Why Fish "Deep" in Summer

[bassfshin24]

Hester I think I just realized what u were saying....a little KVD quote?

[KickNBass]

yup...pretty good...

[RumRiverRat]

All you have to do is tell him nicely.

Ike is a few cards short of a full deck.

[Hester]

Hester I think I just realized what u were saying....a little KVD quote?

You got it.

I couldn't resist.

[buzbunni]

JPZ - The right rod/reel combo is a big help with the deep cranks. I fish 'em a lot and I'd hate it without the right set-up.

Thanks for the tips Rob.

So what would you recommend as the proper set-up for deep crankin'?

[Igor Drackenwolf]

...So what would you recommend as the proper set-up for deep crankin'?

7' or 7' 6", medium or medium/heavy (depending on the brand - you don't want it too stiff), casting reel with a little higher retrieve ratio (like 5:1 or so), 12 lb flouro.

[RK]

Thanks for the tips Rob.

So what would you recommend as the proper set-up for deep crankin'?

Personally, I like long rods for deep cranks. My current rod is a 7'11" M-d-heavy Mod-fast Powell, as an example. A long rod makes long casts with less effort, and I like it for controlling hooked fish. I also really, really like glass/graphite composite rods for cranking. It's kind of the best of both worlds in terms of how the blank behaves. You still have the responsiveness of graphite for snapping weeds off, but once you get a fish hooked you have the forgiving, slower-responding glass feel. I've used straight glass rods too, but here in MN where you fish around weeds a lot, they can be kind of too slow and mushy to snap weeds off without turning it into an upper body workout. With 100% graphite, you get too much blank speed, and it can be easy to rip hooks out on hooked fish. So a composite rod sort of addresses both.

I like my Powell, but I've fished with the Shimano Crucial TC4 rods a little and been impressed, and I know others that rave about them. Might be an easily available option if you don't like buying rods sight unseen. Plus I think last year's models are on clearance right now.

As for reels, I do like a low gear ratio reel. I've used the Revo Winch and liked it, although it was a bit on the heavy side. I currently use a Lews BB1, and love it. I was using the original BB1s up until a couple years ago because I liked them for cranks so much, and the new BB1 has a lot of the same features but with updated technology. The low speed Lews reels don't have instant anti-reverse, so there's a little back-play in the handle, but the payoff is you can really feel what a bait is doing better. That's a big part of why I never gave up my old BB1s until the new ones came out. Plus a fish hitting on the pause and making the reel handle back-spin to the AR dog so hard you can hear it is kind of satisfying...

Pretty much every reel manufacturer makes a low gear ratio reel and they'd probably all be fine, but that's what I use.

I use 12# Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon for my cranking line. It's limp enough to get long casts, is durable enough, and is pretty easy to find locally. I could use 10# but I like a little more strength when I'm cranking coontail and deep cabbage, and I'm rarely concerned enough about getting max diving depth to feel the need to drop down to a smaller diameter line. I can almost always get a DT-16 or Series 5 XD as deep as I need it to go, especially on a long cast. And with a BB1 and a 7'11" rod, you can launch a Series 5 a LONG ways.

So that's my set-up for most deep cranking. I have other rods I use for squarebills or lipless cranks, but the set-up above is the one that's on my deck pretty much all season long.