What makes one better than the other? 2024
Chris reply :
In your opinion what makes one crankbait better than another? Why does one crankbait produce better in clear water than stained aside from color? What do you look for in a crankbait that sets it apart from another which in turn catches more fish under various conditions?
duncast48TN reply :
Well there are so many things to consider when making my crank bait selections. Weather.water condition,what phase the bass arein, what type of structure your fishing etc. So since Im new to bass fishing I just make a note of what I caught fish on and when & what the conditions were. Then I start out with that bait again next time conditions are right. I like Excaliber Fat Free Shad & Shad Rap. ;D
Chris reply :
*Deflective qualities is one thing I look for. If the bill has a corner on it like a square bill or is rounded helps me determine where I will fish it. One day when your bored try this. Take a round billed crankbait and throw it past a flooded tree. You will notice the bait will deflect around the tree but when it does the pattern of deflection caused by a round bill will make the bait to run close to the trunk. Now take a square bill and try it again. You will notice that the square bill will cause the bait to kick out away from the trunk once it is deflected off of it. Next try it with a coffin billed bait. You will notice that the bait will kick out away from the trunk at a greater distance than the square bill.
Chris reply :
*Action is another quality I look for in picking the right bait for the job. If you look at a crankbait notice where the line tie is. If its away from the bait the lure will have a wider wobble. The closer the line tie is to the bait the tighter the wiggle. Shape of the bill also determines the wiggle of your lure. A wide bill will have more side to side wiggle than a slimmer bill. The degree that the bill is positioned on the bait determines how fast the bait will dive. example: a fatfree shad has a bill that jets straight out from the bait. This causes the bait to have a steep dive.
Chris reply :
*fat or thin.... A fat bait has more of a rolling action and a flat bait has a tight action. A fat bait works well in stained to muddy water and a flat bait is great for clear or cold water. A fat bait displaces more water that a flat bait.
Chris reply :
*Something that alot of people don't mention is rattle. Can a rattle make a difference if a crankbait catches more fish than another? I feel that it makes a big difference. I have sat in a boat with someone throwing the same bait and i was catching 3 times as many fish as the other guy. The difference? It could be that my lure was tunned perfect and his wasn't or that my bait had a different rattle or both. To begain with if a bait isn't tunned right the bait will never reach its deepest depth and it doesn't have the maximum vibration. It also has a hard time going through a tree without getting hung. For me i like a lure that has a deep tone rattle. I am bad about going though a whole rack of crankbaits just to get one that rattles the way i like. I feel that it is that important.
njvbass reply :
Well said chris are you reeading directly from the book! Just kidding buddy. ;D
Chris reply :
i should write a book lol
Trivib1 reply :
Chris which do you feel is more important ? Attracting or triggering qualities.
Chris reply :
Chris which do you feel is more important ? Attracting or triggering qualities.
Well....If a bait has alot of attracting qualities and no triggering qualities the fish are attracted to the bait but might not hit it because nothing in the bait caused it to be triggered to bite it.
If a bait has alot of triggering qualities and no attracting qualities the fish might be triggered to bite it but are not attracted by it. Meaning they will not search out to find it unless its infront of their face and react to it by its triggering qualities.
Triggering qualities are more important in clear water than stained to murky and attracting qualities are more important in stained to murky. In clearwater they need to see it to hit it. Stained to murky they need to hear it to hit it. Is one better than the other? Sometimes bass use one quality more than the other but i feel that both are important it just depends on the conditions.
Chris reply :
Now I define attracting quallities as the way it looks, size,color,rattle,water displacement, and movement.
Triggering qualities as what makes the fish bite like eratic movement or when it deflects of stucture.
Trivib1 reply :
Chris: Here are a few more in a triggering quality, small size, natural colors and flash ,random action natural sounds, long thin profile. fast retrieve.
Theoretically lure with all attracting qualities, and no triggering qualities, would never catch bass because even though they might be drawn to it they would not eat it. Likewise, a bass would probably never know, a lure with 100 percent triggering qualities Was there. Therefore, regardless of conditions. You'll need some blend of attracting and triggering qualities in your lure If you expect to catch bass on it.
