Crankinstein

I have a Nucanoe Flint I just got for this year and it's a really nice yak. If anyone wants more info check out my youtube channel by my name "Kevin Weber" and you can see several videos on it. Pros: -Under 1k in price -Great features: paddle holder built into handle, 4 flush rod holders, square stern for transom mounted trolling motors or power pole micro, good scuppers, stern hatch, gear straps, Plenty of rails, open layout -Tracks well -Light 70 lbs -Great size 11.3ft is a great intermediate length for a kayak in my opinion -very stable Cons: -Range not as far as a peddle yak -Average speed

I actually just ordered some Zakos and like others here I plan on using them as trailers for bladed jigs and spinnerbaits. I'm hoping that profile mixed with the action from the tail will produce, it looks like a good bait from what I've seen.

Curious if anyone has tried the Savage Gear line thru shad yet. I ordered two 7" ones yesterday in gizzard shad color with the intention of rigging a treble on the bottom of one for open water use and a top hook for fishing on the bottom. Looks like they have a 10" model too. There's a video of the swimming action that looks really good. If you tried these let me know what you think. For the price you really cant beat them and they look like an excellent shad imitator.

Those MB rebel claws look awesome. Wish I could help you with some info on those. All I can say is hang on to them, they look like they would fish really well and if their one of the rare varieties they might be worth a little cash. Nice find!

I'm a bit of a crankbait junkie so my list changes a lot but this is what im using currently for different depths and to be honest most of my crankbait fishing recently is in 14ft or less. Wake 0-1ft: Megabass Gong, Ima roumba Shallow 1-3ft: Spro fat john, Jackall Aska Med 4-6ft: Spro little john MD Med 6-8ft: Evergreen CR 08 Med deep 8-12ft: Spro rock crawler Med deep 10-14ft: Rapala DT10 and DT14 Deep 14-16ft: Duo G87 15A, Rapala DT16 Deep 16-20ft: Duo G87 20A Really Deep 20ft-25ft: SK 10XD

I guess I'm the minority here but I like the white one. Then again white or bone has just been a solid color for my local lake whether its a rat/walker/popper style topwater. I would go for whatever gives you the most confidence though because as mentioned before color isn't as big of a deal for topwater baits as it is for others. I think the action more than anything is the key.

I actually had this happen to me yesterday. Lure was a Evergreen CR 08 (Combat Crank) and I not only caught a fish on the first ever cast with it but also caught a fish on my second cast too. Both fish were dinks though probably less than a pound. I've only ever caught a fish on the first ever cast with the rebel floating cricket and the SK bitsy minnow. The bity minnow also was a catch on the first and second cast but both fish were bluegill.

Evergreen SB 105 is the best topwater bait of all time in my opinion. It walks and pops and its not too big and not too small with 3 trebles that are sticky sharp. I like the duo popper 64 and megabass pop x for small poppers. For just walking I like sammys and the duo pencil 85 and 110.

I can back this up. I just bought the deep box for my cranks and was able to eliminate two plano boxes, it holds a ton, I think its 48 slots if im not mistaken. I like that the dividers are already in place and they don't do that weird bending and warping thing that happens when you try to put every divider into a normal box. This setup lets me put one bait in each spot and keeps the hooks from getting tangled. I don't mind the price because of the quality you get. I thinks its crazy to have 48 cranks ranging in price from $5-20 depending on brand meaning that you have roughly $240-960 in baits that you are going to store in two flimsy boxes. Most of my cranks are in the $10 range so I have roughly $480 worth that are now safe and secure in the bait coffin. Protect your investment and make organizing easier.

Megabass Gong hands down. This is the bait that has the gorilla face but don't be fooled it's a top notch wake bait and not just for show. It has a blade on the back of it that looks like a Colorado blade from a spinner bait and when you wake the lure it clanks back and worth with the body and the back hook. It has a very wide action as well, swinging back and forth when retrieved. I bought it because it looked really unique but I hooked up with a fatty the very first time I used it and that fish wanted it bad, he bit the front treble and got all 3 points. The action is great on these things and they can draw strikes very well. I'm going to make a post here soon with some pictures of the baits as theres not a whole lot of info out there on them.

