Ideal Conditions
Sunny, calm and mild are perfect
conditions for this pattern in the Mid-
South and other nearby regions.
“It’s kind of the opposite of what
you think about when you’re cranking
in the spring,” Dunkin says. “On super
windy days, cloudy days, they just
don’t seem to move up there on that
stuff in the winter as much. For me, I
want it calm, with maybe a little wind.
That’s crazy when you’re cranking, but
this is finesse cranking. You’re not
crashing through there.”
The finesse aspect comes from the
types of crankbaits Dunkin uses –
mostly balsa, but also some flat-sided
plastic models. His go-to in most situ-
ations is a No. 5 or 7 Rapala Shallow
WINTER 2019 I FLWFISHING.COM
Shad Rap in natural shad or brown
crawfish patterns. The smaller model
gets used when the water tempera-
ture is in the low 40s, when the bite is
tough and when the water is a hair
cleaner than what he prefers.
Other standbys are the Old School
Balsa Baits Wesley Strader series of
flat-sided crankbaits, the 6th Sense
Crush Flat 75X and the 6th Sense
Cloud 9 Series C6. The Strader bait is
good for slightly deeper wood. The
Flat 75X and C6 work well when the
water temperature is climbing toward
50 degrees.
Mostly though, Dunkin slings the
little Shallow Shad Rap for this pattern.
“This little thing [the Shallow Shad
Rap], it doesn’t do a lot. It’s subtle
when it comes through there,” he
says. “Now, the bites, they are fero-
cious. There’s no doubt about it when
they eat it.”
Where to Look
Dunkin lives in the Tennessee River
Valley and has applied this pattern on
Pickwick, Wilson and Wheeler, which
are his home lakes. He’s also done it
on the Coosa River system in Alabama
and Beaver Lake in Arkansas.
At least a foot of visibility is neces-
sary for water clarity, and Dunkin
looks for underwater topography
where shallow flats butt up against
deeper water such as a creek chan-
nel. Deep-water access is important.
“It’s kind of what they get on in the
prespawn, but those fish are always
around,” he says. “They’re really shal-
low, and the water’s got to be clear.
Some of the bites you get on it, you
would think you would be able to see
them they’re so shallow.”
Dialing In
This isn’t a cast-and-wind-down-
the-bank pattern; it’s a target-specific
approach. Scouting wide, shallow flats
(though generally not clear in the back
of a creek in spawning areas), Dunkin
looks for isolated targets.
“I look for a laydown, stick-up, stake
bed – anything they can get around,” he
says. “Some of the best stuff that we’ve
seen is a long, flat laydown, where you
can probably come down the entire
thing with the bait. It’s not on a steep
transition bank that goes from 6 to 10
feet, but a flat bank where that tree is
in 1 to 3 feet the entire time.”
A bank as Dunkin describes, with a
series of isolated wood targets scat-
tered along it, is money.
“I find them in bays off the main
river channel or off the creek chan-
nel,” Dunkin says. “A lot of times I idle
in and can see what I’m looking for:
isolated pieces of wood. It’s anything
those bigger females might move up
and sun on. Once you figure out that
it’s going on, you can literally run to
every piece of cover in an area and
eventually catch them.”
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