There are so many ways to fish a crank bait that even touching on all of them would be impossible. However, since we are dealing with winter and early spring right now, I am narrowing it down just a tad. Slow, Deep, Rocks, enough said. I know for a fact and especially on Guntersville Lake that bumping rocks trigger cold bass to bite, big bass. The sound of it hitting the rocks plus the change in movement as a result of hitting the rock, is why. There are many other cranking patterns out there, this is just one that works for me. I look for rocky points, ledges and last but far from least, rip-raps. I do two things some folks may not. Lighter line and pulling the rod tip several feet while not turning the reel. I wind down till I feel a rock and then stop winding and pull rod tip trying to feel one more rock then wind till I feel one more. If you feel several rocks you are going too fast and YOU WILL HANG UP! Also if you drop the rod tip and give some slack when you do hang up, it will float lose, most of the time. I fish Tennessee Shad color only, in winter. If they do not want this color then I don't catch them, oh but I find they do not mind it too bad. I also use as big of a bait as I can with out hanging up too much. Big wide wobble baits can be fished much slower. I did mention Slow right?

The map on the top left is the same one from the jig page. The two arrows to the right mark ideal points. Look at the contour lines. Being so close together tells us that we need to look at them this time of year, and that rocks could be there as well. Most areas such as these are hit directly buy current which keeps the rocks clean. The Map to the bottom left shows just a few of the many rip-rap areas we have to fish. I fish all of the rocks here by keeping the boat close to the rocks and throwing either parallel or out from the rocks running at a slight angle. See drawing.

Rip-Raps are any manmade rock piles, in my book anyway.

  Below are a few more points that have rocks. Notice the contour lines are again close. And remember many may not have rocks visible on the bank.