Retrieving Speed

I was wondering how much if at all do you guys slow down your retrieval speed running cranks for skies in the winter ?

I try to work mine slower but I am thinking if they want it they want it. I think a pull pause is the best approach it gives them time to hear it and hone in but I very well could be wrong.

Jacob

I think most guys will agree that slowing things down a bit is a good idea. Using crankbaits made from a more dense material will allow the bait to rise slowly on the pause and keep the bait in strike zone longer. Suspending crankbaits, rubber creatures and sinking/neutrally buoyant jerkbaits get the nod for me.

Thx for the tips.

Deep diving crank baits used in shallow water is deadly as well. Crank the big lip into the rocks and let her back out as it floats up....repeat process. That will ensure to get the baits in their faces as most River fish will be hugging bottom, especially where current is present.

I also agree that slowing things down is a good idea. I have also had good success with the reel and pause technique using a sinking crankbait and a floating one. I have also found that speeding things up can also work and I mean really fast while it is cold. While at LOTW last October the air temps were low 40's, I can't remember what the water temps were, but they were dropping daily. My dad and I were using bulldawgs and twitching and cranking Jakes at a slow speed with very little luck. A muskie guy from Wisconsin came up to us in his boat and asked how we were doing and we had only caught 4 fish between the 2 us in 5.5 days. He had caught 14 in the same amount of time. He said he was using his Trinidad 12 reel to crank 10" Jakes as fast as he could while casting rock points making very hard contact with the rocks. For those of you familiar with this reel, for every handle turn 35" of line are picked up, so his baits were really moving. My dad and I decided to give this a try, I was a 700TE with 31" of line pick up and my dad was using the new levelwind Saltist by Diawa with 35" of line pick up. At the second rock point we came to I raised a 48" class fish that was hot after my lure. Then I caught a 42" at the next spot. About an hour later after contacting a few more fish I caught a 43" and the next morning on the first spot my dad got a 42.5". This technique then cooled off for the rest of our trip but I couldn't believe we contacted 9 fish and caught 3 in about 3.5hrs worth of casting. This was more fish than we contacted during the first 5.5 days of our trip using very slow methods. This just goes to show you that speed can sometimes work when it is cold, even though I think the fast rock collisions were also a part of the trigger. Locally I have also had muskie chase fouled lures in the winter when reeling them in very fast.

Reed

Water temp was 44 degrees on the St. Larry when MacNair hit the 57x33. He said the fish came fully out of the water when she jumped a time or two. He also said the fish launched itself right over the cradle during the release.

Just goes to show you that if their attitude is "right", they still have the speed/power in low water temps.