That Ike bait from Berkley the backslide I think its called might be a good option. It has that duel density plastic where its heavier on one end so that it slides away from you and might be good for getting under the dock and into the face of the bass. Another thing I like to do is take a bait like a wake bait that you can run parallel to the dock as others have mentioned but the wake bait will be a slower fatter target and may get those bass to come hit it if they don't hit the faster moving options. I caught a nice one last night on that brand new megabass gong wake bait when I was fishing slowly over some submerged logs, a bass that was under the log came up and nailed it.

I'm fishing NC waters too and you are right they are all over the T rig senko right now. I've been using a 4/0 EWG and haven't missed many. I usually use a MH rod with 12-15lb FC or 20-30lb braid. Right now I have one rod with the 15lb FC and another with 30lb braid and I've used both with success. I haven't been throwing them weightless T rigged but have actually been using a small 1/8th oz bullet weight, it still has a slower fall but the weight lets me get a little longer cast on it. I've used both sweeping hooksets and the over the head hookset and both seem to work well. Tight lines!

That's awesome man! My local lake has a decent population of stripers and hybrids as well as some grande bass. Looks like the big fish like these so I will be throwing them a lot this year!

Anyone have experience fishing the Megabass Magdraft? I saw a vid where Lake Fork Guy and one of his friends were fishing and his buddy was throwing one of these and it looked pretty cool or at least cool enough to make me do an impulse buy on tw for a few. I know Oliver Ngy uses them a lot as well and seems to catch some good ones on them. It seems like it may hit that middle ground of mid-large soft swimbaits somewhere between keitech and huddleston at least in terms of price and product positioning. I've read that when retrieved at the right speeds it can have some nice action. I have also heard that its more durable than most but probably not quite as durable as advertised. If you have one of these on hand or fish them let me know how you like them and how you like to fish them. I'm looking forward to seeing what their about, this will be my first megbass plastic I've used. Tight lines!

Looks like a cool idea. What if the pouch had strips of Velcro and then the individual pockets attached to that. This would let you have 6 small pouches for baits or 3 pouches for baits and one larger one for plastics possibly. I'm thinking of the idea much like the modular vests we see military personnel use. Depending on the mission or in this case the fishing technique a different setup could be made quickly and easily before you go. Either way I think its a cool concept your working on and welcome to BR!

I think you nailed it when you said "the world is a bit mad." In my opinion my best video is one where I catch several big bass cranking a rk crawler 55, the biggest being a 6.5lber. That video was from August and has about 500 views right now yet the black Friday unboxing video I did in November is already past 1000. I just don't get it but the numbers don't lie. I'm going to focus on my fishing videos though and not unboxing because those are the most fun to make and no ones sending me that 6k a week yet.

Believe it or not unboxing things seems to get a lot of views, many of the top youtube earners do nothing but that. I remember seeing one of the top 3 was videos of Disney products being opened and you never even saw a person it was just someones hands opening boxes up. I have my own youtube channel and I try to mix reviews and on the water fishing to about a 50/50 split. I have only two unboxing videos and I will be honest I was amazed at how fast they generated views. I won't be selling out I promise you that but I can't deny the fact that they are effective and if your going to buy a bunch of tackle anyway why not share it with the world once in awhile I mean we do have that bait monkey thread here don't we? People want to know what their peers bought whether its curiosity, competition, or just wanting to see that new secret bait that's coming out. I personally like to think its just part of the fisherman lifestyle and we all buy tons of baits so if your in an online community here at BR or on YT why not include some your new stuff your excited to fish once in a while? The difference to me is when buying what you want changes to showing only a sponsors products. The dialogue changes from "I bought these as an impulse buy because they were cool" to "check out brand X new baits that I show you in every single video now." I like seeing unboxing videos of what normal anglers like myself bought because I can relate and its not an infomercial. That's just my 2 cents anyway and just to add to this I want to say I really enjoy that bait monkey thread in the tackle forum, its addictive to flip through and see what people got and that's exactly what fuels some of these videos and thus my point.

