I know it depend on what the fish want but I'm just looking to what you do the majority of the time. Slow steady, fast, erratic or a mixture of all three with long pauses? And do you work the deep divers the same as shallow running baits.

Needs to be contacting the cover you are fishing.

I usually run my shallow baits a little faster than the deeper ones...

and I usually 'work' mine all day ....

Precisely! If you ain't hitting something with your bait, you ain't catching fish.

Wide open when fishing on the ledges. Make sure your hitting the bottom . A lot of times the bass are sitting on the edge drop. When that crankbait flies over their head they'll smash it every time. Works well until people sink a bunch of brush piles and then you'll need to slow down

Cast. Retrieve. Repeat.

I always feel like I'm reeling my cranks too fast. . .then I watch a KVD video and realize I need to speed it up some more. . .

Like everyone else said, always bumping something, either the bottom or heavy structure like logs, rocks, etc.

I disagree with the post above. Depends what you're throwing. i do better burning 1.5's and .5's without touching anything.

Always throw a crankbait that dives deeper than the actual depth yor fishing. This will give you constant contact with the bottom. Lipless baits, chunk and wind, if it hits cover stop it, a lot of times they will hit it when you stop it.

2 of my favorite ways to fish crankbaits its to stop and go with a sweeping rod tip action, and throwing lipless crankbaits just over the top on grass or banging them off timber.

Like I'm having a seizure...

Love grinding rip-rap w/ squarebills and 8 to 10 ft divers.

Hit stuff. Reaction bite. A lot of the top Elites that are good with them fish them pretty fast a good percent of the time. KVD and Combs do this.

I guess I am the ONLY guy that crankbaits that catches fish in OPEN WATER and NOT HITTING SOMETHING!!!!!!! So, I use a 5.1:1 reel and reel/pause for most of the time. When the pause gets done, MOST of my CBs are tuned so when I pause them, they jerk to one side or the other when I pause them, so that is why I catch a LOT of open water fish. It is EASY to tune your bait that way, you just have to have a LOT of patience to get it there. I normally don't throw a retrieve for more than 10 or 15 times in a row, until I get bit and then I repreat that one. If it repeats and gets bit, then THAT is the retrieve they want. If I just got lucky and hit a fish in the head, then I keep changing. Fast, slow, moderate, pause, stop and go, quit and let it float 1/2 way up and then JERK the crud out of it, all goes to whatever the fish want. I DO catch fish when I hit things as well, but I do NOT have to hit something to catch fish. Hope this helps.

Tight lines, keepo safe and good luck.

Thad Rains