Knockoffs vs Original Cranks 2025
JoePhish reply :
I come across a lot of custom lure painters on social media who offer knock offs of DTs, S-Cranks, Whopper Ploppers and others.
Are these copies any good? I'm sure they can catch fish but I was wondering what the biggest differences are.
WRB reply :
It's nearly impossible to replicate the original lures action.
Tom
tbone1993 reply :
On 4/23/2018 at 12:41 PM, WRB said:It's nearly impossible to replicate the original lures action.
Tom
They're good as far as baits go but this hits the nail on the head. Won't get the same action on K/O baits. Would much prefer a naked model of a bait painted.
smalljaw67 reply :
The knock-off lure blanks work but they aren't the same as the originals. In my neck of the woods the Adam's Custom lures square bills are very popular and they are SK 1.5 knock-offs. For the DT series knock offs, well they work too but they aren't even close in action and that is because the DT cranks are balsa and not plastic. The differences are small in the appearance of these lures but it is what you can't see that is responsible for the action. Those differences would be the type of plastic, the wall thickness of the plastic as well as the weighting system.
TOXIC reply :
Just to be clear....Don't confuse "Knock-Offs" with "Store Brand" baits. Big box stores like Bass Pro and Cabela's do not make their own lures. They get well known makers to produce and package them as their own. Many times they may make a different color but the bait is basically the same as the original manufacturer. I know this first hand from repping baits in these stores from the main manufacturers.
Cak920 reply :
On 4/23/2018 at 12:41 PM, WRB said:It's nearly impossible to replicate the original lures action.
Tom
This is exactly right. Knock offs just don’t have the same action. There are some that work but I stick with the originals
Montanaro reply :
Had a spro lil john knock off....key word: had.
snake95 reply :
On 4/23/2018 at 9:39 PM, LTBAndrew said:Of course, that's not always the case, but many times they are exactly the same or very similar.
Interesting to hear (and not surprising).
As an example, I'm 99.9% sure the SK banshee lipless baits at DSG are (were?)1/2 oz RES' in different packaging and limited range of color selection. I saw no differences otherwise.
OkobojiEagle reply :
The above responses assume that the original bait is the bait that will most attract a bass... it is entirely possible the subtle difference that a knock-off posseses may actually be more effective.
oe
TOXIC reply :
On 4/24/2018 at 1:39 AM, OkobojiEagle said:The above responses assume that the original bait is the bait that will most attract a bass... it is entirely possible the subtle difference that a knock-off posseses may actually be more effective.
oe
Could be.....but most likely a knock off is an inferior blank, possibly blemished and/or not as well constructed or painted with cheaper components like bills and hooks. As for cranks, many aren't sealed as well and may break easier, take on water or not run as intended, suspend as intended or dive to the depth intended. Some of the "flaws" might actually be beneficial to catching more but under normal circumstances I would highly doubt it. I have a friend who is a bait designer for a very well known mainstream brand and he educated me on bulk blank making in Japan and all of the in's and out's of that industry. It's crazy what goes on.
OkobojiEagle reply :
On 4/24/2018 at 7:10 PM, TOXIC said:I have a friend who is a bait designer for a very well known mainstream brand
Small world, so do I...
You're revealing some pretty heavy bias.
oe
J Francho reply :
There's really no way to predict what will work and what won't, and if it has anything to do with manufacture. My main criteria for picking a bait is if that company has shown consistency in their baits. If I lose one, I want to be able to replace it right out of the box without fussing, and have the same bait again.
TOXIC reply :
On 4/24/2018 at 8:51 PM, OkobojiEagle said:Small world, so do I...
You're revealing some pretty heavy bias.
oe
Bias or opinion? In my opinion, there is a benefit to buying the non-knockoffs (possibly less so with store brands) over copied blanks and I gave my reasoning based on my experience. Notice I never mentioned what bait company my friend (ex-Elite Series angler now on the FLW Tour) designs for because I didn't want to appear biased. As a matter of fact, I am sponsored by a different hard bait manufacturer altogether (also not named) and I have never thrown one of his baits or one by the company he designs for. The key for any bait produced for the mass market is consistency, every bait performs the same way with minimal tweaks. One of the biggest complaints you hear on crankbaits is that no 2 run the same from the same company, bills break easily, they take on water or crack, hooks are crappy, paint flakes off, etc. So, if a mass marketer has these problems it hurts business and they correct it. I ask you this....where is the cost savings made up in a knockoff bait? I know you can buy blanks from many outlets and have them painted, put on your own hooks, etc., but if you look at what that costs you are almost back up to the cost of a "big name" manufacturer. Now where you might get me (and I honestly don't have an answer for) is what the difference between a $9 crankbait (usually a US company) and a $25 crankbait (usually a JDM company). 
