Deep Crankbaits. Frustrated.

Been trying to learn these lures for a couple weeks now, to the point where im almost exclusively fishing them. Got a setup for them. Low gear reel, 8' med heavy fast action rod.

I know I should be throwing them long and bringing them back slow, getting them down to the bottom.

Got some DTs and XDs. Chart/Black, Chart/Blue back, Blue back white and Chart/white.

Ive graphed until I found fish in up to 20', dredge the heck out of some points and other structure, and still not had a bite. I know its post spawn and finding them concentrated can be tough right now, but what am I missing?

Keep looking. Not all you see on your graph are BASS. UNLESS you have one of those new hyper mondo Ultra HD super duper XD Sidescan Downscan 360 Universal 3d Computer Generated Graphics Units!
OR they might not like your lure colors! BUT that's a different POST Subject!

Change angles. Are you casting to the fish you're seeing from various positions and angles before leaving the spot? You can't always trigger them to bite but sometimes a slight change in boat position and cast direction can fire one up. And change/vary your retrieve. Sometimes they want it crawling across bottom and sometimes you want to be really digging. If you're not reeling fast enough to maintian bottom contact AND deflect off obstructions, you're not gonna get many bites. Finally, if you're marking fish on bottom, adjacent to some type of structure like a hump or steep drop, the fish probably won't feed well until they're up on top or the edge of that structure, but still on or near the bottom.

Come to Sugar Lake with us on May 18-21 and I'll teach you everything I know about fishing deep divers.

^^ This AND Watch KVD this past week on Toledo for a visual aid Youtube will have something on it I'm sure soon. Pretty impressive how hard he works to get those fish fired up and active.

Keep in mind that 20-30 plus bass will sometimes group up in spots about the size of a small coffe table that means you have to make a super precise cast exactly to the spot the are! In open water with slight breeze you can move 10-20 feet and not even realize it. If you miss their location by 5ft you may not get bit! Now after you catch one or two and fire the school up and the bass start getting competitive! Then you dont have to be so precise. So just hang with it keep dredging it out! If you still having problems with it give me a call!
(903) 681 5636

The old hiway 455 thats under water in Ray Roberts is a great place
to crank. Deep ditch on each side,caught a lot of bass off that ole road.

Bottom contact and burn it threw them and get them fired up then slow it down.. I also get over them with a spoon or drop shot to get them fired up then back out and crank it

KVD and Combs reel the heck out of them. You often have to trigger the strike. Bass will eat out of instinct even when they aren't hungry. Deflect off something and it can be wham.

One import thing is the fish need to be there. Fish that aren't there can't bite no matter how you fish the crank.

If any of you want to go to Sugar we have a open seat. May 18-21

Just keep at it and be patient.

One of the things I do is to change speed of the retrieve. Stop and go, fast, slow, medium, reel down and rod sweep then do it again. PAY ATTENTION TO WHEN YOU GET BIT, to replicate that retrieve again and again. If they fire up, no need to pay attention, because they will normally bite anything that is close to them, but not always. I catch a LOT more bass in open water than digging bottom, because of the retrieves I use. I also trick out the bait with a feathered trailer, if they don't want to bite what I am throwing, works like a charm, SOMETIMES! If you do put a dressed treble on it, watch your line when you are reeling in and make sure that the lure is coming straight too you, because the dressed treble can throw the balance off by quite a bit.

Quick question. Is the bait coming at you from under the boat, where you are standing? If not, you may need to turn your lures so they work correctly. Sometimes, I tune a lure to go to one side or another, depending on what I am trying to do, like hit a dock on a straight cast, that depends a lot of how the baits are running right now. Hope this helps. If not, feel free to PM me and I will see if I can help more. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

I think your last statement about it being postspawn may be the issue. They might not be there yet. If you identified the lake you are fishing it might help.