Terry Bates looks for breaks, ledges and points 8 to 12 feet deep where he finds a drop with deep water running close to a point.
“I’m going to dredge that bottom with the crankbait, and retrieve it in a stop and go pattern and figure out what they want,” Bates said.
The accomplished tournament angler and guide also spends a lot of time looking for schools of shad along the ledges, which he says is the first part of the equation.
If the big fish are there, he can usually make them react when he bounces a crankbait off of a ledge or other submerged object.
“I’ll run that crankbait into a rock, log, barge and bump it into anything I can find and then pause it,” Bates said. “I’ll just get it out as far as I can and reel it in, bumping and grinding until I find a pattern or catch a bass.”
He concentrates on points, drops and submerged ledges on Sardis, Enid, Grenada and other similar lakes.
“I’m fond of crankbaits in the chartreuse/black back, sexy shad and citrus shad,” Bates said. “A lot depends on the number of anglers and fishing pressure, but I’m confident that I can find and catch bass shallow during the hot months.”
He likes to throw the 300 series crankbaits, in which he has a lot of confidence.
“The Bagley Balsa DB3s are still good, but the new baits throw much better because they’re heavier,” Bates said. “The technology has changed so much in the last 10 to 15 years that it’s crazy.
“David Fritts and Berkley just came out with some new crankbaits, and they’re going to be really different, too.”
Another secret to Bates’ crankbait success is that he never uses a snap or swivel. Instead, he ties a loop knot that allows the lure to run properly with no danger of losing a fish because the snap or swivel gets bent or straightened out from the power of a fish.
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