Cak920 reply :
On 4/24/2018 at 9:19 PM, J Francho said:There's really no way to predict what will work and what won't, and if it has anything to do with manufacture. My main criteria for picking a bait is if that company has shown consistency in their baits. If I lose one, I want to be able to replace it right out of the box without fussing, and have the same bait again.
Another great point. I have had cheap lures where 1 has completely different action than the next. Where as a better company like Rapala will give you the same action almost every time
fissure_man reply :
There’s no single answer to the OP’s question – some knockoff blanks/lures are garbage, others are very good (“good” doesn’t have to mean an exact replication – there are usually differences in the details, which is not necessarily a bad thing). If buying straight from China in most cases you won’t find reliable or relevant reviews, so you just have to try it out. You can buy 1 or 2 lures from a place like Aliexpress often with free shipping, so it's lot like you need to go all in on a bulk purchase. I’ve bought Chinese brand lures that looked interesting online and then went straight in the trash after holding in my hands. Others have turned out to be great. Some of the importers/custom painters have built a reputation for sourcing quality blanks, but you also pay them a bit of a premium vs buying more directly. A custom paint job in itself has no value to me, you can get lures pre-painted directly for cheaper (albeit sometimes in weird or limited colors).
Despite what manufacturers would have you believe, lure making doesn’t have to be rocket science and bass will bite all kinds of different baits. If China can knock off an Iphone passably, surely they can also reverse engineer a Whopper Plopper 
In my (limited) experience there are “tiers” of quality – the cheapest should be avoided (true garbage) but spend a bit more and you will get a quality lure, pre-painted. Hooks are usually questionable, often very sharp and nice-looking, but brittle. Quality hooks can also be found from China, but like everything else you won’t know without buying. Split rings might be bad, but I replace them with strong flat-sided split rings bought in bulk (guess where they come from).
I can see the value in paying for a “proven” design and a reputation for QC/consistency (vs. gambling on a knock off that might suck), and believe me, those companies get their share of my fishing budget. But I also realize that part of the price difference in originals vs. “direct from china” is owed to the brand marketing, packaging, and store mark-up. And we’ve all tried out “original” baits that turned out to be duds, too. I think many would be surprised by the construction quality of some of the Chinese brands nowadays. $3-4 typically buys you a much nicer lure direct from China than a $3-4 bargain hardbait at Wal-Mart, IMO.
If I really like a knock-off and then lose it, will I be able to find an identical one? Maybe, maybe not. But I hope my fishing success is never that dependent on a specific lure, and 50% or more is a big price to pay for that assurance. Even originals get discontinued, and many aficionados claim to have “special” mainstream baits that are somehow different than the rest and can’t be replaced. Look no further than the crankbait sticky post for examples.
I fish for fun, sometimes with kids, relatives, or non-fishing friends. It’s fun to buy and try lots of different lures, whether USDM, JDM, or Chinese brands. It’s no fun seeing a pike swim off with a $30 japanese topwater, or having a $$$ jerkbait bill smacked off against the outboard by an inexperienced caster. Best of all, it’s awesome to give a kid the lure he just had a great day fishing with (not likely going to happen if it's an expensive JDM lure ). For these reasons, “knockoffs” have a place in my box. YMMV
snake95 reply :
Appreciate your input on this interesting topic, Andrew.
To add to the thread a bit, I have caught some decent bass on cheap old lures of unknown origin, and I'm sure other guys do just fine with many "knock offs" "store brands" and just generally inexpensive lures (each of these categories may be quite different).
Personally, my go-to's are typically middle of the road name brands or the occasional house brand (such as SK Banshees), but I certainly appreciate why a lot of serious anglers like their LC, Megabass, Evergreen, etc.
Armtx77 reply :
On 4/23/2018 at 9:39 PM, LTBAndrew said:Yup... I'll second that. I've been working in the industry for almost a decade now and a lot of the baits you see under other labels (like BPS and Cabelas, but also many others) come from the same factories as the big brands. Of course, that's not always the case, but many times they are exactly the same or very similar.
Are these "re-branded" lure options, seconds from the major manufactures aka dont meet certain spec criterias to be sold under their name brands?
This is done across a lot of manufacturing companies...ammuntion companies come to mind.
