Entry 121-4

All About Emily Shaffer

How Shaffer Fishes the Crankbait

Editor's Note: In 2004, Strike King pro Emily Shaffer finished 5th in the Women's Bass Fishing Association (WBFA) and fished the FLW tour, one of the two largest national professional bass-fishing tournaments, for the first time. Emily, one of two ladies fishing FLW, laughed and said, "I caught bass in every FLW tournament. The only problem I had is everyone else caught more bass that I did." Emily is one of only two ladies fishing the FLW tournament, which is one of the two largest national professional bass tournaments.

SK: Emily, what is your favorite crankbait?

Shaffer: If I can only pick one crankbait it will be the Strike King Series 7. However, right now Strike King doesn't make a crankbait bigger than the Series 6, so I guess I'll have to settle for the Series 6. I like to fish the Series 6 on my A44CB All Star Emily Shaffer Cranking Rod. The real secret to fishing these big crankbaits is to make really-long casts on light line. I particularly like 14-pound-test line.

In the summertime when I'm fishing the Series 6, I'll bring the bait back to me as fast as I can. But in the springtime, I slow down my retrieve and try to give the bait more action, twitching it, stopping and starting it, etc. When I'm reeling the bait really hard, I point my rod tip down to get more depth. I really like to get my crankbait down deep. Most people don't really burn a crankbait in the summertime like I do, but I've learned that I can't reel a bait faster than a bass can swim to catch it.

SK: Are reel ratios important in fishing?

Shaffer: When I was fishing at Lake Tenkiller, I caught 14 bass on 14 casts, and my partner looked at me and asked, "What are you doing that I'm not doing?" She was casting the same lure that I was casting, but I was catching bass, and she wasn't. I asked her what the gear ratio of her reel was. Hers was a 5:3 gear ratio, and mine was a 7:1 gear ratio. I was cranking the reel as fast as I could crank it. Although many people won't believe that a bass will take bait that's moving that fast, but I know they will.

SK: How did you discover bass would take a bait moving that fast?

Shaffer: When I was practice fishing at Lake Tenkiller, I had cast out, and a bass went after my bait and missed it. So I started reeling my bait in really fast, and another bass attacked the bait. I cast out and reeled in really quickly and noticed I caught more bass. I began really burning the crankbait and found that the bass wanted to take the bait like that.
 

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