Are Crank Baits Effective On The Upper Niagara ?

[Bow Man]

Just curious to know if anyone uses or had any succes using crankbaits on the upper niagara? Was thinking of the Strike King KVD square bill 1.5's.

[jordanl]

like any lure; time and place. there are many spots on the upper to toss cranks for walleye

personally i have tossed small cranks around the mouths of the creeks and had bass, aggressive pannies, and musky follows.
my go to lure is the clackin rap cn6 in silver color, they are deadly and will catch pretty much everything. i imagine if you toss a bigger crank in perch pattern, or a goby color youl have some musky on your line.

[rile]

Bass and musky for sure! The smallies really seem to favour cranks on the larger size. Id throw something that would dive deeper though, my dad and brother usually have luck casting big risto raps, x rap shads, dt15s to drop offs for bass, for skis, depthraiders, believers, stalkers, jakes/grandmas, legend perchbaits, ernies can all produce casting or trolling. Straight cranks seem to produce more due to the clear water and are better for bottom bouncing although i have heard of guys doing well night fishing for skis on jointed baits.

[bigdog]

I like lipless cranks (SK Red Eye, LT Lipless Craw or Gizzard Shad, Cotton Cordell Super Spot) and I either lift and pause on the retrieve or burn it straight back. It depends on the conditions and time of year. Smallies and largies like them, especially post spawn females around the creek mouths or the opening to the marinas. They also work well over weed and grass beds...rip it out when it gets stuck.

I use billed cranks (SK Pro Model, LT Craw Cranks, Spro Little John's) for open water for Smallmouth. You can cover the entire water column with dive depths. I find flashy, large profile baits in the middle of the water column (6-8' depending on where you are) are most successful for me. I use a pull-pause retrieve or burn it back to the boat. Pull and pause is when you sweep the rod back, then reel up the slack line as you get the rod back into position to pull again. It makes the bait dive quick, and on the pause slowly float (if using a floating crank) or suspend in position, then take off again.

Square bills and coffin bills I fish mostly in shallow water, around docks and rocky shorelines. They deflect better and because they have a smaller bill don't hang up as much.

Two cranks I am really looking forward to using this year is the Live Target Baitball, especially early spring in clear water and the Hunt for Center models (LT HFC Craw and Rapala Scatter Raps) They should be fun.

I use a Shimano Cumara Reaction Series (CUC77M) 7'7" MED/Fast with a Shimano Citica 201e 6.3:1 Super Tuned. I throw mostly 10lb Suffix Flouro, it has a bit of stretch, casts far and thinner flouro allows the bait to get down quicker and even a bit deeper. The more time in the strike zone, theoretically more chances to catch fish. I would prefer a slower retrieve, but left handed baitcasters are hard to find in anything other than a 6...unless you want to spend big money. I occasionally use braid w/leader for lipless cranks in certain situations. Fishing over grass and weeds allows you to rip it free easier, there is too much stretch in flouro. Most times I use a slow to medium retrieve...but let the fish dictate what you use. Experiment. And don't forget to bang the crank into everything you see. Those deflections and quick movements trigger strikes.

PS - CRANKS DON'T WORK IN THE RIVER AND IN NO WAY ARE THEY ANY FUN!!!

[Bow Man]

Cheers everyone, i am off on a little shopping spree this weekend, so was curious to know about effective crankbaits..... so by the sounds of things looks like a "few" are on the shopping list.

I should add i fish from shore and the areas i fish are a mix of open water and weed beds. So any more suggestions on must haves would be great.

Big Dog great info and feed back i appreciate it!

[bigdog]

Try the lipless. You can control them better around weeds. If you raise the rod tip high it should carry over any real bad snags. Lipped baits still want to dive.

I would also recommend trying the Live Target 3" Lipless Craw Crank. Its 3/4 of an ounce, which would allow you to cast it quite aways out from shore.

Fort Erie will provide deeper water closer to shore and will be a good place to throw diving cranks. You can also get a NYS (US) License ($50 for Non-Resident) and fish early season and hit the shallow water for the big females. Early spring is a great opp for big fish on cranks.

[Ola]

we tried to hit the american side wading for early smallies last year but came up blank on shore access spots. same as we find on canadian side, so much is private so we just keep driving and driving and getting no where. we did find some in the creeks but not really what we were aiming for.

[bigdog]

A lot of early season bass fishing is observing and waiting. Weather, water temps and wind can make timing critical.

My focuses would be, pre-spawn - look for fish close to wintering spots with access to shallow water, find the warmest water (shallow bays with dark bottom).

Spawn - I don't usually bother fishing bass during the prime time spawn, I switch to pannies, perch and silvers.

Post Spawn - look for creek mouths, small shallow bays or back eddies, docks and marinas. females will be coming off the beds and hunting for food. Awesome time for big bass.

I will cruise around local Canadian waters and watch for bass and try and figure out where they are. Most times, they are doing the same thing on the US side.

Keep a log book. Write down, the date, current weather, water temp, water conditions and structure or what the fish are holding in. It will help you year after year to recognize what keys items will trigger the pre/post spawn. It will make your fishing experience better overall.

[ChefMick]

Livingston lures DM 20 sexy watermelon for me.

[Joe468]

Big dog has hit it right on the nose. I like to stick with bait fish patterns and have had a lot of luck with Live Targets smelts in the river. I use 13 fishings Envy rod in a medium action fast and their Envy series Crankbait rods. 12 flurocarbon and either 5.3:1 or 6.3:1 reel. Every person has their own touches on rod reel and line combos. Niagara Bassmasters are having and info night on crank baits on Feb 12th feel free to come on out and talk everything crank baits and have Tom Chopin from live target lures there to talk about their baits. I'll be there as well love to hear peoples opinions on crankbaiting. One oft favourite things to do.

[fishfight]

I fish with a friend once who brought with him a mini suitcase( original case just for specific lure) full of difference size and diving depth Rapala x-rap, that was all he ever used whenever he fished with me on every lake. I was using heavy spoon, flat fish, jig on grubs most of the time at niagara river to control lure action on the current. This fellow was using fast retrieve on his x-rap, while I was applying slower retreive on my lures. We were both successful that day. When we went to some kawarthas lake, his x-rap consistently land a decent size under 40" musky, even if some of his x-rap gets semi-destroyed from the fight, he does not care.

Crank bait has more possibility of catching pike and musky, aisde from bass, while spoon, jigheads, flatfish, etc... catches mostly bass and other smaller fish. I also landed trouts at the lower river with crankbait.

Last year, one of my friend tried a small mepps spinner that could hardly cast far, to our surprise it landed a 24" pike not too far from the boat. We also witnessed 8 musky that day in pairs, under 36" , but non of them could be bothered with any of our lures. they were not even spooked on our boats , just swam straight to whatever direction they were moving.

I landed a 36" tiger musky with a Dollarama 6" crank bait, the lure moved erratically due to being somewhat defective. I just retrieve slowly knowing it had some minor issue, and Fish ON! hooks on the lure was not too sharp, so it was easy for me to take them out of the fish.

[mslovak]

Have not fished alot of crankbaits there but did see a show earlier in the year of Fishfull Thinking where they were getting smallies on the Upper Niagara on live target cranks!