I have started fishing in rivers a lot more and have had great success on soft plastics for smallmouth. Grubs, senkos, swimbaits, ned rig, shaky heads, etc. One thing I am still getting comfortable with is crankbaits. With the soft plastics, I typically retrieve my lures with the current as the fish usually are positioned facing into to current, or sometimes they are in an eddy and I will get strikes at a 45 degree angle bringing the bait with the current.
When fishing with crankbaits, do you typically bring the lure with the current? Or are you casting more perpendicular with the current? I feel like when I bring the lure with the current, it's not getting the proper depth or action, but I haven't gotten any strikes pulling against current where I feel the action is better and I can retrieve slower at maximum depth.