When bass stray shallow during the spring, short-billed crankbaits like Bomber Fat Free Shallows, Excalibur Swim’n Images and Rebel Wee-Rs work great for making those bass attack. These tips will help you make the most of shallow cranking:
-Knock on Wood – Crankbaits generally draw the most strikes when they are bumping cover or structure. While ticking the bottom will do the trick over points and humps, shallow crankbaits often need to bounce off stumps, brushpiles, laydowns and other pieces of cover that bass use as ambush points. A Wee-R is ideal for knocking on wood because its square bill deflects the cover.
-Shorten Up – If the fish are holding in laydowns or tight to other shallow cover, position your boat close to the cover and make short casts. With long casts, you spend too much time with your crankbait in the water but not really in the strike zone. Fish that are buried in cover are far less likely to get spooked than are open-water bass, and you can put your baits among the fish far more efficiently with short casts. Using a shorter-than-normal rod will give you greater accuracy at short distances.
-Search For Stain – Bass tend to stray shallower and feed more aggressively in stained areas of lakes, especially in lakes that are generally clear. After rains, run up creek and river arms and fish the first stained water you find. If the wind has been blowing hard or boating traffic is heavy, look for mud lines along dirt or clay main-lake banks that waves crash against.
-Wobble Widely – When stained water or cloud cover creates low visibility, tie on an Excalibur Swim’n Image and fish it quickly through the shallow water. The ultra-wide wobble of a Swim’n Image displaces a lot of water, helping lateral-line-feeding fish hone in on it. In addition, it can be worked quickly across very shallow flats, which bass tend to move to when the water turns muddy.
-Work the Breaks – Current commonly is one of the biggest factors that pulls fish shallow. In fact, river bass commonly can be found in very shallow water from spring through late fall, whether the water is clear or muddy. Current brings bass food, but the bass don’t like holding in the swift water. Therefore, they’ll be in eddies, close to current lines, waiting for food to pass. Watch for cuts in the bank, boulders, dock pilings – really anything that breaks the current – and be sure to present your bait from upstream so it resembles the natural drift of a baitfish or critter drifting in the current.
-Consider Your Line – Line size can be critical to shallow cranking success, but there’s no single right size. To keep a crankbait ultra-shallow and get fish out of the cover, you might want to throw even a small plug on 17- or 20-test Silver Thread Excalibur. Lighter line, however allows crankbaits freer action. The key is to consider the impact of line size and to be willing to adapt.