Chris reply :
When to throw wood baits? For some they throw them all the time. I tend to like to throw wood when I am fishing wood structure. A wood crankbait tends to get through a tree better than plastic and will back up when its paused to help get unhung. I also like wood in weeds for the same reason. I tend to use wood baits in spring through summer. Thats not to say they will not work thoughout the year. I tend to fish wood lures fast! I almost speed reel them. I have also found that wood lures are great for tournaments because most don't throw them. (atlease the tournaments around here) Also with a wood lure each lure swims different so i feel like i am fishing something different than everyone else.
crankbait reply :
8) I'd have to say it's action in the water is the determining factor for me.....They said Hiro has a small pool in his backyard and he tests every crankbait he gets in there to see the action and how it moves through the water....Wish I didn't snag the liner in my pool 
Chris reply :
Bump!
Madhouse27 reply :
This whole crankbait thing is a major achilles heel in my arsenal. I would guess that out of all the bass I've caught less than 1 percent of them have come on crankbaits. Maybe it's the fact that I only turn to crankbaits in times of utter desperation and they become just another lure that's not working on a given day. I tend to fish deep clear water for smallies. My crank arsenal consists mainly of Rapala Shad Raps and some Rat-L-Trap style baits. I usually feel that the shad raps are not getting down deep enough to enter the strike zone and the Rat-L-Traps don't catch anything when do. My confidence using cranks is low to non existant so that probably isn't helping the cause much either. I'm reading and learning so any additional advice would be greatly appreciated.
roadwarrior reply :
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that bluegill were very active along a shelf near deep water. Although the bait was very shallow, there was easy access to the deepest water in the pond. It seemed to me that this might be a prime area for predators to cruise in search of prey.
On Sunday morning, September 4, 2005 I went to this public pond a little before daylight with one rod and one lure: Norman Fat Boy, bluegill pattern. Following along Chris' line of thought:
Attracting feautures: Size and color almost perfectly match the baitfish.
Triggering features: Wiggle, speed and depth. Again, a close match.
I fished this lure parallel to the bank but out several feet to where I thought the ledge broke into deep water. The lure runs 0-2' and I retrieved it at a steady pace, occasionally bumping rock and stirring up the bottom, but mostly just tooling around in open water.
Around 6:30 or about ten minutes before sunrise, I got smacked! Eaten by the biggest bass I have ever caught.
DDbasser reply :
What colors to use when??
Do you use natural colors in clear water?
And the brighter colors in stained or muddy water?
I've also heard a lot about using red in stained to muddy water and in low light conditions, have you found this to be true??
Matt Fly reply :
One is better than the other when one is catching fish and the other isn't. Different tools for different conditions. I do think fish get used to one particular sound or brand. Like Bill Lewis rattle traps. I don't advocate paying 10-15 a pop for yozuri's but when you are throwing the same identical color as your partner but different brands and one is catching them 3 to 1. I invest. Its a different sound. I have found red traps to be effective in water that has the brownish stain and hydrilla during late fall/winter thru early spring. Clear water lakes haven't produced as many fish on the red trap as a firetiger or chrome blk back. From the 70's, I have 50-75 Cordell hot spots, when the rattle trap came out my numbers doubled on the same water. Now when in the dead of winter and I "trap" bass, ripping it above the grass, in the past 4-10 fish, With the Yozuri trap I double that 7-15 fish. I am a believer changing the sounds up.
Chris reply :
What colors to use when??
Do you use natural colors in clear water?
And the brighter colors in stained or muddy water?
I've also heard a lot about using red in stained to muddy water and in low light conditions, have you found this to be true??
