Spinnerbaits vs Crankbaits

[scaleface]

8 minutes ago, J Francho said:

You're doing it wrong.  Get a 3/4 ouncer, and dredge the depths.  Seriously.

I have two Ledge Busters by Strike King still in package that are designed for that . I bet they are close to 25 to 30 years old .

[J Francho]

I like Ledge Busters, but the Strike King Premier Pro from Dick's is my favorite for this.  Tandem Colorado.  Any color. 

[scaleface]

5 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I like Ledge Busters

I stand corrected , they are 3/4 ounce Strike King Pro Ledge . The sticker price is $1.99. 

[J Francho]

I think the Premiers are like a buck more, and come with a trailer hook installed.  They last 10x as long as the $7 KVD spinnerbaits I tried.

[bigbill]

I learned to through a ritual of different baits, colors, sizes till I get action. The bass will tell me when it’s right.

 

i use the manns Classic ( really the Hank Parker Classic Spinnerbait) spinnerbait in white with the twin Indiana gold blades. It’s comes with a blue glimmer skirt and I add a mister twister 4” white split double tail grub and a trailer hook. For clear to shaded water(shade trees). For stained water it’s the manns classic in chartreuse, mt 4” chartreuse trailer. I do change the skirt to a hot chartreuse.

 

i also play with the sight line. Above the sight line we can see the spinnerbait, below the sight line we can’t see the spinnerbait.

[papajoe222]

Welcome to the forums.

A spinnerbait has much more versatility than a crank in that it can be presented throughout the water column. Any individual crank is limited to basically one depth range.  If you're fishing from shore, or some unknown part of the lake, you can start fishing the spinner up high, through the mid depths, or on the bottom.  One downside is that  you'll have is retrieving it at a constant depth, especially when first using them.  When you catch a fish, you want to be able to repeat what you and the lure were doing.  The downside to cranks is that they only run down to one depth and only stay there for part of your retrieve. Another downside for spinnerbaits is the amount of flash they give off. On a sunny, calm day, that flash is a turn off for bass.

They both have different triggering qualities and which one to use in any given situation is based more on personal preference/confidence than any perceived plus or minus compared to the other.

[Deleted account]

22 hours ago, J Francho said:

I have a whole string of photos from a cold, clear, early May day, of big largemouth, all chin hooked by the trailer hook on a spinnerbait.  17-20' water, near a channel and rip rap.  Let the bait hit bottom, and reel in so it's hitting bottom occasionally.  They were chin hooked, because they were crashing the blades.  I've duplicated this success many times over.

This ^.  Slow rolling a big spinnerbait (I like a single colorado or indiana from the musky section) in the pre spawn on the bottom catches some of my biggest fish most years.