Anytime an angler can look back on his Bassmaster Elite Series season and see the kind of consistency that Virginia’s John Crews demonstrated in 2011, he has to feel pretty good about it. He easily qualified for his sixth Bassmaster Classic with a 30th-place finish in the Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year (AOY) race.

His best tournament finish was 16th at Lake Murray, and he didn’t have any serious bombs all year. He turned in respectable 17th-place showing at the Bassmaster Classic. All in all, he was “Crews-ing” on all cylinders.

“I was consistent, that was probably my biggest accomplishment last year,” he said. “I fished well, but at the same time I lost some key fish in a number of tournaments that probably cost me some Top 20s and even Top 10s. That’s what I need to improve most on this year.

“It comes down to focus and dialing in on a few details. There are a lot of small things that add up. You have to make sure you execute 100 percent of the time, and don’t get distracted. I was putting myself into situations where I had opportunities to do better, and I need to capitalize on those this year. So that’s my biggest goal now, to execute well all the time.

“That, qualifying again for the next Classic, and winning a tournament,” he continued. “The Red River Classic next month would be a good place to start.”

A Worthwhile Trip

Crews has been preparing for the Classic for months. Some of this year’s qualifiers have said they didn’t go to Louisiana to pre-practice, but Crews did.

“I went and learned my way around, and I think I found some good places to fish,” he said. “I’ll try to get dialed into what’s going on during official practice, but right now I think the Spro Fat John (crankbait) and some of my new plastics will be the deal.”

The new plastics he refers to are baits he designed and is producing himself, through his recently announced new company Missile Baits.

“I’ve been wanting to find a niche in the fishing industry,” he said. “I love my relationship with Spro for hard baits, but I didn’t have an outlet for all my soft plastic ideas. I wanted to do my own thing somehow, so I created my own opportunity. I did have a couple offers while I was planning this deal but turned three of them down because I wanted to do it myself, my way.

“In general the baits are thinner for the right action, but they’re made with various consistencies (of plastic),” he noted. “Some are softer, some firmer. I dial them in to be just right for the application.”

He’s already been using some of the baits in competition.

“I used the Twin Turbo (twin-tail grub) on a swim jig at Wheeler Lake for the Elite Series. That thing is smoking on a swim jig. The prototypes are made one at a time and they are expensive, but I caught some weigh-in fish on them in that tournament.

“And in one PAA tournament I caught them on the Twin Turbo and the D-Bomb in shallow grass,” he added. “The D-Bomb is a bigger, bulkier flipping-style bait with big, thin flappers on the back that have an undulating action. There’s a thin section in the bait where the hook pushes through for excellent hooksets.

“I’m really itching to get out on the tournament trail, start catching fish on them, and get them on the market and help other anglers catch fish,” he continued. “There’s a unique sense of pride in hearing about people catching fish on lures I designed. It’s a one-of-a-kind feeling that I’m really looking forward to, hearing about all the big fish people caught on the Missile Baits.”

An Even Keel

So which lake on the 2012 schedule is Crews most excited about?

“I try to condition myself to not get excited or disappointed with any of the tournaments,” he said. “It sounds cliché, but it takes years to teach yourself that. Mentally, I want them all the same and I’ll take them one at a time. If I do what I’m supposed to do I’ll end up where I feel like I should be – near the top.

“You can’t help yourself with negative thinking. But if you get pumped up too much, you already have too much expectation as to how you’re going to catch them. Places change every day, so if you already have scripted how you’re going to catch fish, that’s a recipe for disaster.”

Still, here’s how he’s guessing he might approach this year’s somewhat unusual assortment of venues.

> St. John’s River: “I’m likely to drop the D-Bomb on them. There should still be a lot of bed-fish, and that bait will be disgusting on bed-fish.”

> Okeechobee: “Flipping may be the deal, or punching mats. The Missile Craw (small 4-inch punch-style bait) could be pretty good there.”

> Bull Shoals: “We should be there around the spawn. If the water is up, it’s deep and clear and I could see that Drop Craw being pretty slick on bed fish there.” He describes the Drop Craw as a “unique 3-inch dropshot bait that is slim with tremendous action when you barely move it, great for highly pressured fish and clear water.”

> Douglas Lake: “I’ve never been there, but it might work out to use a heavy football-head jig with a Twin Turbo on it.”

> Toledo Bend: “I’ll probably fish the Tomahawk (8 3/4-inch twin ribbontail worm) on deeper grass edges and ledges.”

> Mississippi River: “Definitely a swim jig, that’s Twin-Turbo city there. The northern swim jig was pretty much invented there.”

