Kevin VanDam Spring Fishing Tips: The Crankbait

a lot of our lakes up here you know they're shallower they've got some vegetation in them you got to cover a lot of flats they may have a little bit of color in the water my number to lure first thing in the spring and again these are baits that as soon as the water opens up and I can start fishing out there as soon as we get water that you can launch a boat in even sometimes when the lake is still half frozen I can go out there and I'll catch bass with hard baits like this so you know a lot of guys think you've got a fish a grub or a jig or something like that but most days the best lure for me in these real cold spring scenarios are hard baits like this lipless crankbait now this is a straight King Rhett I shed tremendous tremendous early season lure what I love about this is you know it's a typical lift let's crank mates got a lot of bb's in it so it makes a lot of noise but the real unique thing about these baits is the flat sides that they have they have a real tight vibration to them and there's something about cold water and in crank baits that have a real tight wobble that bass just can't stand so you know with this you can just cast it out there and start with a steady retrieve and just you know truck you know just try to reel along and a lot of times you can catch some fish by doing that but what I found with this bait is it's the way that it falls that makes it really effective so most people just fish them like this they just kind of reel them in with us with a straight retrieve if you can fish it around some grass or some vegetation you hit some grass you can kind of rip it free a lot of times that will trigger a strike what I do with this is I have a whole system that I use with these crank baits and first off you notice I've got it rigged on a pretty big rod this is one of my own tour series crank bait rods that's a composite between glass and graphite so I kind of get the best of both worlds I get the sensitivity of graphite so I can feel if I've got any weeds or slime on the hooks even the slightest little bit with that graphite it tells you everything that that baits doing even on a really long cast and what the glass does is it gives me a nice soft action and it makes the the action of the of the rod a lot slower what I mean by that is if I hit a stump or a rock with this bait the rod unloads a lot slower than a graphite rod a graphite rod when you when you bend it and let the snap out of it it immediately jumps back into into that original space and that doesn't allow that bait to really deflect off the cover as well so that's why I like glass for crankbaits is the way that that slow action allows that bait to deflect if I'm fishing it around rocks or stumps or grass things like that the other thing by having a real long rod like this is it really gives me depth control and what I want depth control for was this bait right here it sinks you know so I want to get it down to where it's going to be down there near the bottom and if I'm fishing a shallower flat say it's 2 3 4 foot deep I can cast the bait out there and fish it with my rod tip up and you know with a seven plus foot rod like this it keeps the bait a lot higher in the water column if I want it to run deeper say I'm fishing a deeper flat or the weeds are a little bit deeper I can put my rod tip down and it allows that bait to run a lot deeper with the exact same size of line then if I've got a couple of these different outfits rigged one with say 10 pound test fluorocarbon and I always use 4 carbon 4 crank baits ok fluorocarbon is Tamiya is a must for your crank bass in you jerk baits what fluorocarbon does is it first off as it sinks so it allows your crank mates to run a little bit deeper it's real low in stretch so that it gives you tremendous sensitivity and a really good hook set even with a soft rod like this and the other thing is is it's really really abrasion resistant so the durability aspect of it is is really good so for crank baits always fluorocarbon if I can't get the bait to hit the bottom the thing about a red eye shadow is is the way that it falls is it it stays perfectly balanced unlike other lipless baits that want to flip over on their side this one will stay perfectly balanced and it kind of Wiggles as it goes to the bottom but when I drop this in the water just with a slack line watch how it just shimmies to the bottom but when it falls like that can you see the way it swims to the bottom if you rip it off of a piece of cover like that and drop it like that a lot of times you're going to trigger a bass in the striking so what I'll do is I'll make a nice long cast start my retrieve and I'll just kind of sweep the rod to the side and as soon as it falls like that a lot of times that's when the bass are going to going to bite it so with a lipless crankbait like this instead of just making a cast for you just burning it back to the boat and you're not stopping it or anything at all every time I let that bait fall I've got a potential of triggering a bass to strike so I'm going to pull it to the side let it fall put it pull it let it fall kind of yo-yo it along and that's when they're going to bite it is is when it falls like that it's got that wounded swimming action down the bottom I didn't see what happened there but it looked good and with that with that bait right there every time you can come in contact with something and you rip it up like that and it's it flutters down you got a great chance of catching one's attention like that and they just can't help but bite it they don't think about it it's not that they're actively feeding or chasing anything but they react to that bait it's that tight action it's the the sound of those babies it's the vibration that these baits give off and then you match that with a natural color something that there used to feed on and they can't help themselves but to bite it so you know a bait like this is tremendous bait it's one of the first things that I'm going to use a lot in the spring of the year and colors like this are very natural for our lakes you know uh most of the bass and our Lakes feed on crayfish and bluegill so those are the color patterns that I'm really going to use early in the year like that you got clear water like this you want natural colors if you've got a stained water and that's what I want to use bright colors you know I might use a chartreuse or a red fluorescent colors that are more visible but in clear water like this you want to pick something real natural and that's that's the way that I really want to start out the year you

Channel: Sportsman Channel

Views: 3,759,688

Keywords: Sportsman Channel (TV Network), Kevin VanDam (Competitor), KVD, Spring, Fishing, Spring Fishing, Bass, Pro angler, Bassmaster Classic (Recurring Event), Bassmaster winner, crankbait, Chicagoland, Chicago (City/Town/Village), Illinois (US State)

Id: 6Jlh2q0li4A

Length: 6min 40sec (400 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 13 2014