Entry 135-3

Kevin VanDam - How I Make Bass Bite

Make Them Bite the Crankbait

Editor's Note: Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin VanDam, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was the 2001 BASS Master's Classic Champion and won the BASS Angler of the Year three times. VanDam's a student of what makes bass bite, and he will share the information he's learned with us this week.

Question: Kevin, what are you doing to make bass bite a crankbait?

VanDam: I always want my crankbait to come in contact with either the cover or the bottom. Most fishermen want to keep their crankbaits from hitting something, but I want my crankbait to hit something all the time. I'll give you an example of why I like my crankbait to hit something. Say there's two types of people in front of a hungry lion, and one of them is a track star who runs in front of the lion as hard and fast as he can, and the other is a drunk who bumps into trees, falls down, stumbles and crawls on the ground. Which do you think the lion will eat? I want my crankbait to look like the drunk in front of the hungry lion. I want it to bounce off cover, dig in the bottom, pick up mud and silt along the bottom creating a disturbance and making a different sound than the bass is accustomed to seeing and hearing. I want to engage the rattles in thecrankbait, so the bass will hear the crankbait coming and be looking for it when it gets close to him.

In clear water, I'll usually fish the crankbait the opposite way. I may fish the crankbait up off the bottom, where the bass can see it better than if it's on the bottom in cover. When the bass are suspended over the deep water in the summer months, or in the fall when bass are chasing shad into the bays, the shad are either on the surface or higher in the water column. Therefore the bass are looking up to see the shad above them. At these times of the year, I won't use the stumbling, drunk type of retrieve with the crankbait. Instead, I'll use the type of retrieve I use for the spinner bait.

I'll reel the crankbait really fast, pull it up off the bottom, stop and then reel really fast again for about a foot. Next I'll stop the bait again and then reel it fast for about a foot. I'll often use my rod tip to pull the bait, then stop it and pull it again. But just as I do with the spinner bait, I want tokeep my line tight even when the bait isn't moving. Therefore, if I'm pulling the lure with my rod tip, the instant I stop the lure, I'm taking up slack with my reel. This way, even though the bait isn't moving, I still have tension on the line, and I can still feel my lure.

Another tactic I use is to retrieve the lure really fast, stop it and let the lure float up about a foot in the water. Next I reel really hard, causing the bait to dive again and then stop the lure and let it float up. The bass will usually attack the instant the bait starts to move after the lure has been stopped. When I'm fishing a crankbait in dingy or muddy waters, unlike most fishermen who crash a crankbait into cover, kill the bait, and then start the retrieve again, I use just the opposite retrieve. When my crankbait hits cover, instead of stopping my retrieve, I speed up the retrieve. Now, this tactic isn't absolute, but it will work when your crankbait is hitting boat dock pilings, rocks, stumps and other types of cover that don't have a lot of brush. However, if you're fishing a deep-diving crankbait through a shallow brush pile, this type of retrieve probably won't work. Instead, work a big, deep-diving crankbait through the brush slowly. Just as the crankbait comes clear of the cover, jerk the rod tip, make the crankbait sprint out of the cover, and then stop it.

Another tactic I use is what I call the stupid shad tactic. If I'm retrieving a crankbait toward a piling at a boat dock, I'll use a steady retrieve until the crankbait is about 2- to 3-feet away from the piling. Then I burn the crankbait as hard as I can so it will hit the piling with a loud thump. Once it hits the piling, I pause the bait just a fraction of a second and then start burning it again. I'll stop the bait again, making the crankbait look like something has chased it and it didn't see the piling when it hit it. The crankbait looks dazed for a minute, starts swimming away quickly and then stops to clear its head before it starts swimming again. I've found that most of the time, bass attack not when I crash the bait into the piling and pause it, but when I speed up the retrieve and stop the bait the second time, this is when a bass is going to eat the crankbait.

One mistake I think a fisherman often makes with a crankbait is he gives up too quickly. Often I've made five or six casts to the same piece of cover before I can get the bass to strike. Once again, think about the hungry lion watching the drunk coming toward him. That lion may not attack the drunk the first time he falls down, or even the second or third time. However, when that drunk falls in front of the lion the fifth time, the lion will attack.

Bass are predators just like lions. When a bass sees a stupid shad crash into a structure four or five times, that bass will decide the bait is too easy to eat and not pass it up. So remember, when fishing a crankbait around a piece of cover or in open water where you feel certain the bass are looking at your crankbait, make four, five or even six casts to the same spot to try to force the bass to bite. Even if a bass isn't feeding, when that fish sees an easy meal two or three times, his instincts will tell the fish to eat the bait. Bass are programed instinctively to attack and eat a crippled or wounded bait.

Kevin VanDam - How I Make Bass Bite

Make Them Bite the Crankbait

Next: Make the Bass Bite the Jerkbait

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