flex to catapult your lures farther. This is usually a medium action rod that will have more bend to it. Slow, fast, medium, heavy and not standardized measurements so you have to guess and test the rods to see how they will perform for you.
4) If you use heavier lures, then you will be able to cast them further than light ones.
5) You can increase the length that your crankbait is hanging from the end of your rod tip. In other words, if you have two feet of length from your rod tip and your lure, then it will go farther than if you only have one foot of distance.
How do I improve my hook up ratio when I fish a crankbait?
There are a lot of little tricks that you can use to improve your hook up ratio when you are fishing for bass. The best thing that you can do is sharpen those hooks. A sharp hook will get those bass that you would have missed if your hook point was bent or dull.
The next thing to do is use hooks with a wide gap. Those wider gap hooks definitely catch more fish than those narrow gap hooks do.
Next on your to do list is keep constant pressure on the fish once you have it hooked. You cannot let that fish get any slack in your line or you risk losing it. Keep constant pressure on them until you get them in the boat.
How much does a good crankbait rod cost?
You have to spend at least $60 dollars to get a good crankbait rod from what I have seen. That is about the bottom of the barrel cost that you can expect to pay for a decent crankbait rod. The top of the line crankbait rods will cost you around $200. Try to find a rod that you like that is somewhere within that price range.
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