Entry 123-3

Mark Davis - Weird Ways to Catch Bass

Shallow-Water Crankbaits Fished Deep

Editor's Note: Mark Davis has been successful in his fishing career. He's not afraid to try different and unusual tactics and baits that most anglers don't think will work under certain conditions, but they just do. Most anglers who know Mark think of him as a creative fisherman. In other words, he's not locked into only fishing particular baits at specific times of the year, under certain water and weather conditions. Davis has the ability to think outside the box and willingly uses various strategies that most people won't attempt to fish with, and therefore catches bass that most people won't take. This week let's look at some of the off-the-wall tactics that have enabled Davis to catch fish in ways no one else has considered using.

Davis: Most often when bass are deep, anglers will usually fish for them with deep-diving crankbaits. Now deep-diving crankbaits are big crankbaits like the Strike King Series 5. However, we all know that little lures get more bites than big lures do, so how do you get a little crankbait down deep? Here's what I do. Instead of using heavy line on a heavy rod to fish a big crankbait, I use 6-pound-test line and my spinning tackle. Instead of fishing with a Series 5 crankbait, I use a Series 3. By changing the tackle like this, here's what happens.

  • You can cast that Series 3 much further on 6-pound-test line than you can cast a Series 5 on 18- to 20-pound-test line. Because you can cast the lure further, the lure has more time to get down deeper.
  • Six-pound-test line not only allows you to cast further, but because it has a smaller diameter, it will allow the lure to get down deeper than the larger-diameter line will.

In a tournament situation where most fishermen may be catching bass at 10-feet deep on a Series 5 crankbait, by using spinning tackle, 6-pound-test line and a Series 3 crankbait, you can get a little crankbait down deeper than that 10-foot depth. Too, you'll receive more strikes because you're fishing a smaller lure. Time after time I've used this technique all over the United States, and I've consistently caught more bass than I've been catching when I've used the bigger, deep-diving crankbaits, especially in tough tournaments.

I'm sure you've always heard, "To get more strikes, downsize your lures." This reason is why many anglers will fish the little 4-inch finesse worms, downsize their jigs and downsize their spinner baits when fishing conditions are tough. But when you downsize crankbaits, you want to learn to be able to downsize without giving up water depth. If the fish are holding in 10 feet of water, you're using a Series 3 crankbait on 14-pound-test line, and your lure is only getting down to 6 or 8 feet of water, then you won't be putting the lure in front of the bass. Remember that when you downsize, you have to make sure that the smaller lures are fishing in the depth where the bass are holding. Therefore many times you can compensate for what is a loss of water depth when you fish with smaller crankbaits and spinning tackle, make long casts and use light line.
 

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