BobP reply :
Small differences in a bait make large differences in its performance, so never expect a knockoff to perform like the original it copies. You can buy them and some will catch fish perfectly well. Some will be complete duds. That’s really the point, isn’t it? Say you are willing to experiment and buy multiple knockoffs and spend the time required to test them on the water. After discarding the duds, have you saved any money, which is the only reason for the exercise? You certainly haven’t maximized your fish catching opportunities by throwing some baits that will never catch a fish. There are some knockoffs I would buy (and have) based on reports of fishermen whose opinions I trust. But frankly, they are few and far between. So if I want a bait that acts like Lure X and which I can have confidence in throwing (which means a lot!) I buy a Lure X. Anything else is just a crap shoot.
Bluebasser86 reply :
I fish a lot of KO's of certain kinds of baits (110's and warts especially). They work very well for me. I have used several that I didn't like though, the S Crank, DT series, 110 Magnum, and Trick Darter to name a few.
Bassun reply :
Probably going to ruffle some feathers and this is directed at no one in particular --- but consider your crankbait box and the comments above about how much better the "best" perform. How they just work so much better than anything else. Now look at your crankbait box. Note how they all look about the same, but have subtle differences. I'll give you that a major producer can replicate design more consistently than a cheap knock off... but is that necessarily always bad?
Now look again, I bet you have a variety of cranks, of which many look similar, but are not exactly the same. Why do you want that? Based on the above, wouldn't we all want exactly the same - best performing crank? Nothing close to something that works great can work at all. Sure you may want a few colors and maybe a few different designs, but definitely all need to be within a very small window of performance. And you definitely don't want to be throwing something that no one else is...ever.
Oh, I bet it's because of the much better tackle components. Higher end companies definitely and always put the best hooks and rings on lures. We would never change that, would we? Especially when the lures are tuned with that specific gear on them to perform at their top design potential. Oh, you change out your hooks? You swapped out the split rings?
Why does that one (insert whichever lure) have all of its paint knocked off, but the other three duplicates by the same company look pristine? Wait, it's your lucky lure? You catch more off that specific Foxy Lady 6a Bomber than the other 3 Foxy Lady 6a Bombers you have? How can that be? They surely are 100% identical and must perform exactly the same. Glad you never have to ever tune anything out of the box either!
Yeah, I'm being a bit snarky about it... but come on. Think back to some of the older lures that performed great! Pick your poison there, whichever super hit you want, consistency out of the box from one to the next was not 100%. But they still worked great! My point is that yes, there are advantages to some of the top high end (or even mid-level) lures, but don't be a snoot and refuse to throw something because it isn't a big name brand. Knock offs may not give you 100% consistency, but the same is said of any lure company... that's what makes that one bomber your favorite. Something about it is just a little different and seems to work better. maybe it IS the one that works perfectly, and the others are off...or it's off and that just happens to be the magic itself.
Don't be confused. Lure companies are focused on selling lures, not catching fish. If they thought a pink square with a single circle hook on the top would outsell everything else, you can bet there would be a ton of those on the market. It's a business, they are in it to make money, not to watch Joe catch a dink. Would they prefer lures work perfectly? Of course. Why wouldn't they? I'm not saying they are the anti-fish, but, they are a business first and have to be. If not, they will be bankrupt, or at best sold --- to some other company, who will make a knockoff of their great lure and sell it to the masses using their big name, and massive production facilities. Oh wait... does that make it a knock off? Just like the other knock offs? Good thing we never have that happen, I couldn't imagine if my (insert favorite mass producer of lures) bought out (insert smaller lure company that makes great lures) and resold them as the same name, only they don't work as well as the original...or worse, worked better totally ruining my angst against knock offs.
My whole point is don't be a lure snob. Don't think that just because its a high dollar lure that it will always out perform the cheaper ones. It may. It may not. I concede that consistency is better with higher quality name brand baits...and if that is the ONLY reason you don't want to try Lure Xy, then ok - that's fair. If it's just because its not a Livingston, or doesn't have that Pro endorsement in the name, etc. then you are being a victim to marketing. I know the last poll I took of caught bass said they did not like cheap lure bodies, so they only hit lures that cost $15+.
And yes - I am a bit of a hypocrite - I don't "only" fish the cheap stuff. I have my favorites like everyone else. If I'm fishing a creek or river, there's a 90% chance I will have one of about 3 lures on. Usually a broken-back Rapala. And occasionally I will splurge and buy something that is way too expensive. But to be candid...I can't honestly say that the most expensive lures I own are really any better than the cheaper models on a day to day basis. I can say, with 100% confidence, that while I have multiples of those Rapala's - they do NOT all work the same.
