Crankbait Fishing

Why Trebles Decide the Action

Treble hooks — three hook points sharing one shaft — are small, there are two or three sets of them, and each point holds in hard tissue by a fraction of an inch. Nothing needs driving. What they need is for the pressure never to spike. A stiff tip levers a small hook straight back out when a fish shakes at the boat, which is why the rod here bends well down its length instead of resisting.

Holding a bait partway down is a depth problem before it is a rod problem. Weight and retrieve speed decide where the bait rides. The rod keeps contact with it while it is there.

That is what the medium or medium-heavy rating and the moderate or moderate-fast tip above are for. A moderate rod flexes deeply through the cast for a bait with wind resistance. More importantly, it keeps small treble hooks pinned when a fish shakes at the boat. Length lands between 6'6" to 7'6". That is long enough to cast and to move line on the pull, and short enough to stay accurate.

• 7'0" medium, moderate action casting

  Length

  7'0"

  Power

  medium

  Action

  moderate

  Casts

  3/8-7/8 oz

  Line

  10-17 lb

  A specialist that exists for one reason: keeping small hooks in a fish. The rod bends well down its length, so when a hooked fish shakes its head the rod gives instead of levering the hooks out of the small amount of tissue they hold. That same bend flexes deeply through the cast, which helps a wind-resistant crankbait fly straight. It is the wrong rod for almost everything else, and buying it before a fast-action rod is a common ordering mistake.

  Cannot drive a buried single hook, because the tip gives before the point moves.

3 Baits Fished This Way

These share a hook type and a weight range, which is why one rod covers them. They do not share conditions. Check what water each one wants before you tie it on.

• Squarebill crankbait

  Weight

  3/8-3/4 oz

  Size

  2-3"

  Hook

  treble

  Water

  stained and muddy

  Depth

  1-6 ft

  At its best along shallow banks with hard cover in stained water, where deflection off a target does most of the work. Cast tight to hard cover and reel steadily, keeping the bait in contact with wood or rock, and do not slow down when it deflects.

  Wrong over open flats or clean bottom, where nothing makes it change direction and it becomes a bait swimming in a straight line.

• Medium-diving crankbait

  Weight

  1/2-7/8 oz

  Size

  2.5-3.5"

  Hook

  treble

  Water

  clear and stained

  Depth

  6-14 ft

  Effective along defined depth changes where fish sit out away from the bank and a shallow bait never reaches them. Make a long cast and reel fast enough to get it down quickly. Then hold a steady pace so it bumps the bottom or the top of the cover it is meant to reach.

  Not the tool in under four feet of water, where it fouls on the bottom before it ever swims properly.

• Lipless crankbait

  Weight

  1/4-3/4 oz

  Size

  2-3"

  Hook

  treble

  Water

  stained and muddy

  Depth

  1-12 ft

  Best over submerged grass flats and open water when fish are active and you need to find them quickly instead of working one spot. Let it sink, counting the seconds, until it is at the depth you want, then wind steadily. When it fills up with grass, snap the rod to rip it free. Pulling it out slowly does not work.

  Poor in heavy timber or around dock posts, where exposed trebles turn every deflection into a snag.

The One Fish Caught This Way

A method this specific has one target here, and the rod requirement above is really that fish's requirement written from the other direction.

Fished in pond, lake and river water. It is a reasonable first method. The motion is learnable in an afternoon, and the mistakes below are the ordinary ones, not the expensive ones.

• Largemouth Bass

  Water

  freshwater

  Mouth

  bony

  Fight

  medium

  Covers water fast and finds fish along a bank, or where the bottom falls away, when you do not yet know where they are holding.

  Ranked 3 of 4 for largemouth bass. Texas rig is the more common first answer, so this is the one to reach for when that is not working.

Where It Goes Wrong

Fishing a crankbait on a fast-action rod, which rips trebles out of the hard tissue around the jaw.

Retrieving without ever making contact with cover, which is where most crankbait strikes are triggered.

Swinging on the strike instead of letting the rod bend and simply reeling into the fish.

Where This Decision Goes Next

• Walking a Topwater Plug

  Also fished on treble hooks, so it asks a similar thing of a tip. This is the case where one rod may genuinely cover both.

• Popping Cork

  Also fished partway down, but on a single hook. Same water, opposite requirement from the rod.

• Find the rod for crankbait fishing in your water

  Five questions, four of them skippable. The rod requirement above holds for any fish; naming yours, and the water, turns it into a specific rod — and tells you whether one you already own will do.