Crankbaits for the coming year, suggestions.

[galyonj]

34 minutes ago, king fisher said:

If just getting started with crank baits, I would go to Academy sports and buy a variety of models, colors, and sizes.  They are inexpensive, and catch fish.

That's what I did when I started over, and they'll absolutely catch fish – I particularly like their 5/8 oz lipless. The hooks aren't great, but that's an easy fix, and they're cheap enough that I don't begrudge them like I do companies like SK and Rapala for putting garbage hardware on their cranks.

 

ETA: This is my favorite lipless Academy sells under the H2O brand. It's called Green Terror, and I tore them up on it this fall. You can see some teethmarks on this one here. I was sitting here at work waiting on a file upload, and changing the hooks on this one when I thought about adding it to this thread.

 

[scaleface]

The Berkely lineup of Dredgers will cover  depths from 5 to 25 foot . I have caught bass on all of them except 8.5 which is only because of the lack of playing time . When I bought my first order of every size , I chose Fire Tiger for the stained water I fish . They have done well and I caught bass down to 22 foot  .

[TBAG]

I'll add another vote for 6th sense cranks. I used to only buy SK, KVD and Rapalas until trying a 6th sense and now I haven't bought any others in a while. They are well made, sharp factory hooks and have some really cool colors.

[Fishes in trees]

$75 isn't alot to spend on cranks.   You're gonna be throwing them from a kayak, right?  Spinning gear or bait casting gear?   OK, right now, in your situation, that doesn't really matter.  Later, once you get a serious jones for collecting cranks, that will matter more.

 

First, take the suggestion from a couple of previous posters and get an extendable pole to retrieve errant casts.  Get a good one.  Mine has literally saved hundreds of dollars of crank baits over the years.  Fishing from a kayak, get the gear to keep it strapped to the kayak.

 

With the money you got left, I'd think about a few lipless cranks.  My personal favorite is an old Berkley Frenzy (from the first time Berkley tried to get into the crank business, I have 5 left ).  Of the readily available brands I like the Cordell Spots.    Many guys on this board are fans of the Strike King Red Eye Shad - me, I wouldn't know, I have a few but haven't thrown them enough to know.

 

You'll get into collecting poppers later - right now you only need one.   I'd get a medium sized Pop-R and leave it stock right now. No need to get into sanding down lips to get them to spit different, etc.

 

Maybe you'll want to get a spook or two - maybe not.  Personally I like the Lucky Craft version of the spook, the Sammy, but those are $15 a hit, more or less.

 

Lots of previous posts have given their opinion on square bills & medium divers - I can't argue with any of them, except to say my favorite square bill is a DC8 Timber Tiger, second favorite is a DC5 Timber Tiger , 3rd favorite is a DC4 Timber Tiger.   I think that these are available through Tackle Warehouse, I'm not sure.  I know I haven't seen them in any stores I frequent for a long time.  Medium or Deep Divers, I like Wiggle Warts or DC13 or DC16 Timber Tigers.

Some guys on this boards have favorable opinions on the H2O line of baits available at Academy Sports.  I have some but haven't fished them all that much.  I have fished the big square bills that weigh a little over an ounce and I like them.

 

You may want some stick baits - I think that Rogues or Rapala Husky Jerks are a good place to start..  If you're going to start messing with stick baits, get a pack of suspend dots - in cooler water baits that suspend seem to work better for me than baits that don't.  

Just keep at it and over time you'll accumulate an assortment of crank baits.   Then you'll have other stuff to occupy your finances.   For instance spinning gear or bait casting gear for cranks?   (I'm a fan of both, different tools for different circumstances ).  Do you need a specific rig to throw square bills with?   (yes).  Is this different than the rig to throw medium divers with?  ( yes, kinda )

 

Sooner or later you're gonna want a bass boat because you can throw cranks farther from the front deck of a bass boat than you can sitting down in a kayak.  

 

How much of that $75 is left?   Glad I could help.

[shootermcbob]

Academys H20 series are great and a great value. I especially like their lipless cranks. Strike king also makes a good product with several colors. My favorite is the rapala DT series...specifically the DT6 and DT10. Like others have suggested, I would have some variety. the depth you are fishing and water color should be deciding factors.