*edit -- Sorry, that came across much harsher than I intended it, so don't take personal offense.
fissure_man reply :
I like the passion, @Bassun. lol
Pre-Rapala wiggle warts have achieved cult status and are sought after for their irregular action, which (as the theory goes) was a result of inconsistent manufacturing of the originals. There are knock-offs available with allegedly poor QC – maybe this is the perfect niche? 
J Francho reply :
On 4/25/2018 at 11:05 PM, fissure_man said:Pre-Rapala wiggle warts have achieved cult status and are sought after for their irregular action, which (as the theory goes) was a result of inconsistent manufacturing of the originals.
Correct. And there were "Good Ones" which were probably defective, that built that legend. Trust me, you don't see too many really "Good Ones" on the used market, unless it's by accident. Most are prized by their owners. The rest out there are for collectors people that like to overpay for old baits. Anyone that has more than a few knows what a "Good One" looks like in the water. They're almost impossible to retrieve at any other speed than the right speed for that particular bait, and they really hunt wildly. Sub Warts are even worse. The thing is, Wiggle Warts that work as intended are such a good fish catcher (pre and post Rapala) that I don't get all the fuss and high prices. Yes, I have three "Good Ones" out of the dozens I've owned.
clayton86 reply :
Personally my entire crank box specifically my square bills are 99% knock offs and they catch fish tons of fish. Actions are all good my only ones that aren’t knock offs are my 8.0s
I've got a bunch of whopper plopper KO as well and they work great. My S wavers are about 50/50 KO to real thing side by side they swim the exact same.
Yeah maybe theres some super subtle differences but maybe that’s why it works its got a subtle difference from everything else they have seen
fissure_man reply :
On 4/25/2018 at 11:11 PM, J Francho said:Correct. And there were "Good Ones" which were probably defective, that built that legend. Trust me, you don't see too many really "Good Ones" on the used market, unless it's by accident. Most are prized by their owners. The rest out there are for collectors people that like to overpay for old baits. Anyone that has more than a few knows what a "Good One" looks like in the water. They're almost impossible to retrieve at any other speed than the right speed for that particular bait, and they really hunt wildly. Sub Warts are even worse. The thing is, Wiggle Warts that work as intended are such a good fish catcher (pre and post Rapala) that I don't get all the fuss and high prices. Yes, I have three "Good Ones" out of the dozens I've owned.
Agreed, my point was that the gripe some folks have with the “new” warts is that the inconsistency has been reduced, so there are no more “good ones." Considering opinions above (knockoffs are inconsistent), perhaps this is a worthwhile niche to explore. This is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as I’m aware that sloppy manufacturing is not a universal key to lure-making success
I can see both sides of the discussion and I understand not wanting to risk wasting time trying out “unproven” lures, but I do think that some would be surprised at the quality and consistency of certain knock-offs that are out there nowadays. IMO it’s not unlike certain low-priced Chinese rods/reels, which have pleasantly surprised some folks who would’ve first doubted them on principle. There are savings to be had by dodging markups without necessarily meaning a huge sacrifice in quality, and there is also a lot of cheap junk out there to avoid. How anyone spends their money is up to them.
J Francho reply :
There's also the case where a "brand name" lure doesn't live up...cough-cough-howmanyxrapsdoIhavetobuytogetonethatsuspends-cough. I won't mention names, lol.
TOXIC reply :
The one thing that makes a difference in any lure is confidence!! If you have confidence in a lure more than likely you are going to catch fish on it unless it breaks or has major problems. You are not going to catch fish on a crank that breaks the bill off on the first cast or fills with water. I think we may all agree more than what it appears because we are blending terms. To be fair, we would have to compare them in their respective categories.
1. High priced JDM baits.
2. Custom built
3. Mid priced Originals
4. Store brand of Originals
5. Knockoffs
Now what hasn't been discussed is the difference in blanks from different suppliers. If the supplier has quality blanks and you add a quality paint job and hardware you will have a good bait IMHO...But did you save any money? Normally that falls in the "custom" bait definition and is much more expensive. A true knockoff as I am referring to is a no name cheap bait with cheap components/hardware. I will say this, my friend that I mentioned in my post above who designs baits told me (and showed me pictures) that if you know where to go in the overseas market, you can walk through the door with ANY hardbait and in 1 week you can have 3,000 boxed up blanks. 
Bottom line it's your hard earned $$ spend it where you like.
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