Short hits on cranks

Fished this weekend and had a big problem with fish hitting my cranks and letting go. Most all fish brought into the boat were barely hooked in the corner of the mouth including my best fish I've ever caught out of butler. 19" fish but only 2 lb 6 oz. He was on one heck of a diet for a butler fish.
Tried speeding up and slowing down to get a better hit and nothing seemed to help. Momma was getting mad. Is there any tricks that might make them hit a little better? Seemed like they would hit, I'd grab the pole and raise it up to start bringing the fish to the top and then boom. Release. What was i doing wrong

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My thoughts. Too stiff a rod. I would just raise the rod and slowly turn the handle. I also tried to keep bigger fish from breaking the surface if possible. I also ran red hooks as the front hook. Helped some.

Try downsizing the size of your lure. I've had it make a difference, especially right after a cold front. Hope this helps you.

Jim

I like soft action light fiberglass rods for pulling cranks they I run the jenko cypress creek series and feel like I keep a lot more fish hooked with them compared to running graphite rods

does anyone ever employ trailer hooks ? might help on the short takes , no clue here , have never trolled for crappie as of yet .....
19 inches is one rather VERY long crappie btw , congrats and KABOOM :cheers2

Use some slab sauce and 1.4 to 1.6 mph. It does work.

I’m with a smaller bait,,,that and maybe a prayer

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Originally Posted by Ketchn

does anyone ever employ trailer hooks ? might help on the short takes , no clue here , have never trolled for crappie

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Don't troll myself but from bass fishing I don't think I've ever seen a trailer hook on a crankbait. I do know again from bass fishing that changing the hooks helps, especially the rear hook. If you go bigger on the front hook they sometimes tangle with the rear hook so I would start by changing the rear treble. I'm guessing that's the on they were barley hooked by but not sure.

A long fast rod and mono, even if just a leader helps IMO. You don't want a very stiff setup or it will just pull the hooks as soon as the fish hits it.

Also check your hooks. I pull flicker shads pretty much esclusively, the factory hooks are great and Gamakatsu EWG trebles are a great replacement when I need them.

Iv never really found anything that cures it some days are just like that
It amazes me how they can pull a rod around with a crankbait on it an not get stuck but they can
Just keep fishing an sometime during the day something will change an they will eat it

Trying to add a trailer to the tail end of a crankbait kills the crank's action, but you can remove the belly treble hook, go with a single hook instead, then add the leader behind the single hook, which works pretty well. a stiffer Fluorocarbon is superior to braid in that application too. Try adding a weightless tube or trout magnet on a short leader following the crank and see what happens. That technique works better on White Bass, but the crappie will play along sometimes. I fish a small curl tail jig under a Pop-R for White Bass and occasionally catch crappie when they're up chasing baitfish. You never know what might hit it.


Jim

You can't run a trailer on crankbaits in MS unless you remove the front treble. Only two hooks per pole. Sounds crazy when crankbaits have 6 hooks on two trebles.

Try speeding up or slowing down. Sometimes they just don't commit fully. Also, different style cranks or colors maybe the key. Why it's always good to have multiple type baits and also experimenting on speed. You can learn alot in your turns!

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Originally Posted by cevans

Use some slab sauce and 1.4 to 1.6 mph. It does work.

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I did have the slab sauce on it. I put that stuff on everything.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snubby

You can't run a trailer on crankbaits in MS unless you remove the front treble. Only two hooks per pole. Sounds crazy when crankbaits have 6 hooks on two trebles.

Try speeding up or slowing down. Sometimes they just don't commit fully. Also, different style cranks or colors maybe the key. Why it's always good to have multiple type baits and also experimenting on speed. You can learn alot in your turns!

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I did do some zigzag but noticed no difference. I'm using the same PST poles that I've always used. My hooks are good Gamahatsu books, red in color.
The next day everything worked fine, it was just that one day.

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I find that some days they just don't really take the bait aggressively. Sometimes it changes in a couple of hours - the bite is light one minute, then next thing you know, they are practically swallowing it.

I didn't see if you had mentioned it, but if you use braid, it doesn't have the stretch like regular line. With 50-100' of line out, it makes a huge difference. On those light bite days, it can makes all the difference on boating those fish barely hanging on. You are using rods with the proper action, so I would look at the line.