pulling cranks behind bouncers

[Montana]

first of all thank you to all of your help on the planer board question i had,especialy to you juls You explained it perfectly there should not be any reason for me to not catch any fish useing your help.

Now to the next question I have, I have heard that alot of guys pull crankbaits behind bottom bouncers. What Im wanting to know is what kind of baits you use,and how you keep from loseing all of them? also what kind of conditions would you use them in? any help is appreciated thanks

[REW]

Basically you can run any of the shallow runners - i.e. floating raps, shallow running shadraps etc.
You can run hot and tots if you are willing to lose a few as well.

The other thing that you can do -- if you are running too deep with respect to your bottom bouncer, is to go to a 3-way rig. Basically adjust the length of the dropper line to your weight to compensate for the depth that your crank is running.

i.e. if you have a bait that runs down 2 feet, and if you want to run 6 inches off the bottom; set the length of your dropper line to 2 1/2 feet. Then if you keep your weight just off the bottom, you know that your lure is running 6 inches off the bottom.

Take care and enjoy.

REW

[Jim O]

You might want to use REW's technique while anchored in a river as well. The current give the bait a motion and mass that is much different than all the folks jigging the same river.
Just a thought,
Jim Ordway

[stinger ND]

Montana, My choice would be a 3-way. You can easily adjust the depth you want to fish by making your drop line (weighted) shorter or longer. I've found that with a shallow running crank (#11 #13 Rapala) fished 5' back from your 3-way will drop about a foot. Example, you want to fish 1' from bottom, use a 2' dropline 5' leader #11 crank. 2' from bottom use 3' dropline 5' leader and so on. Hope this helps.