Here is the quidelines I use:
In stained water I use chartreuse(this could be chart/black back, chart/blue back, chart/ purple back, chart, splatterback brown, citrus shad, bass
In muddy water I use yellow, yellow green, yellow blue, all white, Orange sides/yellow belly/green back(pumpkinseed bluegill), or crawfish(its dark and can be picked out from the background and might look like a bluegill),bass
In clear water I use a lot of chrome, gold on cloudy days, white/splatterback, citrus shad in the mornings, shad colors, rootbeer, rootbeer yellow belly for bluegills,
Springtime red (it does work other times but I find that I use it the most in spring)
DDbasser you might want to take a look at the other post I did on color it goes more in-depth. A lot depends on the amount of light penetration at the depth your fishing.
Axis reply :
Quotei should write a book lol
man you really should. very informative thread, glad it was revived.
Nick_Barr reply :
Jeese Chris, you Could be making some serious Money Writing books and filming a TV Show!!LOL!!
Could Be like Bill Dance without the Private Pond and The Infomercial Like Structure!!LOL
Matt Fly reply :
My concern in stained to muddy, is what vibration or noise to use. Color is not as important to me. I have basic colors I throw at different times of the year. With smooth waters, light winds, I'm looking for more vibration and less noise. With choppy waters, I want more noise with the wide wobbling type crank. Colors become more important to me as the stain get lighter, A bass uses sight, smell, and noise (sound) to locate its prey, If water is muddy, it relies on what? Color isn't as important cause visibility is zero. you must appeal to their other senses. Raul has posted some real good info on a bass' senses. Posted in two parts. Look through his posts and maybe this will unlock a few mysteries bass fishing has to offer.
guest reply :
Not sure what makes one bait much better than another but I know I can feel it through the rod. Since making wooden crankbaits I do a lot of testing and with each batch, usually 24-48 at a time, there are always a couple that are really special and you can tell a big difference on the retrieve. Unfortunately there are usually a couple of dogs also. Chris has it right on deflection and bill shape, his observations mirror my own. I cannot describe what it is, vibration, wobble or whatever that makes a bait special but if I handed you the rod with each bait you would be able to easily tell the difference. Just looking at the action in the water to my eye there may be no difference but the feel is the key. Flat-side or fat, deep or shallow the true hunters you have a special feel.
Color: I would be the worst guy to talk to about color, black, white and green are the colors I throw most. I paint a lot of colors and do some photo finish for a very realistic finish but I fail to believe a bass makes a scale count before the bite.
Where I test is a limestone quarry, fairly clear water with 10' depth right at your feet. Using a 5' 2" baitcaster with 4/15 braided line attached to the bait with a snap, split rings are installed after testing.
Chris reply :
If you take a Bill Norman baby little N right out of the box it has a high pitch vibration to it. If you replace the back hook to a hook 3 sizes bigger the bait has a thump that wasn't there the first time. The larger hook makes the bait almost act like its a jointed lure and changes the vibration to a lower pitch thump. Any lure that has a high pitch vibration to it works well in stained to clear water but because of the high pitch of the vibration the noise doesn't travel as far under water as a low pitch. Lures that have a wide action to it also has a thump and can be heard at a greater distance. Large lures just by their size and water displacement also can be heard at a greater distance. Lures that hunt displaces more water because its drifting from side to side. Lures that hunt also have more triggering qualities. Its like bouncing a lure off the bottom or off of a tree but with this lure it has a erratic action built in. Remember when someone posted that you need to hit something to get strikes with lures? This is what I was talking about I maybe running my lure at a do nothing retrieve but my lure is doing more than nothing. Its darting and ducking around and all I am doing is reeling it in. You can take any lure and cast it a few times and know what kind of vibration it has and apply it to the situation it fits under. Lures that thump is for places that visibility is limited. Tight action high pitch vibrating lures work better in water that the fish can see it. The style of lip helps figure out which bait will be the best lure for the cover you are fishing or depth. Color for some isn't important but for me I have seen when it made all the difference in the world. I am just weird 
Hope this helps you out. ;D
Chris reply :
I will also add that a flat sided bait has more flash than a round body bait.
related General Bass Fishing Forum topic
next topic
most viewed General Bass Fishing Forum topic
© 2024 - fishing.qciss.net. All Rights Reserved.