Crankbaits

[rgasr63]

Don't forget the DT-4 and all those dozens of square bills that are saved up. I don't change any hooks or hardware until the bait runs right and it catches a couple of fish. 

[Columbia Craw]

I crank, therefore I am.

[FishTax]

21 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I buy them all the time, but then hate fishing them, I don’t understand myself sometimes.

This is me. I keep buying them. In my head I catch fish with them. In reality, I make 3 casts and switch to a jig. 

[Bankbeater]

Once you buy a couple hundred new crankbaits, you'll start cruising garage sales and auctions looking for vintage baits.

[scaleface]

What is weird with cranks is you have one that is magical and catching fish real well for good while and then nothing. It eventually loses its status  in the hierarchy. 

[Siebert Outdoors]

 I have a Bandit 300 that is probably 20 yrs old that is a flat fish catching machine.  All the others I've bought in the same color are not the same.  I put the old one back on and it starts catching again. 

[Darth-Baiter]

my biggest and smallest bass have been taken on a Crankbait.  

 

sad, I have hundreds of dinks and only one big.

[Motoboss]

My magical dragon!  Although I have hundreds of others, his one is mine and only mine. I will fish him until he dies in battle. This one is mine and the hill I will die on!

 

My dream scenario

 

 

[Dan N]

Love throwing cranks , I have hundreds and just ordered my 6th cranking rod, 

in the early spring and fall, my go to
 

[RRocket]

On 2/17/2025 at 11:13 AM, bp_fowler said:

Once the weeds top out its game over.

Switch over to topwater crankbaits  for that! 

[F14A-B]

1 hour ago, Dan N said:

Love throwing cranks , I have hundreds and just ordered my 6th cranking rod, 

in the early spring and fall, my go to
 

I sold my crank bait collection in 2010, maybe 300 or so, but I had Bagleys from the late 70’s on into the 90’s. Same with Rapala.. etc. one of my all time favorites was the Risto. Remember those? Those are the ones I regret selling, nonetheless I got a crazy price and a couple Loomis rods. Nowadays I roll with about 100 mostly square bills. Mostly Lucky Craft and Rapala. Some Shimano. IMX crank bait rods. But in late winter, early spring I’ll be throwing a square bill or a trap. I love a horizontal bite in the spring. 
 

I been trying to deal with the bait monkey but it doesn’t seem to work. I’m a sucker for crank baits 😂

[Dan N]

Love all the Rapala and most 6th sense stuff. Both come with good hooks in my opinion, at least for a non tourney guy like myself. Tons of square bills for me too. And Lipless, and DT series, and OG series from rapala, and ….

it just keeps going 🤣

I’ve literally orderd 4-8 of some of my favorite at a time🤣 dang pike steal them🤣

[Brian11719]

Crankbait bites can be fun when you get on a good one...one of my best last year was with a 6th sense cloud 9 c10...I also like lucky craft stuff so not the cheapest lure in the bag but there are days when it's definitely worth it.

[The Baron]

On 2/19/2025 at 7:17 PM, Dan N said:

I’ve literally orderd 4-8 of some of my favorite at a time🤣 dang pike steal them🤣

A guy up here makes what he calls “just in case” leaders, because we have so many pike.  I use his 6-7” leader of 40# fluorocarbon for moving baits when we’re in pike areas.  They work great, bass don’t seem to care and they’ve saved me a few lures when ol’ Esox lucius attacks.

 

I just started getting into cranking a bit last year.  Had some luck, so will do more.  The Rapala DTs are my favourite so far.  I’m currently in the market for a couple of glass or composite cranking rods for shallow-medium and medium-deep cranking.

[whitwolf]

16 hours ago, Motoboss said:

My magical dragon!  Although I have hundreds of others, his one is mine and only mine. I will fish him until he dies in battle. This one is mine and the hill I will die on!

 

My dream scenario

 

 

The Deep Wee R is my all time favorite crankbait!

[Motoboss]

56 minutes ago, whitwolf said:

The Deep Wee R is my all time favorite crankbait!

For me in baby bass color, it’s one of those lures that just catch bass when fishing tough.
 

Certainly a confidence bait.

[wvhunt]

I've caught more fish on crankbaits than anything else, so I fish them more.  Of course you could say I fish crankbaits more than anything else, so I catch more fish on them.  This year I'm going to try and fish other baits more since I seem to be only catching smaller bass on the crankbaits.

[Darth-Baiter]

3 hours ago, Motoboss said:

For me in baby bass color, it’s one of those lures that just catch bass when fishing tough.
 

Certainly a confidence bait.

I might have one of those in my remnants bait box.  gotta go look

at Elephant Butte lake.  bass colors did well

[FishTank]

My take on crankbaits.... if you buy a decent one, you don't need to tune it, or replace the hardware.  That doesn't always mean that it has to be expensive. Check out the Bill Lewis ATV.  It's pretty solid out of the box and under $10. On the other side of things,  I have several 6XDs and 10XDs that are great fish catchers after being worked on but they can be 💩 out of the box.  I might get one in five that run correctly and the hooks are terrible.  After you spend the time and money,  its better to invest in a better bait.

 

One other thought,  pay close attention to what some people call a "Custom Crankbait". Often times, these are the same cheap blanks from ebay or Ali Express, just custom painted.  They will then sell them for high prices. If you go that route, look for hand made baits. Here in in Indiana there is guy does not advertise online but makes custom balsa baits that are amazing. Down side he only makes a limited amount, they sell out at local shops immediately and they start at $35. I don't have any but see guys killing it on them in the prespawn every year.

[Huckfinn38]

On 2/17/2025 at 11:02 AM, LrgmouthShad said:

Tiny bass aside, I find myself tossing a crankbait more and more. It’s just so easy to look at something and think “yeah a crankbait should go there.” It’s getting to the point where I probably toss a crankbait more than a spinnerbait. This is problematic for many reasons. The crankbait monkey may be worse than the spinnerbait monkey. Changing hardware on the baits, tuning them, getting 2-3 different rods to throw the variety of crankbaits. This is entirely problematic. 

I cant find factory confirm the spinnerbait monkey has nothing on the crankbait monkey. Crankbait monkey is more like King Kong

[Motoboss]

8 hours ago, FishTank said:

My take on crankbaits.... if you buy a decent one, you don't need to tune it, or replace the hardware.  That doesn't always mean that it has to be expensive. Check out the Bill Lewis ATV.  It's pretty solid out of the box and under $10. On the other side of things,  I have several 6XDs and 10XDs that are great fish catchers after being worked on but they can be 💩 out of the box.  I might get one in five that run correctly and the hooks are terrible.  After you spend the time and money,  its better to invest in a better bait.

 

One other thought,  pay close attention to what some people call a "Custom Crankbait". Often times, these are the same cheap blanks from ebay or Ali Express, just custom painted.  They will then sell them for high prices. If you go that route, look for hand made baits. Here in in Indiana there is guy does not advertise online but makes custom balsa baits that are amazing. Down side he only makes a limited amount, they sell out at local shops immediately and they start at $35. I don't have any but see guys killing it on them in the prespawn every year.

I have seen those and would like to get one but they are spendy!

[papajoe222]

I'm confused. 

What's the problem? The bait monkey? Phasing out spinnerbaits for a better lure? Or is it your wallet getting too light?

I only have one spinnerbait rod. I have five cranking sticks. I don't want to know how many cranks I own, but I just saw a custom painted Little Jon that I gotta have.