Bass Fishing part 6 - Bass on Cranks

The Bagley DB3 is one of the best searching cranks ever made, it is patterned after the original "Big O" made in Tenn, my favorite color is chartreuse and white for stained water or the Tennesee shad for clear water.

These two colors will cover most of the water suitations you may encounter. Back in the late 70's my parents ,who lived in Tenn sent me a couple of the originals made by someone who lived near them. At the time crankbaits meant the deep diver water dog ( hellbender ) don't remember who made it, a long skinny bait with a big diving lip, that dove to about 10 feet and caught quite a few bass, the creek chub pikie, a shallow diver and several others whose name slips my memory ( proverbial senior moment ).

I caught quite a few bass on these lures but fished the spinnerbait and buzzbait most of the spring, summer and fall. These were early and late in the day summer baits, with worms and jig n pigs fished during the day. Winter was the exclusive domain of the jig n pig fished on dropoffs and steep shorelines, until the jigging spoon came on the scene. It was fished straight up and down into the schools of shad found under the bird schools.

The Rapala Ice Jig was a secret bait of the bassers in the know for many years until the secret got out. Still even now it is an excellent lure for offshore wintertime bass. The secret to the ice jig was to find shad schools in open water any where from 40 to 70 feet deep and watch the ice jig sink on your depthfinder until it was just under the shad schools, than with a gentle up and down movement it would dart and dash in circles just under the shad where the bass were
waiting for dying shad which would go in dying circles, spiraling down under the school to be picked off by one of the sometimes 100's of bass that followed these schools most of the winter( they still do ) .

Most of the lakes here in Southern California are of the steep n deep canyon variety, and the shad and schools of bass, catfish, crappie and trout retreat to the deeper waters where they find stabability they need to survive the winter. But over the winter 10's of thousands of shad die and the predatory fish just hang out under them waiting for the next lunch to spiral down out of the school. To the fishermen in the know, this can be the best fishing of the year. Most of the fishermen are still pounding the coves and points for very little action.