Story and photos by Dan O'Sullivan
Being from Virginia, John Crews lives in the land of crankbaits. Sure, there
are many areas of the country that crankbaits are effective, but the Virginia's
and the Carolina's are the epicenter of the crankbait royalty. Crews is such a
fan of the baits that he worked with SPRO to develop a series of crankbaits
that has now covered the water column from the bank, to 20 feet.
His Little John series of baits are all excellent, but they started with his
original Little John, and in the early spring, he loves tossing the flat sided
shallow runners. He has had much success, but a Bassmaster Classic appearance
the year his baits were released, are a textbook application of the baits.
It’s early spring on Lake Hartwell, and Mother Nature hasn’t yet made up her
mind what kind of mood she is in. Three weeks before the biggest tournament of
the year, the South Carolina weather had been unseasonably warm, Hartwell’s
bass were responding. The talk from the best anglers in the world was for big
bags of both largemouth and spotted bass; then, the weather changed.
Approximately a week before the Bassmaster Classic, the weather, as it often
does, takes a seemingly tragic turn for the worse. The warm weather gave way to
cold storms rolling out of the north from Canada and the unseasonably warm
conditions turned to bitter cold. As freezing rain, hail, snow and biting winds
became the predominant weather patterns, Gore Tex and heavy undergarments
replaced shirt sleeves and jeans as the fashions of the week.
As the first day of the 2008 Bassmaster Classic blasted off, the stormy
conditions remained, and along with the heavy winds, anglers who targeted main
lake points for healthy bass chasing blue herring grabbed the headlines. Some
anglers spoke of swimbaits, some bragged on deep crankbaits, while others told
of spoons, plastics and deep jigs.
As they did before the tournament began, the conditions changed again, the
clouds broke in the evening which brought even colder temperatures, and even
some frost on the competitors rigs. What those changes also meant was that the
sun would break through as the day progressed and with the sunlight would come
warming temperatures on the shallows of Lake Hartwell. The water that had
become stained from the precipitation that had pounded the area meant that the
water would warm up more quickly, and shallow crankbaits would play out as a
major pattern in the tournament.
History would tell that Alton Jones’ winning approach would be a deep pattern
that started with Cotton Cordell spoons then turn to Booyah A-Jigs and Pigskin
Jigs around submerged timber. What those same historians would fail to reveal
was that many of the top finishers would be throwing flat sided crankbaits into
the off colored water.
Of the top five finishers, three of them relied heavily on shallow cranking;
Kevin VanDam, who finished 3rd, had abandoned the main lake crankbait pattern
that put him in 2nd place on day one in favor of a Strike King Custom Shop Flat
Shad wooden crankbait bait in muddy creeks. Bobby Lane, finished in 4th place
by turning to a Berkley Flicker Shad and a #8 Shad Rap in deeper pockets while
Greg Hackney ran flats adjacent to channel bends upriver with the same Strike
King Flat Shad and a Strike King Series 3 to finish 5th.
When the final stories would begin to shake out, nearly half of the top 20
vying for victory in the sport’s most coveted title were throwing shallow
crankbaits. Not an unusual occurrence in itself, but, it was February after
all, with a major cold front dropping the water temperatures as much as 15
degrees in two weeks.
Common knowledge states that reaction fish are not supposed to be plentiful
under those conditions, small plastic worms and jigs are supposed to be the
ticket in deep water. Bites are supposed to come few and far between from bass
that have all but turned into live versions of Gorton’s Fish Sticks; but, these
are the best anglers in the world, and they know differently.
One of the anglers throwing shallow crankbaits last February in South Carolina
was Salem, Va. pro John Crews. The “Crews Missile” as
he is known was competing in his fourth Bassmaster Classic and his efforts
produced a 16th place finish for him, his highest in four attempts, and he did
it on his namesake Little John Crankbait, a bait he designed with Spro.
Why a Crankbait?
When most anglers would respond to cold, muddy water by looking for hard
targets and a jig or big plastic, Crews revealed that the reasoning for
choosing a crankbait is in the numbers. “Because it gives anglers two things, a
great chance at catching a bunch of fish, but also tournament winning fish,”
said Crews. “It allows them to cover water quickly, which you can’t do with a
jig or worm as effectively.”
Examples of the technique’s effectiveness can be found in nearly 30% of the
Virginia pro’s $772,677 to date career earnings. “The crankbait has always been
a part of my repertoire,” he revealed. “I’m always ready to throw a crankbait,
there’s always at least one rod rigged with it on the deck of my Bass Cat.”
One such episode came at a Bassmaster Elite Series stop at Clarks Hill Lake in
Georgia. There, Crews found difficulty in joining the procession of point
hopping anglers who were chasing bass relating to blue herring. “I chased the
herring spawn until they shut off in the afternoon,” he remembered. “When they
shut down, I ran upriver to the stained water, pulled out my Little John and
started catching them. In two hours I caught 25 fish, and increased my weight
several pounds; for me it was the difference between missing the cut and
getting paid, for my Co-angler that day, it was something he’d never seen
before.”
The Approach
If Crews had that one ‘dream scenario for a section of water that screamed out
for a crankbait it would be this. “It would be early March, and we would have
been pounded by three to four days of rain leading into a tournament,” he said
as his voice trailed off. “The water temp would be around 50 degrees with
between four to six inches of visibility. The sun has been out for a couple of
hours when I find a perfect 45-degree or steep channel bank that has rocks on
it; that’s the perfect recipe for success.”
