by Terry Robertson
It was a mid-August Saturday on Toledo Bend Reservoir; a 185,000 acre man-made lake on the border between Louisiana and Texas on the Sabine River.
My friend, Jack Barre, and I were trying to put together a five fish stringer to weigh in but were having a hard time catching one of any size. We had two fish for five pounds in the live well. The mid-morning temperature was already nearly 90 degrees, with no wind and bluebird skies. Jack said to me, “Reel in. We are moving deep.” He started the engine and handed me a sexy shad colored Strike King XD and said, “Tie this on a stout cranking rod. If you lose it, it’s $15 bucks.” I picked a 7’6” medium heavy cranking rod and before I could tie on, Jack slowed the boat and said, “Not enough rod for what we are about to do!” I went back to the box and picked an old 8′ heavy Powell rod that I had won in a tournament years earlier. I tied on the long-lipped Strike King XD and sat back until we reached our destination.
The summertime deep crankbait bite is something every angler should try.
“How deep are we?” I asked. “Thirty-one feet. There’s a long ledge under us that drops off from twenty-two feet to thirty-one feet and goes a hundred yards in each direction. The graph shows a huge ball of shad just below the ledge,” said Jack. Jack was also fishing the XD but in a blue back chartreuse. He fished one direction from the front deck while I fished the opposite direction from the back deck. On my second cast, I felt the rod load as soon as I got the XD to depth. It felt more like I was reeling in a clump of weeds than a fish. I swept my rod tip in an attempt to set the hook, anyway. I had made such a long cast, it was several seconds into my retrieve before I knew for sure I had a fish. The closer I got her to the boat, the more she fought. Jack scooped her into the net and when we got her into the boat, I had to sit down a while to catch my breath! She weighed almost eight and a half pounds and put us back in the game. Jack and I caught several more good fish off this ledge, culled our two early fish and put together a twenty-eight pound stringer. We got a check and a 7′ 6” medium heavy rod each, as prizes. I looked at Jack and said, “Not enough rod for what we do!” We both laughed.
Prior to this tournament, deep water fishing was not something I did regularly; nor had I been very successful with. I now consider myself primarily a deep water angler. It is definitely my favorite method and I utilize it throughout the year on many different water bodies.
WHERE:
Look for structure in 15 to 25 feet of water. Structure, though sometimes used interchangeably with the term “cover”, is not the same. Structure refers to the physical characteristics of the lake bottom like ledges, drop-offs, points, creek channels, or humps. Cover refers to features like tree or log piles, rocks, sunken boats and such that bass use for protection and a place to ambush bait fish.
Look for long underwater points leading to deep water.
Look for any contour changes that stand out. The more aggressive the change, the better.
Look for deep water rock piles or log
piles. Try to bump the piles with your bait. If you can mark a pile adjacent to a structure feature (ie: dropoff, ledge, channel,etc) you have found an ideal location.
Look for creek or river channels in the
fifteen plus foot depth range.
Look for deep humps. The dam from
an old pond that existed prior to the lake always seems to hold fish.
Once a good line of structure is located, scan the structure itself looking for any break in it. A break could be any distinct change in that particular structure. A change in the lake floor from sand to gravel or shell; or a large rock or pile along the structure; or an intersection of two differing structures such as a point that runs across a creek channel. These spots are “the best of the best” and often hold entire schools of bass.
TACKLE:
7’6” to 8′ medium heavy or heavy crankbait rod. Some guys prefer more action as it loads the rod for the long casts, and provides some cushion when fighting a fish. I prefer the heavy action rod with more backbone. It allows me a better feel to read the lake bottom and gives me more heft to turn a running fish. It takes a long, strong rod to make a long cast with those heavy baits; and the longer your cast—the deeper the bait will dive.
I favor a 5.1:1 baitcasting reel. The low gear ratio reel has a lot of torque which makes the retrieve easier. A slow reel also helps to keep your bait in the strike zone longer.
Fluorocarbon line is strong and abrasion resistant which makes it preferable around cover. Fluoro also sinks which helps the bait to run deeper. Braided line with a fluorocarbon leader is also a good choice. Twelve to fifteen pound test fluorocarbon will handle most any bass you hope to catch.
LURES:
Long flat bills are a bad idea for ball caps, but perfect for deep diving crankbaits. There are too many good ones on the market to list here. The 6 inch long Strike King 10 XD has been my go-to mostly because it is what I started with. I have also had good luck with the Megabass Deep-Six, and the 6th Sense Cloud 9 C25 or Crush 500. I change the hooks to a long shank 1/0 on all of my deep diving baits. There are many to choose from and you can spend as little or as much as you desire. Some will make you cry if they hang up at 25′ deep.
TIPS:
Long casts are a must. It takes some time and distance for those deep divers to reach their target depth; and keeping it in the target area for a long distance is more difficult at deeper depths.
Quickly get the bait to target depth, then you can play with retrieve speed. Often, varying speeds will trigger a bite. Try to bump the bait along the lake bottom.
Keep your rod tip down low on the retrieve; even under water is good. This will help the bait stay in the target zone longer by reducing the retrieve angle.
Bait colors don’t seem to me to be that important. I usually try to match the baitfish of my area. Some guys try to go the other way and have their bait stand out from the native baitfish. Do whatever gives you confidence. I believe we are searching for a reflex bite and color doesn’t play a huge part in that. A large number of these deep fish have never seen a crankbait.
The summertime deep crankbait bite is something every angler should try. The action can be non-stop when you get into a school of big bass. Deep cranking is more than an early morning and late evening bite. Deep cranking is an all day affair if you have the physical strength and stamina to throw the oversized bait that long. It really isn’t as difficult as it may seem, especially thanks to modern electronics that make the search for deep structure easy. Those hot, still days when beating the bank isn’t working out, go deep and change your luck.
