By Mike Frisch and the Fishing the Midwest Team
In the summer months, the water is warm, the fish are hungry, and there is a lot of food in the water for the fish to eat. The predator fish have a lot of options on their menu, so if we want to get them to bite the bait on the end of our line, we need to show them something that appeals to them. With so much real food in the water for the predators, making our bait more appealing can be a challenge. That’s why we like to use crankbaits in the summer, especially when it comes to walleyes and largemouth bass. Following are some ideas for making your crankbait attractive to walleyes and largemouth.
In the summer, our favorite way to figure out what the walleyes want is by trolling a crankbait, or better yet, trolling several crankbaits. When you’re fishing an area that allows multiple lines per angler, get as many crankbaits out there as allowed.
Crankbaits come in a wide variety of shapes, colors, actions, and sizes. There’s a reason for that: Sometimes the fish want a particular shape, color, action, or size. We need to give them what they want, and the best way to figure out what they want is to show them several shapes, colors, actions, and sizes.
Walleyes generally prefer longer, thinner profile baits. Sometimes they like a bait with a fast wobble, other times a bait with a slower wobble will be more appealing. In two line states, if there are three of us in the boat, we’ll have six lines in the water, and to start, they’ll all have a different bait unless we’ve got current info that one bait is performing better. We’ll probably have a Hornet on half the lines and a Slick Stick on the others. These are both outstanding walleye baits, but they certainly look and act differently in the water. If the water is clear, we’ll have some baits that are bright in color and others that are more natural appearing. In stained water, we’ll probably start with all bright baits. We’ll separate them with Off Shore in-line planer boards. This is the most efficient way of presenting them to the walleyes. When the fish show a preference, we’ll start switching baits. By working in this manner, we can really dial in to what the fish want.
Largemouth bass are a different deal. We’ll be casting to them along deep weedlines mostly. It’s really hard to troll effectively along a weedline. There are points and corners and such that make a trolling pass ineffective. Your bait will be either fouled in the weeds or in unproductive water too much of the time.
Largemouth bass generally prefer a shorter, fatter crankbait. Bass eat a lot of shorter, fatter baitfish, so it’s good to show them a bait that resembles their prey.
Bass will certainly eat longer, thinner baits like we use for walleyes, but put the odds in your favor and start with the crankbait that looks most like their prey.
However, just like the walleye baits, most of the shorter, fatter baits have different characteristics. If two anglers are fishing, they should be throwing baits that are different in action, color, and size. Maybe have one angler throw a deep-running bait and the other use a bait that doesn’t run quite as deep. Bluegill, perch, shad, and crayfish are good colors to use, but blue/chartreuse is a color that doesn’t resemble much in the way of baitfish, but it catches lots of bass. Keep experimenting with colors until the fish show you what they want.
Crankbaits are outstanding summer fish-catchers. If you give them a try and keep these ideas in mind, you’ll learn for yourself just how effective they can be.
As always, remember to include a youngster in your next outdoor adventure.
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PHOTO – Mike Frisch with a summer walleye that ate a crankbait.