> Oneida: “I might be flipping or punching if I’m going for largemouths. If smallmouth are the deal, the Drop Craw will be like a vacuum cleaner. I’m kind of excited about that tournament; you can catch both types of fish that time of year, which opens up the lake pretty good. It gives you more options. Oneida could be won on either species.”

Notable

> Crews sometimes goes by the handle “Crews missile,” hence the Missile Baits company name and missile-related names for the baits.

> As noted in his press release last week, California Bassmaster Elite Series pro and running buddy Ish Monroe is on the Missile Baits pro staff. “Ish is pretty pumped up about everything,” Crews noted. “I’m really glad Ish will be promoting the baits; he’s almost as excited as I am about it.”

Never did pro angler John Crews think that the nickname “Crews Missile”, given to him by good buddy Rick Hawkins, would grow so popular.

Not only does the nickname appear in the well-liked Virginia pro’s email address, but these days, Crews is also often referred to as ‘The Crews Missile’ on stage during B.A.S.S. weigh-ins.

Crews never thought he’d trade away his diesel tow vehicle for a gas powered Toyota Tundra either, but like the nickname, Crews’ new Tundra has serious horsepower.

“Based on my experience, the Tundra is the only gas powered truck out there that will keep up with a diesel. It’s the strongest gas powered truck on the road from what I’ve witnessed,” said Crews, who will tow his SPRO Lures sponsored Bass Cat with the new 381-hp Tundra throughout the upcoming 2012 Bassmaster Elite and PAA season.

“Not only will it be cheaper to buy gas than diesel, but I’m also looking forward to a quieter, smoother ride across the 30,000 miles I typically tow each year,” said Crews, who describes his dream fishing trip as any lake in Mexico where they’re biting a SPRO Little John DD.

Crews will also have a chance to haul home cash bonuses he wasn’t eligible for previously. “Being eligible for the Toyota Trucks Bonus Bucks definitely played a role into buying a Tundra. I feel like I have a good shot at grabbing some of that Bonus Bucks money,” said Crews, who has practiced a strict health and fitness lifestyle en route to qualifying for five Bassmaster Classics.

The “Crews Missile” is right on track. When you buy or lease a 2007 or newer Tundra, Sequoia, 4Runner, FJ Cruiser or Tacoma, send in your registration like he did, and be the highest finishing eligible participant (must finish in the top 50% of the field) in your FLW or BASS affiliated tournament – and you win the Bonus Bucks.  To find out more and to make sure you’re signed up please visit www.ToyotaFishing.com or call Kendell at (918) 742-6424.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Bass Minder^®, a fishing products company has announced a sponsorship with Bassmaster Elite Series professional fisherman, John Crews.

Crews, an 11-year professional angler, has qualified for the Bassmaster Classic six times. The 2010 Elite Series winner knows the importance of the proper tackle and is an angler who designs his own lures, which contributes to his success on the tour.

When John Crews saw the Bass Minder^® product, he said it was a no-brainer. “For more than 10 years, I have been using small stickers on my rods or reels to mark what line it is and what date I replaced it.” said Crews. “I have struggled to find the right product until now. The Bass Minder^® Line Reminder Stickers are a must for all anglers, and the other products are great references for anglers to consult.”

Bass Minder^® products can be purchased at Bass Pro Shops, participating Walmart locations and on the Bass Minder^® website at www.bassminder.com.  For more information about Bass Minder^® or to reach John Crews, please contact Audrey Pannell at Audrey@styleadvertisting.com or 205.503.5955.

ABOUT BASS MINDER^®

The Alabama-based Bass Minder^® products feature three main products designed to help anglers of all levels improve their expertise. The products include the Line Reminder Stickers, Line Selection Guide-sponsored by Vicious Fishing- and the Lure Selection Guide. The Selection products provide a great basis for any angler to consult before spooling up their reel or tying on their lure. For more information visit www.bassminder.com.

Bass Minder^® Products are proudly printed in the U.S.A. and distributed through Stewart Distribution Services, LLC.

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Crankbaits are fish catchers. More importantly, crankbaits are fish locators. There may be no better tool for quickly locating biting bass than a lipped diving plug. Shallow, deep, lipless or squarebilled; the crankbait is a lure that most anglers have in bunches.

However effective they are at locating bass, finding the right quality bass is always the trick, and if you grew up around the Carolina’s and Virginias; you know the year-round effectiveness of the crankbait. In the heat of the year, deep crankbaits provide anglers a chance to present a reaction lure to bass on deep offshore structure, and a skilled angler knows how to take advantage of the details.
One of those anglers is five-time Bassmaster Classic Qualifier John Crews, from Salem, Va.

“I love deep cranking; actually, I love fishing crankbaits in general, but when the bass pull offshore and get bunched up on humps and ledges; a deep crankbait is one of the best ways to find, and catch them,” said Crews. “Crankbaits are often called “no brainer lures,” but, let me tell you, there is nothing un-intelligent about fishing crankbaits.”

Crankbait Country
Crews hails from the area of the country that David Fritts ruled for so many years; crankbait country. While they produce everywhere his area of the country, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia anglers have long been recognized as the best with a deep diving plug. Led by Bassmaster and FLW Champion David Fritts; the area produces crankbait royalty.
Crews said that being able to produce consistently in his home region involves knowing everything you can about the lure, the water, the bait and the cover or structure that they are fishing. “Anglers out here get really detailed in their retrieves, I’m talking about lining up to present a crankbait to a single piece of cover or structure,” he said. “Once they place the perfect cast, they begin a retrieve that will find that lure deflecting off of a single boulder or stump triggering a strike from hopefully a big largemouth.”

Crews’ Cranking Equipment
Crews is such a crankbait aficionado that he was given the opportunity to design lures for his sponsor SPRO. He began with the Little John; which is a flat sided squarelip for cranking in shallow water. He soon added a Little John MD, a medium diving version of his first bait, then a Little John DD, a big deep diving version, a Fat John; a bulky squarebill, and most recently the Little John Baby DD, a medium running version of his big deep diving plug.
His crankbait approach relies on knowing the capabilities of the lures, and what each change in components will do to the response of the lure.

“To get the most out of the capabilities of the Little John DD and the Baby DD, you have to use the right equipment. Long casts really give the bait a chance to reach as deep as possible,” he said. “Because a long cast is so crucial, it really is designed to work on an extra long rod. Any stout crankbait rod will do, but one that is 7’6” or longer is best, but it still needs to have a tip that’s soft enough to allow the fish to take the bait deep when they strike.”

He uses a Pinnacle Perfecta DHC in either 7’6” to 7’11” medium heavy models and pairs them with a Pinnacle Optimus XT 4.7:1 reel for power cranking, or the 6.4:1 speed if the fish need a faster retrieve, but the 4.7:1 sees the bulk of the duty. He chooses to fill the spool mostly with 12-pound-test Vicious Pro Elite Fluorocarbon for the proper feel and handling of the lure. If he needs to drive the baits a little deeper, he turns to 10-pound-test.

Presentation and Retrieve
Because crankbaits are at their best when they reach their optimum depth range, Crews tries to make really long casts. He believes that to get the most out of the lure, he has to use a little match to make tings most effective. “I try and make a cast that is twice as long as the depth I’m trying to hit,” he said. “For example, if the cover I’m targeting is 19 feet deep, then I want my cast to go at least 38 feet. Because the dive angle of the Little John DD is so steep, I will want to position my boat so that the cover I’m targeting is about two thirds of the distance away; that way the lure has plenty of time to get down and work effectively.”

He uses two types of retrieves to trigger strikes, and he allows the fish to tell him which is going to be the most effective for the day. The first approach in the summer is to grind the bottom. “After I make my long cast, and begin with a medium – fast retrieve to get the lure down to the bottom,” he said. I power the bait over, around and through any rocks, stumps and shellbeds I can come into contact with Bass that are aggressive will often crush the bait on this type of retrieve.”

His other approach is kind of a bump and run type; especially if the bass are needing a little coaxing. “After I make contact with a hard piece of cover, I will allow the bait to pause for a moment,” he said. “After pausing, I begin the retrieve again; this is often where strikes occur.”

He designed his lures to be effective at both retrieves. “I made these baits so that they would slowly float back away from an obstruction,” he said. “If it was a suspending bait, it would hover around the cover, but this way, they back up slightly, just like a bream who uses only its lateral fins to sneak away from an attacker before it is seen.”

Choosing Colors
Crews chooses his colors based on the water clarity and the forage. “Most of the time my first two choices would be Cell Mate and chartreuse and blue; those two colors produce just about everywhere in the country,” he said.” But there are other times that I would choose other colors.”

For clear water conditions, with visibility of three feet or more, a Clear Chartreuse or Spooky Shad are great choices. in stained water, or in overcast conditions, Citrus Shad is worth a look because it has reflective scales pattern on the side of the bait to give off a little flash.

PAA Communications

GADSDEN, Ala. – When summer arrives and BassCat pro John Crews ties on a deep-diving crankbait, his thoughts turn to a hot salsa dance technique just about every time he makes a cast.

