Crankin' Reservoir Smallmouths

The most powerful strike you're likely to experience in freshwater bass fishing occurs when a big smallmouth plasters your crankbait. These lures must really set a smallie's teeth on edge, because they don't just hit 'em -- they annihilate 'em. Fair warning: you'd better keep a firm grip on your rod when crankin' in trophy smallmouth territory, or it might get ripped from your grasp!

Nationwide, many reservoirs offer outstanding opportunities for tangling with lunker bronzebacks. In this exclusive feature, two legendary smallmouth guides will present options for crankin' that will tap you into all the heart-pounding excitement these great gamefish are capable of dishing out.

Highland Fling
Highland reservoirs have produced some of the biggest smallmouths ever recorded, including the world record. Yet they frustrate anglers with their transparent water, extreme depth and scarcity of wood cover. While most smallmouth fishermen probe these intimidating impoundments with finesse lures like grubs and small jigs, surprisingly, there are situations where a crankbait will outfish every other lure in your tacklebox.

Veteran Dale Hollow Lake (Tenn./Ky.) guide Fred McClintock finds crankbaits rule on this cavernous reservoir in late winter and early spring. "I usually get on a great crankbait bite by mid-February," he told Bass Pro Shops' OutdoorSite. "It begins when an unseasonably warm rain, a real soaker, causes the lake to rise several feet and turns the normally-clear water murky. This triggers a mass emergence of crayfish from their winter hibernation. Smallies then move into the shallows and go on a feeding binge, just like when your bass club hits the buffet at the Sizzler after a hard day of fishing!"

Inflowing tributaries are the center of smallmouth action now, McClintock explained. "After a warm rain, forget the main-lake points and bluffs that hold fish in midwinter, and head up into the creek arms. The further up you go, the dirtier the water will appear as runoff from the surrounding hillsides enters the reservoir. Don't let the funky-looking water deter you, for on a normally-clear reservoir like Dale Hollow, murky water is crankbait water." Besides looking for stained runoff, pay attention to your boat's surface temperature meter, the guide suggested. "I've seen the water temperature in the backs of inflowing creek arms rise 10 degrees overnight after a warm rain; a 6 degree jump is common. Start cranking where the stained and clear water meet. The morning after a major downpour, I've often caught big smallies on crankbaits in the extreme upper ends of tributaries, where warm, muddy water was gushing into the lake from a little feeder creek or ditch."

McClintock says compact quarter-ounce cranks with deep diving lips, such as the Bomber Model A, Luhr Jensen Hot Lips and Storm Wiggle Wart, consistently produce the strongest response now from foraging smallies; these compact lures mimic live crayfish. "I like long-billed baits even in shallow water; they have an erratic action when bumped along the bottom, and deflect off rocks and stumps nicely," Fred explained. He favors classic crayfish colors including brown, red and dark green; fire tiger is a great choice in dirty water. Orange bellies? They're a must. "Smallmouths have this thing about an orange-bellied crankbait. They really try to crush it when they hit it."

Fast-forward to late October, when conditions at Dale Hollow and most other highland reservoirs are considerably different than in early spring. "The water is extremely clear now, and smallmouths are suspended, feeding on schools of threadfin shad," McClintock explained. "Both smallies and shad schools are at extreme depths on calm days -- 40 to 55 feet is typical. But when the wind howls, plankton blooms that were in open water drift to windward banks, which in turn triggers a wholesale movement of baitfish, and bass, to the shoreline. That's when you can really cash in with crankbaits."

Targeting windblown 45-degree rock banks, gravel or chunk rock points and limestone bluffs, McClintock casts the same deep-diving quarter-ounce lures he used in early spring, only in baitfish colors like shad, chrome and bone white. "The more wind, the better. Water clarity is extreme in fall, so crank places where waves have roiled up the water," he suggested. "Bottom bumping is not nearly as important now as it was in spring; the fish are more likely to be suspended in the water column than hugging bottom. Casting parallel to the bank, point or bluff and using a stop-and-go retrieve is your best bet."

On extremely windy days, a mudline may set up along the bank. "Smallmouths will hang in that muddy band of water and rush out to grab shad," Fred noted. "Cast a fire tiger crankbait into the mud zone and it's likely to get nailed as soon as you turn the reel handle."

For crankin', McClintock uses a St. Croix 7-foot medium-action baitcasting rod and a Shimano Chronarch reel spooled with 8 lb. Ande Back Country line. "This setup offers plenty of shock absorption, a must when dealing with lunker smallmouths," he added.

Moving-Water Madness
Lebanon, Tenn. smallmouth expert Jim Duckworth favors river-run reservoirs for monster bronzebacks. He guides on Pickwick (Tenn./Ala./Miss.) and Old Hickory (Tenn.) reservoirs, and finds crankin' to be a viable approach from early spring through late fall. "In a reservoir with marked current flow, smallmouths tend to be considerably shallower year-'round than in a highland or flatland reservoir with little current," Duckworth said. "This puts them within crankbait range much of the time. Plus, unlike highland reservoirs, river-run impoundments are consistently stained to murky, making for ideal cranking conditions."

The major key to smallmouth location and activity in these moving-water lakes is generation at up- or downstream dams, Duckworth pointed out. "When water is moving through the dam and current is pronounced, smallmouths will gang up on points, humps and bars adjacent to the river channel to feed on baitfish schools. These structures are often 6 to 12 feet on top and peppered with rocks or stumps, which bass use as current breaks. Bumping a long-billed crankbait off this cover can result in the smallmouth of a lifetime."

Jim said river-run smallies will hit both crawdad- and shad-colored crankbaits. On cloudy days, he prefers dark or hot colors (brown, red, fire tiger), but switches to reflective finishes (pearl, chrome) in sunny conditions. And while quarter-ounce cranks are normally the gold standard for smallies, he won't hesitate to cast 1/2- to 3/4-ounce lures in water that's downright muddy.

Duckworth knows first-hand that river-run reservoirs offer today's best hope for a gargantuan smallmouth. Last spring, he was cranking a gravel bar below the Old Hickory dam when he caught an awesome 8 pound 3 ounce bronzeback, the biggest smallmouth I've photographed in my 32 years as an outdoor journalist. "This fish was sitting in a quiet little eddy at the end of the bar, a typical holding place for smallies when swift current is present," Jim recalled. "I took my sweet time playing it out before attempting to net it. I've seen so many fishermen try to horse in a trophy smallmouth, only to have it run under the boat and break their line. Crankbaits, like all treble-hooked lures, are more easily thrown than single-hooked baits like a jig or grub when a fish jumps or makes a sudden turn. When crankin', always use a forgiving rod and try to keep a good distance between you and a hooked fish until it's thoroughly played out, then work it toward the net."

The guide cranks smallies with a 7-foot medium-action Berkley Lightning Rod and an Ambassadeur TP3000C baitcasting reel spooled with 8 pound Berkley Sensation line. His favorite crankbaits are Bandit Series 300 divers, but he's also scored plenty of trophy-class fish on shallow-diving Rat-L-Traps.

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