Countdown

Cast a lipless crankbait, a blade bait or a weighted swimbait and count while it sinks. Start reeling at five. If nothing happens, cast again and start at ten. Keep going until you find fish or hit bottom.

The value is repeatability. Once a bite happens at fifteen, you can put the bait back in that same layer on every cast instead of guessing. It turns a whole water column into something you can search systematically.

Most baits fall at roughly a foot per second, though a heavy blade bait drops faster and a slow-sink swimbait much slower. Timing your own lure once against a known depth makes the whole thing far more accurate.

Wind and line type both change the rate. Braid has less drag in the water than mono and lets a bait fall faster, and a bow of line pushed by wind slows the drop and hides bites. Cast into the wind when you are counting down.