Smack Tackle’s Gizz series of crankbaits will catch you bass with just a straight retrieve however there are a couple of techniques and tips that I can give you to maximize the crankbaits potential and it’s fish catching ability. One of my favorite ways to work the Gizz-3 and 4 cranks is to find a nice rip rap bank with some depth or some good looking docks and start out popping the bait across the top of the water like a popper….
Smack Tackle’s Gizz series of crankbaits will catch you bass with just a straight retrieve however there are a couple of techniques and tips that I can give you to maximize the crankbaits potential and it’s fish catching ability.
One of my favorite ways to work the Gizz-3 and 4 cranks is to find a nice rip rap bank with some depth or some good looking docks and start out popping the bait across the top of the water like a popper. You want to make smaller snaps and let the bait come back to the surface. This can be just phenomenal in the mornings if you’ve got bass pushing shad up on the bank. You want to try and make the bait look like it is dying and an easy meal. When you fish the bait in this manner hold onto your shorts because those bass will come up and crush this thing.
As the morning wears on I like to make longer casts and burn the crankbait as fast as I can getting it to deflect off of the rocks and change direction. I lot of times that faster retrieve will get inactive bass to bite. The saying speed kills is totally applicable to bass fishing. On those days when the bass won’t hit a worm or a spinnerbait and they seem like they are tight lipped I tie on one of these cranks and try and see how many casts I can make in a day. Make sure you take the crankbait and run it into the posts on the docks and just kill the retrieve. When that bait hits off the dock and stops you’ll get some big bites.
Along with burning the bait I’ll also take the crank and throw it out there and reel it back in while snapping and twitching the rod like I’m fishing a jerkbait. When you snap that rod on the retrieve and pause it you can get the bait to do a 360 which a lot of times will make that crankbait get anhilated. My friend Terry Corum turned me onto this method of fishing shallow crankbaits and I’ve been catching a lot more fish when the bite gets tough. Too many anglers probably just throw their cranks out there and don’t play around with them enough to see what the fish want.
If your bass go deep the Gizz series of lures is also offered in a deeper diving version in both sizes. I like to take this bait and make a really long casts and I’ll crank it down and then take my rod and start to sweep and stop it along the bottom. I like to try and feel out all the rock and brush down their and when it hits something different I’ll stop the bait and let if float up. For my deeper cranking with these baits I like to throw 12lb GAMMA Edge flourocarbon because it helps me get the bait down even more. These crankbaits do a good job of getting down to the fish. The Gizz 4 cranks will run 12 to 13 feet on a nice cast and the Gizz 3 cranks will run 8 to 9 feet for me. I also like to work these baits on suspended fish. When the bait starts to climb back up to the boat on the retrieve is often when you will catch them. It is important to try and use this to your advantage. Your bait looks like a shad that is getting forced to the surface from below.
These crankbaits are available in a whole bunch of colors but I do have my favorties. In clearer water I really like to throw the purple pearl color and the green pearl.. If I’m fishing off colored water it is hard to beat citrus shad and black pearl. To get your hands on some of these amazing baits visit Smack Tackle’s website today. http://smacktackle.com/
