Anyone seriously interested in trolling crank baits (I realize most here are casting them) should look for a book titled "Precision Trolling Guide." The authors, Dr. Steven Holt and Mark Romanack, have spent years actually measuring and presenting depth charts for each of about 200 popular crank baits. The charts show the depth that each bait will run with line distance factored into the chart. If you need to put a bait at say, 10 feet and keep it there, these charts will tell you how much line you need to have out. All specs are based on 10 lb mono (dia supplied) with a factor given to allow for other sizes and line types. All depths are from the rod tip. This amazing bit of work is the difference between just dragging a bait behind your boat and actually trolling it at a precision depth.

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Thanks Tom. I like the post about depth being measures from rod tip, not water level. I can't come up with his name, he was somewhat successful @ the 80's on B.A.S.S with the kneel and reel method. I never heard about your fellow's research on depth control. I have heard and studied Buck Perry's method and application. His "Spoonplugs" have been doing depth control for about 60 years. I use them today and they work exactly as advertised. Why the greatest fisherman off all time doesn't receive the proper recognition bedevils me. Don Dickson has a blog to reteach his ideas, for those interested. I caught bass in 19 feet of water December 11th using his lures and wire line. Best wishes and Merry Christmas to y'all!!

The spoon plug is designed to sink so it'll reach the bottom in any depth.. but once you get it moving it will rise to a precise running level for particular model Spoonplug. This is how Buck mapped lake bottoms and contours prior to good depth sounders being available. He would run each of his four (I think it was four) Spoonplugs one at a time, each running a certain depth and keep each plug in light contact with the bottom while drawing the contour lines on a map. He knew how deep each plug would run so it was easy, albeit time consuming, to map fairly accurate bottom contours of most any lake. Buck had a standing offer to anyone who claimed that a lake was "fished out" that he could catch a limit on that lake. To my knowledge a few took him up on the bet and he never lost.

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Jeffrey, I believe it was Paul Elias that was known for "kneel and reel" He was a great crankbait fisherman, and a great guy. I went down to Huntsville Alabama (I live in northeast Ohio) to watch a B.A.S.S tournament on Wheeler Lake. I can't remember the exact year, but it was in the mid to late 80's. On one of the 4 days of the tournament I was walking around just checking out the competitors boats and listening to them talk and Mr Elias was sitting alone in his boat tying on baits for the next day. I went over and said hello and ended up talking to him for about a half an hour. I thought it was pretty awesome that he took the time out of his day just to shoot the breeze with me.

What was even better is, I had a cam corder with me, and while talking I told him that he was my wife's (at the time) favorite fisherman, and that it was going to be her birthday soon. After asking my wife's name he told me turn on the camera, and he then proceeded to wish my wife a happy birthday, telling her that if she weren't married to me that he would come along and steal her away. LOL It was awesome. !!! Anyhow..... pretty sure Paul Elias is the person you were thinking about.

Thanks David, that was him Thanks for sharing that story. I so enjoy hearing them!! Was Rick Clunn the other guy who was so into crank baits?

Jeffrey, yes, at the time Clunn was probably best known for his skill with a crankbait, He came up with the RC 1 and RC 3 crankbaits that Poe's used to make. They were wood bodies with I believe, the first commercial baits with coffin shaped bills on them. The RC1 was a shallow runner, and the RC3 a mid depth runner. I never caught a lot of fish on a RC1, but I caught a bunch on the RC3. I won a tournament on the Ohio River throwing an RC3.

As far as stories from that tournament, I have one more I'll share. lol It was an early spring tournament, and the night before the first day of the tournament, a major cold front came in. Torrential rain and tornado sirens going off all over in Huntsville that night. It was pretty crazy weather wise. Well I went down to the launch site early the next morning to watch the guys launching their boats, and to watch blast off. The wind was howling. Sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts to 50. There was talk of canceling the first day because of the wind and waves it was creating. Also with the heavy rains the water was coming up fast.

After a slight delay they let the guys go. Wheeler is a reservoir on the Tennessee River, so in places it come up out of the channel to some very shallow water. A lot of the competitors were fishing an area down near Decatur Alabama locally known as :the flats". It was a large shallow area littered with big stumps. Roland Martin was one of the people fishing that area. The waves were supposedly 3 - 4' with some bigger ones rolling into the flats, and Roland got the lower unit of his outboard stuck in the root system of a big stump. The waves flipped his Ranger boat over, and he had to be plucked from the water by one of the other competitors. At weigh in, Ray Scott was talking about Roland's boat flipping, this was at the time when Roland had the "Helicopter lure". If you remember, it was a grub body with 3 curly tails on it that looked like the prop on a helicopter. Anyhow ..... Ray said when Roland's boat flipped that it dumped all of his helicopter lures in the water and an instant feeding frenzy of 5 and 6 lb bass started blowing up on them. lol

It got a good laugh from the crowd, and from some of the competitors that were hanging around after weighing their fish. Understandably, Roland never did show up for the first day weigh in. It had rained so hard that the water kept coming up on the river and they had to keep moving the weigh in stage further and further from the water. The ramp area was in a park and the rising water was covering up the roads coming into the launch area. One competitor. a very young Randy Howell. was fishing flooded trees and picnic tables in the flooded park. I drove around in my truck watching him. I saw him catch 2 nice bass off picnic tables before I could no longer follow him. Of course I was giving him plenty of space.

Oh and one last little story from that tournament. I helped Chris Houston. Jimmy's wife, hook up their truck to their trailer so she could get Jimmy's boat on the trailer. Later as I was watching the weigh in Jimmy came up with his fish and weighed them, and Chris was waiting for him to come down off the stage. She saw me and she and Jimmy came over and she told Jimmy, "this nice young man helped me hook up the trailer today" LOL Very cool. Those years, for me, were the golden years of B.A.S.S.. Larry Nixon was my favorite fisherman. Denny Brauer, all the of the greats of the time. Amazing how friendly they were.