With Water temps creeping toward that 70 degree mark as well as some nice defined weed lines the crankbait bite is getting hotter by the day. I have been locating nice fish pitching cranks as well as starting to develop some dynamite trolling patterns in the 8-14 foot range depending on the water body that I am on. In the past two weeks I have seen my slough bite taper off unfortunately. The slough bite was amazing this year with aggressive fat healthy fish being found on a couple new sloughs. The best part about this is you usually have the entire slough to yourself.
The past week as I stated in the past paragraph I have been trying to get some trolling patterns together. We have been using trolling patterns to then be able to go back and cast cranks to these areas to target some better sized fish. Trolling patterns that work best are #7 hot steel shad raps as well as peacock pattern, along with #7 and 9 minnow raps in hot steel with fire tiger coming in a close second. The tighter we can hug the weeds the more fish we are seeing show up. My optimal 4 rod setup includes 2 12 foot rods and 2 seven foot rods. I am spooled up with 10lb suffix 832 in ghost white tied directly to quicksnaps to the cranks. Amount of line out is dependent on the depth we have been fishing.
With finding some fish trolling we are going back into areas to target small minuscule points and casting cranks to these areas with some success on a better class of fish. I have been turning some nice fish on #9 scatter minnow from Rapala as well as the clackin rap still remains a good option as it rings the dinner bell in a big way.
To wrap things up end of May into the first half of June has been awesome out here in South Dakota, pitching bite continues with a trolling bite starting to take hold. I know from local friends that the spinner crawler bite is in full effect if that is how you want to chase fish. I personally like to cast and troll cranks so that is what I have been sticking to. Clackin raps, shad raps, minnow raps, and scatter raps are my top baits as the season moves into the mid summer period. I have a lot of time coming up in the month of July and am gonna try to spend every moment on the water. My cousins from back home are making there first trips out and cannot get enough of Sodak. Give me a jingle or shoot me a PM if your gonna be in the area, happy to help. – Q