Keep your rod tip low for the entirety of the fight and you’ll notice an immediate improvement in your hookup ratio. At this point, without incorporating any slack into the line, sweep to your side in order to drive the hooks home. With that rod tip low, keep reeling until your rod tip begins to bend. Instead, let the rod load when you get a bite. This drives the top of your crankbaitâthe part with no hooksâinto the roof of the fish’s mouth and can pull the lure away. When you set the hook, do not set the hook upward. That’s what repeated casts with a crankbait do to a bass. If I flick your ear much more than that, you’re going to punch me in the mouth. Think of it like this: If I flick your ear once, maybe even twice, you’ll give me a bad look but you’ll probably let it slide. Finally, after several repeated casts, it’s going to get mad and take a swipe at it. A lot of times, that big bass will be sitting down there watching your plug swim by for the first few casts. The next time you see an isolated piece of cover that seems like it should hold a bass, I challenge you to make 5 casts to it before moving onâeven if it’s just a single stump. In my personal experience, most of it comes down to ticking them off and making those suckers bite.

I don’t think most people catch big bass because they find some magic honey hole. I’m no biologist, but here’s what I think it comes down to: The biggest bass on a body of water are both smart and lazy. I started keying in on this several years ago and since then, I’ve enjoyed a lot of success whether I’m tournament fishing, guiding or fun fishing.

I’d say that 99 percent of my crankbait catches over 5 pounds have come after several identical casts to the same piece of cover.

Florida crankbait fishing planet