I've got a few crankin sticks, but have never liked the way they fish deep diving cbs. Some are e glass and the others are composites. The main thing I have a problem with is rod flex on the retrieve. When throwing a DD22, my rod is flexed more than half the length of the blank and it can be tough to stick a fish. My question is this, would a 7'6" flipping stick make a good deep diver rod?

I prefer to have the limber e-glass or straight glass rods, i never set the hook on my crankbaits anyway so flex in the rod makes no difference except for being more forgiving fighting the fish, i always just make sure to change out my hooks for one of the super sharp brands so they hook themselves. At most, i do a sweep like a C-rig hookset, but usually don't even have to do that. The only time i will use a really heavy rod on cranks is fishing grass when i have to rip the lure out to trigger a reaction strike. I'm sure you'll find people on both sides of the coin on this one, but thats my two cents.

I use a heavier rod if I have fishing hydrilla and a big crankbait. Otherwise, you can't get the bait out of the grass at the end of a long cast. The hooks are almost as big as worm hooks on the big ones anyway. Since I moved up here, I sure am missing my East TX grass!!

Randy,

There is a post about throwing DD22s below. Go read it and there is a link to a previous post about fishing the deep crankbaits. I prefer 100% graphite on all of my crankbait fishing now. I started with the composite, tried glass, but too heavy unresponsive. I have tried a friends E-glass, but still prefer the graphite. I am writing an article about the 2 different kinds of 8 ft rods I am testing for a custom rod builder and it should be released, hopefully, in a bout 2 or 3 weeks. These are are 1 piece Shikari rods, P803 and P804. They are great rods, but I still prefer just a little bit less flex, too. Set your reel up correctly and you shouldn't have problems.

Hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck. OH, I would look at an off the rack rod like the St. Croix Premier PC70MHF or the Avid AC70MHF, depending on how much you want to spend. The Premier is about $95, the Avid about $155. The PC70MHF is an all around crankbait rod that I can throw DD22s to the Footloose on.

Hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

I use a St. Croix PGC70MM and it works great. 12 lb line and chunk & wind. I've not had a problem to date.

Thad, I've got a PC66MHM that I use for shallow cranks. I've tried it with the DD22 and it was alot better than my e glass rods, just couldn't get the distance on cast. Looks like I need to buy anther StCroix in 7' with a little more back bone . Guess I'll have to chunk a little more money at BPS and find a better deep cb rod. Thanks.

I agree with you, many of the glass and combo rods are too whippy for the big deep divers and are overloaded on a basic retreive.

The best tip i can give for deep cranks is use fluoro line. Especially when digging deep, with 8 or 10 lb test, the fluoro gives much better feel. Definitely need it when fishing tree tops and submerged grass, too. This allows me to go with a slower action rod that will fight the fish better. I usually go with the graphite/glass combo rods. If I am fishing cranks along deep weedlines and need instant feel so the crank won't bury up in the grass, I'll go with a 7' to 8' graphite rod with MH power and fast action. Lose a few more fish fighting them with these, but you hook a lot more because you're not buried in the grass.

A couple cheap but capable fiberglass or combo rods I can recommend are the Browning Silaflex rods in 7' MH, lots of backbone for a glass rod and only about $30 on sale at BPS. The Bass Pro brand cranking stick, the 7.5' one, will cast a deep diver about 10 yards farther than the 7' Browning (I tested them head to head with the same bait and reel last fall). I've had good luck with the Castaway combo glass/graphite rods, too.

At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I'm not sold on high dollar rods. I used to fish all Loomis, now I have a couple left in the garage and usually let customers fish them if they need me to supply rods. IMHO, they weigh less but don't give a considerable amount more feel than the $20 to $100 rods. I can't recall the last time one of my "cheap" (if you can call a $100 rod cheap) rods broke, but I've seen a ton of customers' $300-$450 rods break. My cheapies get stepped on and knocked against the side of the boat and keep coming back for more.

When trying to get baits deep, 7.5 or 8' rods mean longer casts, which mean deeper running baits. You need to learn the crack the whip loop the bait around your head surf caster type cast with the bait dangling about 4' feet off the tip if you really want to fling it out there. Just make sure the other guys in the boat duck when you cast!

LOL, re-reading my post, I need this ice to melt and get my butt back on the lake. 2nd day off the water and cabin fever is already setting in! The first bass that bites my jig tomorrow had better look out, I'm going to let her have it!

Hey Randy,

I actually use a medium action Long range Launcher from Castaway as my crankin' stick. It is a collapsable 7'6" rod that gives you a ton of leverage on the hookset.

If you point the rod at the bait it can't flex much. Maybe point it 15 degrees away. If you point the rod away from the bait it is harder to control it. Stop and go's and changing speeds will work better if you point the rod at the bait.

I use a 7 foot eglass rod but to be honest I don't use many big CB's. The advice I learned from D Fritts.