Are crakbaits worth throwing in the hot summertime????

[lwanggpack]

depth is more important than temperature.

[aclark609]

I live and fish in Missouri.. This time of year the temps are hitting 100 degrees daily. I always stick to senkos, texas rigged worms and jigs. Are crankbaits a good option when it gets hot!

I live in Northwest Arkansas and fish Southwest Missouri lakes in the summer. In those deep reservoirs, fish move out to offshore structure and breaks relative to the thermocline. A crankbait is an excellent choice. Preferably, a big deep diving crankbait for that situation. If there is shallow cover, a squarebill crankbait is another good choice. Fish em' fast and get those fish to react, but make sure your bangin' that crankbait into somethin' on the deep bottoms or into shallow cover depending on what your fishing.

[aclark609]

I live and fish in Missouri.. This time of year the temps are hitting 100 degrees daily. I always stick to senkos, texas rigged worms and jigs. Are crankbaits a good option when it gets hot!

In addition to my previous post, a crankbait is one of the easiest and quickest ways to catch bass in my opinion. People who choose not to throw crankbaits during the summer are truly missing out. I seen a post saying that bass are holding tight to cover when it gets hot, and this is true, but, in my experience, they hold tight to cover up shallow to stay out of the high water temperatures. You can throw a shallow runner if the cover is not too heavy but remember to bang it off the structure you think they are holding in. If you are going to get into crankbait fishing, the most important thing you make sure and do is bang it off structure. That's the key to getting bass to react to it. Don't forget the offshore structure as well. Bass school on these areas in the summer. Grab a topo map. Find some ledges ranging from 14-18 ft and run a deep diver over those ledges. Quite possibly the easiest way to rack up some bass. Equipment is important also, but that's more of a personal preference. I at least need a rod that has a moderate-fast taper and a low gear ratio reel like a 5.4:1. Crankbaits are extremely effective not only for catching fish, but searching out the bottom and finding structure that can hold fish. I hope this helps. Good Luck!

[Gblaze]

I enjoyed this post - never thought about cranks in this way. Makes sense to target the thermocline though

[EJP1234]

I fish the shallow east coast tidal rivers, and besides really shallow diving cb's like 1-'s, there wouldn't really be a productive cranking spot that comes to mind... you could I guess crank the grass edges but it wouldn't be the most effective pattern. When it's hot summer here on high tide for moving baits it would be chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, 1-'s and buzzbaits.... when it's low tide its flippin and froggin time for the most part... Though I am sure, someone, somewhere on the river has a deeper cranking pattern I am just not aware of.