DOG DAYS OF SUMMER: DEEP CRANKING
Trey Thompson: Co-Owner and Host of The Onecast Podcast
The dog days of summer are extremely exhausting on the water, especially when there is a lack of wind and cloud cover. However, those brutally hot days can result in some of the best bass fishing you’ll have all year. While you may not catch the heaviest bass, you may catch the most! But, you have to know how to find them, and have the right equipment to get them in the boat.
When the bass are done spawning, and the water temperatures start increasing, those lethargic bass start moving into deep water. Depending on where you are fishing, deep is relative. The southern reservoirs in North Carolina have some of the best offshore, deep water fishing in my opinion. Our lakes in the Piedmont region have ledges, brush piles, rocky points, and standing timber. Knowing all of this, I will always have a deep crankbait tied on!
Once the thermocline sets up, which is where the majority of the oxygen is, I start using my electronics to target those summer bass on and around the structure mentioned above. I use 2D sonar and side scan imaging to locate the fish, and I am looking for them to be relatively close to the bottom. Where the fish are positioned in the water column is extremely important for deep cranking.
After I have located a good school of bass, I will launch a deep diving crankbait using a Cashion ICON 7’6″ Mod/Fast Medium/Heavy Deep Crank rod (iCDD76MHMF), using 12lb fluorocarbon. This Cashion rod paired with a deep crankbait of your choice will allow you to feel the nose of the bait digging into the bottom of the lake! You can literally feel every rock, stump, brush pile, etc. Sensitivity is extremely important, especially because getting your bait hung up vs. hooking into a 6lb largemouth feels very different.
This Cashion ICON Deep Crank rod will let you know once you have a fish on because of the way it loads. There is no hook set necessary, as you see or feel the tip of the rod come to a dead stop and pull back, just give it a good lean to the left or the right. The rod does all the work for you, it allows the hooks to penetrate, and keeps the fish pegged while it is jumping out of the water and trying to make a run into deep water.
I can’t tell you how much the proper fishing rod matters as it pertains to certain techniques. This rod is always the first to be used when I find a school of bass located in the bottom of the lake. But, the other technique I love to use this rod for is when the bass push bait fish to the top of the water and start blowing up! If you fire a deep crankbait into the middle of the school of bait fish, you’ll usually hook up with one of those aggressive bass! They put up a hard fight, so my Cashion ICON Deep Crank rod is my number one choice!
