When the TVA Gets Hot, the Crankbait Still Has a Job
Summer and early fall bass fishing on TVA reservoirs changes fast. That shallow bite that everybody loves in the spring and early summer does not last forever. The bluegill bed deal, the shallow topwater bite, the easy bank stuff, all of that starts to fade when the water gets hot and the fish start shifting.
Randy Howell said it plain. On Guntersville, the water was already running 88 to 92 degrees. That is hot. When the water gets that warm, bass are in a lot of different stages, especially on a grassy lake. Some fish will still be buried up shallow in the grass. You can still catch some that way. But the fish that a lot of anglers are really looking for, the ones that can group up and give you numbers, are starting to school offshore.
That is where current becomes everything.
On TVA lakes, and really on any current related reservoir, the amount of water moving can make the fish bite or make them almost impossible to trigger. Randy talked about low current numbers, where they may be running single digit flow or only 8,000 to 13,000. When that happens, there is not much flow on the river channel. The fish do not set up the same. They suspend. They roam. They get around shell beds, hard bottom, little edges, and offshore places, but they do not lock down and feed the way they will when the current is right.
That is the hard part.
You can pull up on a school and see 50 to 100 bass on your forward facing sonar and still not make them bite. They are there. They are not gone. They are just not acting right. They are suspended off the bottom, roaming, and not locked into a feeding position.
This is where Randy is still using a crankbait from Livingston.
A lot of anglers have moved heavily into soft plastics, minnows, and forward facing sonar specific presentations. Those baits have a place, but Randy made the point that a crankbait still gives fish something different. It is moving. It vibrates. It pushes water. With Livingston Lures, it also has electronic baitfish sound. That gives the bait another way to get a fish curious enough to follow, react, and strike.
The bait Randy talked about for this situation is the Vapr 50 Deep Plus.
The regular Vapor 50 is a finesse crankbait that gets in that 6 to 8 foot range. The Deep Plus version takes that same small body and adds a longer circuit board lip so the bait can get down into that 10 to 15 foot range. Randy said he can see it getting to 15 feet on a good long cast with 12 pound fluorocarbon.
That matters because sometimes the fish are not on the bottom. Sometimes the bait does not need to dig. Sometimes it just needs to get to the fish and run through them. The Vapr 50 Deep Plus gets down fast, rolls out, and runs through that suspended zone. Randy can stop it and go, almost like working a jerkbait, and watch fish rise up behind it.
That is a huge part of this bait.
It is small, it casts well, and because of the circuit board lip, lithium battery, and sound chip, it does not float up too fast. When he pauses it, it almost hangs there. On sonar, Randy talked about seeing the Livingston bait show up bright because of the electronics inside the lure. He can watch it move, stop, move, and stop again, then watch fish chase it.
When those fish finally react, the strike can be violent. He described them streaking in like a falling star, then the rod just loads up.
That is the summer crankbait bite a lot of anglers are missing.
When the water gets hot and the current is weak, those offshore fish may not be feeding aggressively. But they will still react to the right bait coming through the right zone. The Vapr 50 Deep Plus gives you a small profile, deeper running ability, stop and go control, tight vibration, and Livingston sound in one package.
That is why a crankbait still has a job when the TVA gets hot.
About the Featured Expert — Randy Howell
Randy Howell is the 2014 Bassmaster Classic Champion and a veteran professional bass angler with decades of tournament fishing experience. A longtime member of the Livingston Lures professional team, Howell is recognized for his expertise in crankbait fishing, offshore bass tactics, seasonal pattern development, and adapting traditional fishing techniques to modern electronics. His firsthand experience provides the foundation for the fishing strategies discussed in this article.
About the Author — Steven Paul
Steven Paul is a professional angler, USCG-licensed captain, internationally award-winning fishing lure designer, author, and Chief Development Director for Livingston Lures. As the Tennessee state-record muskellunge holder, Paul spends more than 300 days annually on the water guiding, developing fishing tackle, and studying predator behavior. He is the author of Next Level Musky Fishing and Musky IQ: Analyze & Execute, a contributing writer for Field & Stream and Great Lakes Angler, and the owner and host of Musky 360. His work with Livingston Lures combines firsthand fishing knowledge, professional angler interviews, and practical lure engineering.
Steven Paul Professional Biography | Livingston Lures Pro Team