Bumping. Grinding. Digging. Twitching. Starting and stopping, with a little momentary hesitation for allure.

Crews isn’t gettin’ down on the deck of his boat. He’s making his SPRO Little John DD crank boogie along the bottom and around cover trying to entice bass to bite.

“In warm or clear water I’ll stop and twitch it a little more … hit cover, pause and twitch it twice,” said the veteran pro from Virginia. “The warmer the water, the faster they want it. It’s not a jerkbait deal where it’s sitting for a longer period, so you’re going to pause maybe a second or two and keep going. They’re just waiting for it to act erratically.”

Crankbaits will be part of the pros’ assault on Neely Henry Lake this week during the season-finale of the Bass Pro Shops PAA Tournament Series presented by Carrot Stix. The tournament is Thursday through Saturday, going out of Coosa Landing.

Daily weigh-ins are 2 p.m. Thursday and Friday at Coosa Landing, with the final weigh-in at 4:30 p.m. at Bass Pro Shops in Leeds just off Interstate 20 east of Birmingham. The field will compete for cash and prizes, including a new Nitro Z-8 with a Mercury 225 and T-H Marine Atlas jackplate, and the Humminbird MinnKota Big Bass Award for the tournament’s biggest lunker.

SPRO pro John Crews tangles with summer spotted bass often with deep-diving crankbaits. (PAA: Alan Clemons)

Also at stake is the PAA Angler of the Year points championship. Ranger pro Todd Auten of South Carolina leads the race with 351 points and is riding a hot streak after a Top 10 finish in the Forrest Wood Cup last week on Lake Ouachita in Arkansas.

Right behind Auten are Gene Larew pro Tommy Biffle of Oklahoma, the defending PAA Angler of the Year, with 347 points, and Hefty pro Mike McClelland of Arkansas, with 343 points. BoatUS Weigh-to-Win pro Troy Morrow of Georgia (307) is also within striking distance of claiming the honor.

Neely Henry offers a variety of options with its river-run upper end, midlake tributaries and deep points on the lower end. Crankbaits and offshore tactics will be put to use this week by the pros seeking deeper spots and largemouth feeding or suspended in deep water.

Critical to any deep tactic is finding the right line and angle, and then getting the bait down through the strike zone.

“It’s very important to hit at the right angle and I use 12-pound Vicious Pro Elite fluorocarbon line about 90 percent of the time,” Crews said. “Long casts are very important. You can’t make too long of a cast because you cover more water and keep in strike zone longer.

“Cranking at the right angles also is very important. Do you parallel the point? Throw across? Get out and bring the bait up the point or ledge? Guntersville is a great example for this because if you find a wad of fish, you may crank up two, three or four fish and then not get any more to bite. But you could go to the opposite side and catch two or three more. Angles are more important with deep cranking than flipping, pitching or topwaters.”

With the numerous options today in monofilament, fluorocarbon, co-polymer and braided lines for anglers to choose from, it’s sometimes confusing which is best for different baits. Monofilament or small-diameter fluorocarbon works best for crankbaits to help impart action and give a little with the minimal stretch.

“You might think that braid is stronger and could work better, but it has zero stretch and so unless you really compensate the rod with a light or medium action rod you’re going to pull the bait from the fish with it,” said Hefty pro Mike McClelland of Arkansas, who cranks with Sunline.

“When I’m fishing clear water, I still believe the fish can see the line,” he said. “That’s when fluorocarbon really works best. Monofilament still is a great option, too, and a lot of guys stick with it.

“With crankbaits, I don’t use braid unless I’m at Falcon or Amistad in heavy timber. You can get away with 30-pound braid because it has the right diameter. If you get hung up you can pull it until you straighten the hooks and get the bait out. I think if you’re catching really big fish like in those situations or on a Mexico lake, that would be the only time.”

Crews combines a Pinnacle reel with a Pinnacle Perfecta 7-foot-11 rod, giving him long-cast abilities with the 12-pound Vicious line for deep cranking. The rod’s length helps him control and feel the bait better, too.

“The combo of everything you’re using to make the long cast and work the bait really makes a difference,” Crews said. “You feel everything with the fluorocarbon and can almost tell when you’re going to get a bite. When you find what bottom they’re on and get dialed in … you may be cranking mud, then it transitions to gravel, then bigger rocks and you get ready because you know you’re in the right spot.

“There’s something about the big crankbait that gets those fish competitive, too. They start to get competitive when that bait comes vibrating through there. It gets the whole school excited. You don’t have to wait for a big worm to get down there. You can make more casts and fish more efficiently.”