How to Fish Shallow Diving Crankbaits in Early Season Grass
The milfoil is starting to come up here on the Potomac River and the bass are starting to chew in predictable areas. When I’m fishing in a crowd, I tend to slow down and fish soft plastics, but when I have some space to move I power fish – and that most often means chatterbaits, swim jigs and lipless crankbaits.
While I fish square bills and other shallow-running crankbaits around riprap and wood this time of year, I typically shy away from them in the emerging grass. That’s partially because the lures mentioned above are so successful, but also because of the slight hassle factor in utilizing diving lures where they’ll gather vegetation. Ignoring them is probably a mistake, as the following videos explain.
How the Pros Fish Shallow Diving Crankbaits in Vegetation
Mark Daniels Jr.
Ben Milliken
David Fritts
Andrew Upshaw
Kevin VanDam
Frank Scalish
My Favorite Early Season Shallow Cranks
When the bass are in super-skinny water, I especially like the old school Mann’s Baby One Minus. The good ones are hard to find, so scoop ‘em up if you can find them. Here are some of my other, more easily obtained favorites for springtime grass:
While I own and continue to buy more tackle than anyone could ever possibly use, I keep my early season colors simple. Buy each of these in some variation of red, chartreuse and shad and you should be covered for almost all situations.
