Scout'nStripers
Senior Member
Guys, for the past few weeks I've been on a great crankbait bite around rocky points on the south end. The deep divers have been working the best but we've been catching a few early in the morning and late in the evening beating the banks with a little square bill in my Z shad pattern. When the sun get up a little we've been switching over to deep divers in my Sand Key pattern and working them in 20+ feet of water, keying on rocky points and humps. I've also had some success working the deep divers very very sloooow, keeping them just over the top of brush piles holding fish. Generally speaking, the casting and retrieving bite has been the most successful, but if we can't get them on the C&R, I'll fire up the big motor and troll through the fish to get them to react. Sometimes they want the crankbait very slow and sometimes you have to burn it through or troll it. Sometimes I have to cast and crank hard to find the bottom with it and just work it slow along the rocks on the bottom as far as I can back to the boat. I'd say the majority of the fish we've caught on the Sand Key deep divers are quality fish and the majority of fish on the squarebill are dinks but every once in a while we'll get a good one. I don't think the crankbait bite will last too much longer but I think you can still get a few quality fish on it. I'd say the best color is the blue over chartreuse for the big boys.
Here's a few pics and video from some recent crankbait fish.
(<I>You can click on any pic for a high res close up image</I>)
Here's a few pics and video from some recent crankbait fish.
(<I>You can click on any pic for a high res close up image</I>)
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