We are going to talk Strike King crankbaits today. The really interesting thing is when fishing cold water how do you pick which bait; how do you pick which color and where do you store it. Frank Talley – a Bassmaster Elite Series Pro and friend of mine chimes in with his thoughts. “I like to start with a smaller profile bait and the reason for that is with the cold water it’s just like anything, the smaller bait fish are going to struggle in the colder water. In other words, they’re more fragile than a larger older adult bait fish. We aren’t going to throw an 8XD crankbait or 6XD crankbait more than likely and we’re going low. Flat sided is good preferably a 1.5 flat. It’s an 8–10-foot diver and the real narrow profile has a real tight wobble coming through the water which is not obtrusive to where it spooks fish this time of year.”
Different Color Crankbaits
Let’s talk about trying different colors. How much is it competence? How much is it the fish really biting it? How much is it the windows of time that they actually bite it? “I think it has a lot to do with confidence. This time of year, getting into that late winter pre spawn so to speak, the reds are hard to beat. We believe that it started in Texas but now it’s kind of taken over the whole country going red. We’re either going to throw some kind of shad or a crawfish, something red. I tried a particular bait with a lighter hue and just couldn’t get anything. It didn’t seem to like that color but as soon as I switched to the red I got lucky and caught a big one”
It’s all about confidence!
Frank is exactly right when it comes to confidence. It’s just what you feel is right or if you feel like you need to make a change then make the change. You can also vary up your cadence; really fast cadence, slow cadence, you can even get a bite on stop and go. You just never really know so it’s best to get out there on the water and do a little of trail and error.