What he would do in that situation is rig his Little John on a 7' medium action
Pinnacle Perfecta Crankbait Rod paired with a 6.4:1 retrieve Pinnacle Optimus LTE reel spooled with 10 to 12-pound test Vicious
Ultimate Copolymer, depending on the cover.
Armed with the right equipment, Crews would proceed down the bank, casting up current,
retrieving the bait with current at a medium steady retrieve searching for
cover to crash the bait into. “The fish will be around the rocks, especially in
the colder water,” said Crews. “I move pretty quickly until I come into contact
with cover, then I slow down and finesse the bait through it. It helps to raise
the rod tip so that I can keep the bait moving through snags gently.”
When he does come into contact with cover, he often allows the bait to slow
float, which his namesake plug is designed to do, then work it somewhat like a
jerkbait. “I will often shake and pop the bait a little bit to try and trigger
a reaction from the fish; and it often works, especially in cold water.”
Once he triggers a strike and locks the fish up on his rod, Crews said that it
is incredibly important to slow down and allow the equipment to do its job.
“The light tip action on that Pinnacle rod really absorbs a lot of the
struggle,” he revealed. “With fairly light line, it is important to play the
fish carefully, taking time to get it into the boat; that alone will reduce the
amount of lost fish.”
The Characteristics of a Winning Bait
Being a seasoned pro, Crews had used a long list of plugs before working with
SPRO on the Little John, which he said is the bait he has always wanted. “I
wanted the action and sound of a balsa bait, with the durability and castability of a hard plastic plug.”
The desired action for this early season cranking is to have a nearly silent
bait that has an extremely tight wiggle, as opposed to the wide wobble of deep
diving plugs that can be off putting to sluggish bass. The bait must also have
a lip design that deflects off of cover well, usually a ‘coffin shaped’ design
that flares from the side but has a little bit of a rounded shape to the end.
With all of that in mind, Crews went to work with Spro.
“I’ve used lots of different baits over the years, from homemade hand-carved
versions, to mass produced baits like Speed Traps and Bandits, and the Little
John has it all,” he said, doting on his creating. “It has the perfect flat;
shad shaped profile, but at two and a half inches, still weighs 1/2-ounce, and
has a weight transfer system in the bait so that it casts a mile.”
On the Little John, Crews opted for the thin and durable circuit board material
that has become popular over the past several years. The coffin shaped diving
lip allows the small bait to dive as deep as five feet, while being
appropriately shaped for deflecting off of cover. “Circuit board has
responsiveness and durability that you can’t get with a molded lip,” he
revealed.
While circuit board was his first choice, the Little John MD, which runs seven
to nine feet, has a molded lip, which he said was necessary to place the line
tie in the correct place for proper depth and action. Other than that, the two
models are identical
The other unique feature of his baits is that the ball in the weight transfer
system is constructed of what Spro calls a “Soft Tungsten,” which is presumably
some sort of a plasticized material that is loaded with tungsten powder. The
end result is a moving ball that does not create the loud racket of tungsten
rattles as the bait moves through the water. Instead it creates kind of a dull,
clunking noise.
Will it Work on My Lake?
He is often questioned as to whether people can catch fish on the pattern at
home; for Crews, the answer would be a resounding, yes. “Bass are built the
same around the country,” he said. “They may come in different sizes throughout
our different regions, but they still react predictably as the conditions
change. Storms blow through and stir up mud and silt, which drives the baitfish
up, as the water warms from post front sun, the bass follow too, and they will
be looking for food.”
When those situations occur, to Crews, the crankbait is the ticket, “I’ve
caught big numbers of bass all over the country on these types of patterns,”
said Crews in closing. “I’ve caught them up to nearly eight pounds on it in
tournaments, and have put a lot of money in my pocket doing it, it works
everywhere; people just need to pick it up and try it; the results might
startle them.”
So Many Colors, What Do I Do?
Crews chose each of the colors of his Little John to have a place in his
arsenal, and while he uses them all, he has a few steadfast rules he sticks by.
“This pattern will work from early spring through early summer, and then again
as the water cools off again in the fall,” said Crews. “I have a set of colors
that I start with based on the time of the year, and the water color.”
“For dirty water in the spring, I tend to throw, a lot of chartreuses and reds
trying to mimic bluegill or crawdads, I use Chartreuse Black Back, Spring Craw,
or Blood Craw a lot” Crews revealed. “If the water is clear in the spring, I
will stick to shad colors like Clear Chartreuse, Spooky Shad or Cell Mate (his
personal favorite shad imitator).
Before the weather gets hot, and the bass move to their deep water haunts,
Crews still targets the same type of pattern looking for fish coming out of
their spawning areas. “As boat traffic increases, water tends to get off
colored, so I will stay with the Chartreuse Black Back and Citrus Shad,” he
continued. “If it is clear, I stay with the shad colors I mentioned before.”
“The fall is all about the shad, and while I will still get bit on a crawdad
color from time to time, my best bet is to stick with shad patterns,” said
Crews. “In Dirty water, the Chartreuse Black Back will get bit, as will the
Citrus Shad, but as the water clears, I turn to Cell Mate or the Spooky Shad
and Clear Chartreuse again.”
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