Crankbaits??

[Pat3697]

How you do guys feel about shallow running crankbaits and whats your favorite one/color/design/company/ ect?

I love pulling a lure I think this next spring season I might go with them more often.

[Arv]

It's really the only cranking I do. Strike King makes some solid cranks at an affordable price which I've had good success with. The 1.5s catch a lot of fish for me. I recently got a hold of some lucky craft squarebills which I like a lot and have produced some good fish thus far. As far as colors go, start with shad, blue gill and craw colors and go from there.

[Pat3697]

strike king is the first company im trying with a series one crank..we'll see how it goes

[MacP]

Rapala shallow shad raps are my favorite crankbait bar none.

 

shad, bluegill, black silver, blue silver.  In that order.

 

All sizes work.

[Comfortably Numb]

I like Pre-Rapala Wiggle Warts in medium depth water.

 

Rapala Scatter Rap cranks work well too

 

Baker lures suspending Shads and cranks are my fav though.

 

I do best on Bluegill,craw  and shad colors

[tomustang]

I feel like, just as any lure, have a time and place for using them. Open water and above the weed line are good starts. As for colors you can imitate the bait fish.

[SMITTY0045]

As far as shallow cranks go, my favorite is a Mann's baby 1-minus. I have tried just about every color of this lure and all have worked for me. 

[Marty]

I fish shallow cranks a lot because I fish a lot of shallow water. Among my favorites, in no particular order, are KVD 1.5, Shallow Shad Raps, and Heddon Swin-N-Image.

[Pat3697]

reaction strike has some great lures ..might try them this upcoming season.

[whitwolf]

It's hard to go wrong with Norman crankbaits.............

[dam0007]

Rapala shallow shad raps are my favorite crankbait bar none.

 

shad, bluegill, black silver, blue silver.  In that order.

 

All sizes work.

+1 but I use purple gold old color pattern they don't make it the same anymore.

[michang5]

I'm very new to crankbaits, but the Luck-E-Strike RC2 Series 3 in tasty shad has been the only thing that has worked the last two weeks. It travels 1-2 feet deep.

Question: If I'm fishing shallow grass beds and picking up small amounts of grass every other cast (usually not clumps), should I stick with the 1-2 footer? Or try one that goes 0-6 inches?

[Comfortably Numb]

I'm very new to crankbaits, but the Luck-E-Strike RC2 Series 3 in tasty shad has been the only thing that has worked the last two weeks. It travels 1-2 feet deep.

Question: If I'm fishing shallow grass beds and picking up small amounts of grass every other cast (usually not clumps), should I stick with the 1-2 footer? Or try one that goes 0-6 inches?

 

I would switch to a spinnerbait.

[Bluebasser86]

Our lakes are set up very nicely for squarebills, mostly shallow with stained to muddy water and the primary forage in lots of them is bluegills or shad. I fish a lot of different squarebills, KVD 1.5 and 1.0, Luck E Strike 2 and 3, Lucky Craft 1.5, Spro Little John and Fat John, H2O, and the Bandit 100 are among some of my favorites. I try to keep colors pretty simple and a majority of the time I'm fishing something chartreuse or shad colored. 

[ww2farmer]

I keep it simple for square bills. I use the SK KVD's in all three sizes, with the 1.5 getting used the most. I stick to colors that resemble the the forage base around here, which are bluegills/sunfish , perch, alewives , and craws.

[AK-Jax86]

Yea I use the KVD 1.5s exclusively I love em. But I only have success with a few colors so I just keep those 5 in my box. I also like Shad Raps a lot! They run deeper but if u keep your rod tip high then they run shallow, very versatile bait when nothing else seems to work I can usually count on the shad rap to get me a fish

[roadwarrior]

Norman Fat Boy (Redear)

Bomber Square A

Bandit 200 & 300

Lucky Craft Takahiro Omori 2.5

Wiggle Wart

Bagley B2

KVD Red Eye Shad

 

 

 

 

[MarkH024]

I'm very new to crankbaits, but the Luck-E-Strike RC2 Series 3 in tasty shad has been the only thing that has worked the last two weeks. It travels 1-2 feet deep.

Question: If I'm fishing shallow grass beds and picking up small amounts of grass every other cast (usually not clumps), should I stick with the 1-2 footer? Or try one that goes 0-6 inches?

Try a Manns -1 Minus. Awesome little crank! This was my fall in love bait this season that Snakehead Whisperer referred to me way back in Spring.  If not the Mann's go with Numb suggestion of a spinner bait or try a swim jig from Siebert Outdoors.

[JWOA]

 My favorite color is bluegill...or tennesse shad. Down here in Ga 85% of the bass source of food is brim/bluegill. I use to fish shallow cranks with 10lbs fluro..but then I learned that the heavier lbs test got them down to 4-5ft so I started fishing with 17lbs test..sometimes 20lbs tatsu FC. want go lower than 15lbs FC.

  I use a 5:3.1 baitcaster or a 6:3 depends on the fish and what time of year.

 

 Jay White

[papajoe222]

I'm very new to crankbaits, but the Luck-E-Strike RC2 Series 3 in tasty shad has been the only thing that has worked the last two weeks. It travels 1-2 feet deep.

Question: If I'm fishing shallow grass beds and picking up small amounts of grass every other cast (usually not clumps), should I stick with the 1-2 footer? Or try one that goes 0-6 inches?

Stick with the bait you're using. Tickin the top of the weeds is exactly what you want to be doing.  A pause allowing the bait to rise and a short rip with the rod tip will free the few strands clinging to the hooks and has the advantage of triggering stikes.

[Bankbeater]

About the only two I use are Mann's 1 minus and Storm sub-warts. I love to use them over the tops of weeds.

[hoosierbass07]

 I hope to start using crankbaits a little more next year.  I bought one Strike King that I used this summer occasionally but not enough to catch anything.  I recently bought a Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn crankbait.  I've not used it yet but it's far prettier than my Strike King crankbait.