Shallow Water Crankbait Bass Fishing | Dean Rojas

Hey, folks. Pro angler, Dean Rojas here, and you're on BassResource.com talking about some new products and why, and where, and how we're gonna throw this particular bait. So this is the new Speed Demon that I created with SPRO. It took us about a little bit over two years to get this thing right to where I like to shallow crank, you know? So it's a big deal for me to go ahead and fish shallow water while I'm frogging or flipping or pitching and throwing a shallow crankbait.

And we're gonna go over a little bit about, you know, just why we choose that kind of bait and why it's efficient in covering water and getting bites and be able to hook the fish, and land the fish and all that good stuff. We're gonna talk about rod selection line, gear ratio on the reel. All those play a big factor in why, you know, a Speed Demon works as well as it does.

So basically, this bait runs about 3 to 5 feet deep. And you can cover a lot of, you know, ground with it. You can fish it in a lot of different areas. You can fish it in around rock, laydowns, grass edges, hard edges you know, sea walls, wherever you're fishing anywhere from 3 to 5 feet of water that a bass, you know, could be up in the shallows, you know, lurking for prey, whether it be, you know, obviously a crawfish pattern, like we have our crystal crawl or a shad pattern which has, you know, a lot of the characteristics of a bait fish in and around those time of year and so forth.

So I like it because I'm able to break down a body of water very quickly and cover a lot of water, and it's a high percentage bait where you're gonna get a lot of bites on it. It's not a big bait. So it's pretty small in comparison. It's probably about, you know, two and a half inches in length. The body itself and the bill's another inch, but you know, it's almost a finessey way of getting them to bite the crankbait.

And for time of year, it's a bait that you can use all year round. It doesn't matter if you're fishing in the summertime, on rock, or you're fishing, you know, in and around grass. In summertime, springtime, you know, it's great to be able to fish around spawning flats where the fish might be. And it's a great bait to be able to, you know, knock it off cover, whether it be fence posts, stumps, laydowns, concrete, whatever obstructions in the water. You want to be able to, you know, have a bait that deflects off of there and doesn't get hung up, and you get 'em to bite the bait.

So for water temperature, you know, you could throw this anywhere from in the 40s, you know, all the way up to 90 degrees if you want to. And that's such a big, big spectrum of water temperature range. And that's why it's such a good bait to throw. You should always have one of these tied on all year round because it's one of those baits that you can throw all year round and catch something on it. So like I said, it's a high percentage bait.

It could turn a rough day on the water into a great day on the water by tying one of these on and going down the bank and catching two or three, you know, throughout the day. And that's what you want. You want to have a positive experience there out on the water and being able to catch as many fish as you possibly can on that.

So for gear, ratio-wise, I don't go anything higher than a 7:1 on this, even though this has a real tight wobble to it. And it's called a Speed Demon for a reason, is because of the tight shimmy that it has going through the water, and you can burn it as fast as you want, and it's not gonna roll on you.

And that's really key. That was one of the major things that I wanted it to be when we designed this space to where it wouldn't roll that you could burn it as fast as you wanted to and kill it, you know, and draw those reaction strikes out of the bass.

Going the total opposite spectrum of that, you could also use it on a 5:1 gear ratio, you know, during the wintertime or early spring when the water temperature's in the 40s, 50s, you know, they don't want it that fast. They don't wanna move it that quickly. That's where the slower gear ratio though, your 5 to 1s and 5.3s, and even a 6.3 will work as well. You just gotta slow down your retrieve, you know, and it acts the same as a slower gear ratio reel.

And a lot of that is a lot of stop and go, a lot of crawling in and around the cover, you know, and keeping that bait in the strike zone as long as you can to give the fish every opportunity to bite the bait or take the bait while it's going through the cover. And this is exactly what you want. It's buoyant enough to where you can crawl it on the bottom and it's not gonna get hung up. It's gonna back up a little bit. So the hooks aren't gonna, you know, get caught in the cover that it's fishing. So it has a lot of attributes to where it's gonna help you be a better fisherman and help you, you know, be able to get the bites that you need.

Pound test-wise, I use FC Sniper Sunline for all of my cranking. The line is a joy to fish with. Once it's wet and even when before it's wet, but it's very soft and it's supple, but it's really strong and that's what you want. And, you know, it's the highest grade of Fluorocarbon that Sunline makes, and it's the best out here for what I have to, you know, do. Not necessarily, you know, you have to purchase that, but it's what I prefer for the hook and land-up ratio on that.

Pound test, you can go anywhere from 10-pound test line, depending on if you want to go have the bait run a little bit deeper. If the water's really clear and you need to get down a little bit deeper, or if you're fishing anywhere from, you know, maybe a little bit dirtier water, you can get away with a heavier pound test. So you can throw anywhere from 15 to 16-pound test line, whatever you're comfortable with.

You know, if you're fishing around some really thick wood and, you know, and you need to be able to, if you hook a fish, he's gonna immediately take you into cover. You want to make sure you have the line size and the capability to be able to fight him through all that. And let the line absorb a lot of the thrashing in and around the cover to where, you know, it's gonna scour the line, but it's not gonna break, and that's what you want.

And again, the line size will dictate how deep the bait goes. The lighter the line, the less friction, the more it's gonna dive, you know, into the water. And so the heavier the line, it's not gonna dive as deep, it's gonna stay more on the surface, you know, and that's what you want, you know, for that application, if that's calling for that as well.

The action rod that you want to use, it all varies. Some guys like to have a 7’ 3”, anything over 7 feet is good. I know some guys use 6’ 10”, 6’ 11”, you know, where they're making small little pitch casts in and around docks, around wood, around laydowns. You know, whatever you feel like doing. And that's the beauty of all of it is, you can choose which one you want to do and how you want to fish with the bait. So 7 foot is like where I'm at.

7’ 3” is good when I need to make long cast, longer cast, but if I'm just fishing in and out, you know, around cover like a 7, a 7’ 1”, a 7’ 2” are right there in my wheelhouse where this bait is gonna be optimum for your casting ability, your accuracy, and your fighting the fish as you hook the fish and landing the fish, you know, you need all the rod to bend and to move and, you know, to absorb the shock so the fish doesn't come off.

So all those attributes, you know culminate into fish landings. And that's what we all want, once we hook them, we want to be able to land them. And that way the reel, the line, the rod, and the bait are all working in unison, you know, to get the fish to the boat to where you can either net 'em or grab 'em in that scene.

And that...those are just one of the processes of just, you know, being successful is those little details like that. And you'd be amazed for the amount of time I've been doing this, how much those little things have added to two or three or four, five fish throughout the entire season that made it a great season. You know, it all comes down to just a few fish.

So once you realize that and how important it is to have, you know, sharp Gamakatsu hooks on there and baits that work properly in line and using the best stuff out there on the market to ensure that a successful land, you know, and weighing the fish, you know, and releasing it is where you want to be at. So for the most part, I mean, you could throw it all year round.

And so that's the thing that is so great about the Speed Demon is it's a great fish catcher and, you know, it's easy enough for a novice guy to throw it, and even a top tier pro as well. It fills the whole spectrum of the angling curve to where, you know, you can just go out and have a good time. So I'm Dean Rojas, on behalf of BassResource. That's what it's about on the Speed Demon cranking.