You can catch on a crank bait year round. But once we hit that 55 degree mark spoons and harnesses will work better.
Printable View
As the water continues to warm the type of crankbait that your going to want to run will change and the speed your going to run it will change. Whereas for the last few weeks the top baits have been deep huskies and bandits ran at speeds below 1.5 mph typically. As you get into summer you might run hot n tots, shad raps, flicker minnows and deep little rippers at speeds in excess of 2.7 mph. Crankbaits do produce all year. There are lots of variables that go into what bait your going to want to run on any given day besides temperature. Water clarity, depth and the amount of trash fish present( can't stand feeding the white perch and sheephead all my worms) really dictates what baits I'm gonna be running.
Thanks for the info guys! Any tips on running spoons? Do you run them similar to harnesses? Same speed? I'm planning to use Tru-trips and snap on weights. I'll probably mix it up with a variety of spoons, harnesses, and cranks. I have a small variety of DHJs, rr800s, P10s, Bandits, and Flicker Minnows. Any recommendations on what/how to stagger them from the outer boards to the inner boards?
Mid April in my opinion is a little early to be running spoons. Spoons are typically run at 2 mph plus. You can run them behind snap weights but generally your going to want to run them behind jet divers, dipsys and tru trips. What your running your spoons behind does effect the bite. It can be somewhat difficult to run spoons and harnesses together at the same time because the effective speed for each bait is different. If you're going to be here in mid April I would put most of my effort into harnesses and your reef runner type crankbaits. As far as depth, you'll just have to figure that out as the day goes on. I would suspect that the active fish will be up high in the water column, but you never know.
Any current reports from guys fishing around Kelley's Island? Taking fish around the island or do you need to get out to the shoals? How's the jig bite?