Precision Casting (Guest Review)
by Kevin Hoover

Virtually hot off the press is Precision Casting, recently written by Dr. Steven Holt and Mark Romanack. It's a logical follow up to their Precision Trolling, commonly referred to in fishing circles as “The Trolling Bible”.

Precision Casting mostly is a series of carefully researched dive charts for cast crankbaits for 140 popular crankbaits. Included are crankbaits from Bagley's, Bass Pro, Bandit, Bill Lewis, Bomber, Cabela's, Cotton Cordell, Excalibur, Luhr Jensen, Mann's, Poe's, Rapala, Rebel, Storm, Strike King, Worden's, Yo-Zuri, and more.

Each dive chart page shows the dive curve of a crankbait that was cast 70 feet on 14 lb. mono. It also contains a conversion chart that shows the maximum depth reached for 40, 70 and 100 foot casts with 8,10,12,14,17, and 20 lb. test. In addition, the page shows the name and weight of the crankbait, as well as a picture of the actual crankbait that allows easier matching if you are not sure of the crankbait model number.

Precision Casting is printed on heavy card stock (read this as “not waterproof”) and comes in a zip lock plastic bag so you can carry it with you on your fishing trips (but I wouldn't wade with it, personally).

The data was gathered using scuba divers stationed along an unique measuring apparatus suspended in open water. Multiple casts of each crankbait were used to eliminate uncertainties that could have been caused by untuned crankbaits, weeds, or fouled hooks.

If you fish crankbaits, Precision Casting is certainly a revealing book. There seems to be very little similarity between actual dive depths and what manufacturers claim their crankbaits do.

If you don't own a lot of crankbaits, but plan to acquire more, Precision Casting would be useful for helping to select a group of crankbaits that cover a range of water depths. If you already have a decent selection of crankbaits it can help you in evaluating your current crankbait collection to check that it will perform for you in the water depths you currently fish and expect to fish.

If you like your crawfish imitating crankbaits consistently bumping the bottom, Precision Casting makes it easy to identify the models that will work for you. Likewise, if you are casting to suspended bass, knowing exactly which of your crankbaits run at that depth will produce more fish for you. How about knowing which crankbaits will just tic the tops of that submerged vegetation? Precision Casting takes the trial and error out of crankbaits. Knowing what your lure is really doing makes you a better fisherman.

Precision Casting has a suggested retail price of $24.95. For more information and to see a sample dive chart, check out www.precisionangling.com.

Precision Angling Web Site