I don't fish jerkbaits too often but I imagine I'll probably buy one or two of these eventually and just see what their about. I actually like the shadow raps but I just never find myself throwing them too often which is mainly due to my lakes murky water. I have the best luck on the top of the water column or on the bottom, that middle area has always been difficult. I think the shallow version of this bait could be useful though. I think you could fish this past cover and then stop it and let it rise up and possibly pull a fish off the cover. I think fishing it in open water where fish are chasing shad could be interesting as well, I would get it under the shad and it let it rise head first up through the school. These of course aren't anything revolutionary in terms of technique or lure but I think its something the bait could do and potentially be effective at which is worth at least checking out in my opinion.

The Rk Crawler became one of my favorite cranks of all time last year, its definitely a top 3 for me. They have a great action, hug the bottom well, don't hang up as much as your average cranks, and they come with quality hooks. My favorite color is spring craw and it works very well in my lakes murky water. The thing about this bait that gets me is that it has the ability to draw huge strikes and I have no idea what it is about it that does that, its not a large bait at all. Every bass I caught over 5 lb last year was on the Rk Crawler. The quality of fish were always better on that bait compared to all my other cranks for some reason. Search my name "Kevin Weber" on youtube and watch my video "catching big bass on crankbaits" and you'll see a 6.5 lber caught as well as a 5.5 and several 3s all on the Rk Crawler. It really is a great bait and I'm surprised more people haven't caught on yet but that's ok more fish for me!

slightly off topic but I have a question to the wiggle wart pros here. Does the mag wart retain that same sporadic hunting action that everyones after or is it just the standard size? It looks like an exact copy of the standard just bigger but I know theres supposed to be some sort of magic in that original mold. As someone who loves crankbaits I have really missed the bus fishing these baits and this year I want to change that. On a side note I saw someone mention the rock crawler and I will say that I love that bait and caught all my big crankbait fish on it last year.

Spro Rock Crawler 55 for me. Its basically Spros version of a wiggle wart

I can vouch for the Evergreen SB and the Duo pencil 110. The Evergreen has the best action and the Duo has the best one knocker sound IMO.

I wonder if it was the micro gearing maybe?

Some really good info in here I really like Tom's analysis, I never thought about the IPT being impacted by the smaller spools being drained by a long cast but it makes perfect sense when you think about it. I am definitely going to experiment more with cranking on high speed reels this year. I did just buy a conquest however but at least it was the HG model with the 6:2:1 ratio in the 200 size. I plan on fishing my magnum cranks with it like 10XDs and the giant Lucky Craft SKT magnum 110s and 105s. I'm going to try some square bills on my high speed reels again though and see how I like it. Looks like this might be the future for reels, faster is best!! I need to get me something in that 8:1:1 range now!

There's a new video from TW showing Aaron Martens cranking some square bills and in the video he makes reference that he cranks with all high speed reels now even with gear ratios as high as 8:1:1. He's using a Shimano Metanium in the video and he comments that with the new powerful gears most reels have these days that it doesn't wear down the reel the way it used to. He mentions that he likes the ability to crank slower while making the bait move fast and when he feels a bite he cranks real quick for a second and recovers any slack line and assisting the hook set. I was curious what you guys thought of this and if anyone had tried this. I typically crank with mid range ratios of 6:2:1, 6:4:1, etc. and have never really been a fan of the slower 5:2:1 reels even for big baits but I've never really considered high speed ratios as an option. I tied a square bill crank on one of my 7:2:1 reels once but that's about that's about the extent of my experimentation and I didn't really get any conclusive results the time I tried it. If anyone has experience with this let me know how it worked for you, I found this video very intriguing as someone who uses crankbaits quite a bit.