Crankbaits: The Perfect Body

After I've headed out to the lake and have decided to throw a crankbait, how do I choose the perfect one. Well I'll have to admit, I started writing this post and found out that I don't really know as much as I should about crankbait selection. So I did a little research and this is what I found.

There are other important factors to the cranbait other than color, the rod, and line you use. Colors are going to stay for the most part the same no matter what type of bait your fishing. Colors tend to be based on water conditions, weather, and bait.

Running depth is critical. You could have all the right equipment in the world but if you are not putting that bait where the fish are, your missing out on more bites. So this brings us to lip styles. Here are a few different types of lips you'll find on a crankbait.

It is important to know that abilities of each one. The angle of the lip tells you how your bait will dive and can give it a little more wobble in the water. The size of the lip will determine some of the running depth. Get familiar with crankbait lips. Once you have taken a crankbait out of the package it doesn't tell you the running depth anymore. Know what size lips go how deep will save you some time.

The bodies of your baits are really where the wobble comes from. Fat bodies are going to have wide wobble and skinny bodies are going to have a skinny wobble. Also keep in mind that there are wood crankbaits and plastic crankbaits. People will argue that wood cranks are more durable and give a bigger wobble. Plastic cranks tend to be a little cheaper cause they can be mass produced. Wood cranks tend to be less popular than plastic ones.

Notice the body difference...

Do you want your crankbait to sink or float. There will come a time when both of these come into play. Say you have a school of bait that is being engulfed by bass, sometimes I will reel that bait into the ball and then just kill it. At this point I don't want my bait to float to the top. That wouldn't be realistic. I want that puppy to sit there and act confused or injured. This will work with the lip less crankbait as well. When you kill the bait it will not suspend, but slowly flutter to the bottom like an injured fish.

I hope this article is help to someone wanting to learn more about crankbaits. Also use the web, there are some great articles out there about selecting cranks but I didn't wanna plagiarize them.