Fiberglass cranking rods have a big following, but I’ve gone to an 8-foot graphite model instead. It’s got the “give” I need to keep fish on the hook. Also, I don’t like to kneel-and-reel, and the longer rod allows me to get the lure down a little deeper without having to bend over. More importantly, I like the sensitivity of a graphite rod, especially when I’m fishing deep ledges.

Back in the day, in a lot of situations we were trying to get crankbaits as deep as possible, so I used 8-pound-test monofilament. There again, you didn’t have much feel with it because of the stretch factor. So now I have gone to 12-pound-test fluorocarbon. I can get a bait down 17 or 18 feet deep pretty consistently with it because it sinks anyway. Also, because fluorocarbon doesn’t stretch, it’s more sensitive. When combined with the long graphite cranking rod, it really does a good job for me on deep ledges. If you haven’t switched over to fluorocarbon for your cranking outfits, you ought to give it a try.

— Prevacid pro Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky.