PICO Crankbaits catch anything!

Launched at 6:30 am this morning as 30 bass boats from a club was taking off, so decided to keep everything from 10" up and no sooner than I got the lines in the water, I was catching crappie as it was a hot morning of fishing. Water temp was 72, wind was blowing 14 mph right off the bat, and by 10 am was done with a limit of 10" to 14" in crappie, kept one yellow perch of 11", threw back 3 bass to 18", several small gills, and about a 25-30 lb flathead cat that took me 10 minutes to land on one of my 12" Southern Pro rods on 10 lb test Power Pro Braid and I will say this, I tried to break the rod as it was completely doubled over trying to bring that fish out of 14' of water. Awesome rod that will take the punishment. After getting the crankbait out of the cat's mouth, one of the hooks was all but straightened out so was lucky to land and released it also. Fished moved on me from yesterday and was about 150 yds down the creek line in deeper water and took about 45 minutes to find them..most of the biggies came right out of the creek channel that was 16-18' deep as I criss crossed it over and over working the fish that were suspended in 12 ft or deep. Couple of other places I caught fish was trolling the crankbaits 10-14' deep out from the north bank between a couple of points where the creek channel comes super close. Fish are still deep with the small ones coming up it seems.Hot colors today were Mud Bug, Zombie, Pink, and also Green Machine. www.picolures.com for the colors. Fishing is hot right now so hammer away when you can.

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Always killing it. Good trip and report chuck.

Ok where do I get some pico baits, I went to west side bait shop and the kid working hadn't even heard of them lol, do you order yours online, or is there a bait store carrying them. I may need to go to Cabella's idk.

Would you mind sharing how you have those rigged? Are you using a large weight to get them to the desired depth? Any advice appreciated. I want to get started cranking but haven't caught a fish trying it so far. I've just been pulling them with no added weight.

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Originally Posted by coach mark

Ok where do I get some pico baits, I went to west side bait shop and the kid working hadn't even heard of them lol, do you order yours online, or is there a bait store carrying them. I may need to go to Cabella's idk.

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No special way just use them like you throw a chrankbait. I do use a small snap to quick change them out. Some people use a snap swivel even. Any crankbaits will work. I have a ton of arkies and bandits. I do like the PICO’s. Less line out to go deeper, the dimpled sides vs smooth as Imthink it gives off vibrations over the side, the bass eat them up. Good colors. Just my preference. Anything works when you get them to the right depth. The thing about crsnkbaits is I think you catch larger fish and everything will hit a crankbait. Do I want to say a crankbait will out fish a lonlined jig? Not sure about that statement as a good,fisherman that knows how to fish jigs could have caught those,fish as I had 3 boats move in on me yesterday fishing jigs longlining as well as throwing them and I,think they just weren’t getting their jigs deep enough. Crankbaits are easy to control and get to the exact desired depth your seeing fish on your electronics so it’s a combination of both as you still have to find the fish. When you read my postings, I can tell you about where and how you still have to locate and that is the learning process. Lemon is a easy lake to fish also. Those guys that crowded me, didn’t catch any big fish either or any numbers as I was still catching them.

Good report. May have to learn more about crankin' later. My spring crappie fishing is over. Going out west to son's ranch. Will do some sturgeon and brown bass fishing tho.

Thank for the report. I just have not had much time to fish between working and my mom being really ill. I did get out a few times in the last two weeks caught some crappie but the bluegill and redear have been on fire. One day I had 45 in two hours. Thanks again for the report.

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Originally Posted by gone_fishing

Thank for the report. I just have not had much time to fish between working and my mom being really ill. I did get out a few times in the last two weeks caught some crappie but the bluegill and redear have been on fire. One day I had 45 in two hours. Thanks again for the report.

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Good to hear from you. I have always enjoyed your reports especially when we were slamming Patoka when it was hot. :ThumbsUp

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Originally Posted by Whaler

Good report. May have to learn more about crankin' later. My spring crappie fishing is over. Going out west to son's ranch. Will do some sturgeon and brown bass fishing tho.

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keep us posted how your fishing out west!

I want to comment, that cranking was created to be a way to fish in the summertime after the spawn. In following Mississippi’s “ Cranking 101” and seeing the posting of Major Flyboy win a tourney using crankbaits in 40 degree water, I started cranking when the water would hit around here 50 degrees and found, if I put the crankbait where the fish were, I could catch the early big females and way larger fish long before we hit summer if the lake was right, for it. All I can say is, it works for me as I have connected on Cataract, Monroe, Patoka, Lemon, Mansfield, but you will run across a lake like West Boggs, and Dogwood where your better off to jig fish as both those are not productive for me. That is not to say, they aren’t productive for others.

Nice job cevans. You got the cranking down pat for sure.

So you control the depth of the crankbait by the amount of line that you have out and that way only? Doesn't that limit you to fishing "shallow" no more than 10' deep?

Great report!

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Originally Posted by FurFlyin

So you control the depth of the crankbait by the amount of line that you have out and that way only? Doesn't that limit you to fishing "shallow" no more than 10' deep?

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I occassionally crank shallow,as much as a couple of feet of deep water. I want to get over to Monroe and crank shallow running down the banks and across shallow points for spawning crappie and along the flooded brushlines as Monroe is still 8’ or less high. I will use the 300 skies, 350 series of bandits, arkies and PICOs also and use as little as 5 ft of line out from the rod tip depending how shallow the water is constantly adusting the line in and out on the reels according to the change in depth and pulling all my 3 poles out on one side of the boat as I move down the bank. Each rod will be a different size of length so that I don’t run them all the same and tangle them. It also means that each rod might be set a foot deeper than the longest. It’s a matter of figuring out how much territory you want to have your baits cover.

Haha.... Catfish love crankbaits.

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yes they do, especially flatheads. they are predators all the way. and those 5#ERS and under eat like cod!

great report and day on the water:ThumbsUp