Crank Down Hard Baits

The original crank down, Mike Shaw’s MS Slammer. Image:msslammer.com While most die-hard bass heads around the world avoid big 5 to 7-inch swimbaits like the plague, Californian and Japanese anglers have been riding the hottest new trend with crank down hard baits, which combine the big fish drawing power of a swimbait with the power fishing application of a crank. Crank down hardbaits aren’t new by any means, and are often compared to plugs Pike anglers use up north,” says Californian crank down guru and owner of Toxic Baits, Ceaser Chavez. “I’ve been building them for the past ten years but most guys fishing them, especially tournament pros, have been keeping them under wraps because they have the ability to trigger a bite like no other style of swimbaits can,” he adds. Toxic Baits specialise in crank down hard baits that range from 5-7 inches and up to 4oz. They first arrived on the scene in the mid 90’s when anglers such as Mike Shaw introduced the now legendary broomstick handle style MS Slammer or Castaic’s Original Hard Head range. “Most people just refer to them as wake baits, but I prefer the term transition baits with the same action as a crankbait but with a bigger profile because I don’t think its a presentation fish see a lot,” Chavez points out. He also emphasises the advantages of crank down style swimbaits: “You can fish them faster and deeper than a conventional 3-piece swimbait in the exact same areas you’d throw a squarebill, actually throw them where you wouldn’t dare throw a squarebill because they’re so versatile”. Ceaser with a quality fish on a Wade Hoggs. Note the heavy gear used to target these bigger fish with big baits. How to fish them If you’re going to move into throwing a bigger bait they have the shortest learning curve because there is no real wrong way to fish them. They work on a simple retrieve, slow rolled back to the boat like a crankbait or bladed jig and you can rip them out of cover. “A key factor to a crank down’s success is ability to navigate cover,” he says. Chavez recalls a magical day on the California Delta last year that produced a 40lb stringer that included a 12lb fish in a matter of minutes. “I was catching them on a Wade Hoggs fishing two very different retrieves; the area was made up of scattered tules and weed mats and I was waking the bait tight to the edge of the mats and cranking it through the tules,” he recalls. It essentially combines a topwater, mid-runner and swimbait all in one package, and simply changing up your retrieve gets the bait to behave differently without ever having to pick up another rod. He advises anglers shouldn’t get caught up in a mindset about where to throw them because they’re treble hooked baits. “You should throw them where nobody else will even dare throw a squarebill, and you’ll be surprised how weedless they actually are. They come through grass, tules, navigate rock and can even be ticked over timber incredibly well. The bigger bill protects the hooks and because we’ve upsized the hooks with a bigger gap they don’t tend to hang up as much and pop free from cover with a bit of constant pressure applied.” Bass will use the shoreline to pin bait against it and big reaction baits draw some violent strikes. Strategy “When they’re feeding on top I like to fish them as a buzzbait replacement except one you can pause and twitch in case a fish misses it the first time,” he points out. One of the features of his baits he constantly gets asked about is the skirted fins, which he explains are designed to flare just like a baitfish would stabilise itself. The extra wide bill on Toxic’s crank downs has been designed to protect the hooks when fishing cover. In mid-summer or the coldest parts of winter Chavez prefers a reel and sweep approach to the crank downs similar to fishing a deep diving jerkbait. “This is hands down one of the best ways to fish them, I’m quite an active angler and it helps me stay focused on the presentation. On a stock bait you sweep the rod, reel up the slack and repeat, often those fish will react to the bait as it starts up again and the rod will just keep on loading,” he advises. Another key technique on barren shoreline cover or steep cliffs Chavez employs is to fish the shadow line. “Bass relate to the edge of shadows and on deep lakes like Shasta here in California they’ll come up from 30ft to eat a bait waked across the surface, but you have to fish tight to shore. Bass will use the shoreline to pin bait against it and big reaction baits draw some violent strikes,” he says. “There are plenty of mods guys are using, adding lead tape to the bill to get them to run nose down, weighting the hooks with soldering iron or changing to a heavier gauge hook to adjust the rate of fall to get the baits deeper. I love all of them and think anglers should experiment more, that’s why we came up with the tuning kits to add weights to the trebles to run the baits deeper. Most of our baits will run 3-4ft when cranked down but add a bit of weight and you can get them to the 5ft-plus range and even deeper,” notes the crankdown guru. Gear “They’re heavy baits and you really need the right gear to throw them because fishing them on a flipping stick is just miserable. You might get way with fishing the smaller versions on a rod meant for 10XD’s but a purpose built swimbait rod is essential to throwing them all day,” Chavez recommends. Smaller versions start at just over 5” weighing roughly 3oz and range all the way up to 8oz, 11” behemouths. A key to fishing these baits is a slightly faster retrieve ratio reel that you can speed up or slow down with enough line capacity to accommodate 20lb – 30lb lines. Local big bait anglers will be happy to know that some of the best big bait reels are available from local distributors and include Abu Garcia’s Revo Beast, Okuma’s Komodo SS, Shimano Calcutta 200 or TranX. Anglers in Japan true to form have taken the concept one step further with baits such as Division Rebel Tackles Klash, Ghost and Deps Silent Killer 250. On a fast retrieve the Klash will dive swiftly and crash through cover, or when ripped behaves just like a premium quality jerkbait, except 3 times the size. Image:DRT USA Baits Available locally Castaic’s Hard Head range of baits are available locally online from Hooked on Bass and includes trout imitations in the 5-12” range, and don’t rule out Savage Gear’s and Spro’s Rats that have already accounted for some giant fish locally when retrieved sub-surface. “Anglers can get onto our wait list to order a Wade Hoggs, Crank N Wake or Whipper Snapper and I ship anywhere in the world,” says Chavez. A Toxic Baits crank down will set you back a cool $115 but a considerable amount of craftsmanship combined with some serious hardware go into each bait. Anglers looking for some of the more exotic baits such as the DRT Klash or Deps Silent Killer can find good deals on ebay during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter months.