If you follow tournament bass fishing, you're probably aware of Bryan Thrift. With 12 career FLW tournament wins, and 70 top-10 finishes, he's doubtlessly won of the most winning anglers in FLW tournament bass fishing history. Even with that impressive resume, Thrift acknowledges that he was intimidated by crankabaits early in his professional tournament fishing career. After seeing how well other successful tournament anglers were with crankbaits, he put that reservation aside and dove right into targeting big bass with crankbaits.

  • 0:07 Bryan Thrift was once scared of fishing crankbaits and why he decided to change that
  • 1:18 Bryan Thrift's thoughts on fiberglass crankbait rods and his line of Fitzgerald Fishing Bryan Thrift Series Casting Rods
  • 7:54 Tips for getting a crankbait as deep as possible
  • 10:38 Fishing reel for cranking
  • 12:12 Types of crankbaits (materials and running depths)
  • 15:11 Shallow cranking (0-6 feet depth squarebills and flat side crankbaits)
  • 21:13 Mid-depth range (7-12 feet cranking with baits like the Strike King Pro Model 4 Series Crankbaits)
  • 24:12 Controlling bait depths with line size
  • 29:09 Hitting targets with a crankbait
  • 34:00 Cranking bottom vs cranking brush
  • 37:27 Wiggle and wobble styles and when it matters
  • 40:05 Tips for modifying & weighting crankbaits
  • 47:32 Customizing paint
  • 49:28 Where to fish a crankbait 
  • 51:07 Follow-up baits when bass won't bite the crankbait
  • 54:54 Round bend vs EWG treble hooks
  • 58:00 Quickest way to determine if a crankbait is running true and tuning crankbaits
  • 1:04:00 Knot for tying crankbaits

Related Bass Fishing Topics

bryan thrift crankbaits

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