Crankbaits, like jerkbaits and chatterbaits, are among the most misunderstood lure options despite also being among the most popular.
In some sense, they’re a counter-intuitive lure: loaded with sharp treble hooks, they’re meant to be run into sticks, stumps, logs, rocks, and other cover that threatens to snag them faster than a new shirt in a blackberry bush.
Today, we’re going to demystify crankbaits, giving you the full run down to improve your success with this awesome lure type.
Table of Contents (clickable)
Related:
How To Fish a Crankbait like a Pro
Run it into cover
We said this at the top, and it bears repeating: crankbaits are meant for deflection and bouncing, and if you’re not hitting sticks, stumps, and logs, you’re not getting the full potential from your lures.
Even if you run a crankbait over a weed bed, purposefully run that crankbait into the top of the vegetation and rip it loose. That erratic action will trigger strikes, and it’s one of the tricks that separates the folks who win tournaments from those who just fish on weekends.
Slow down and ease up on the hookset
As you probably figured out from our discussion of rod and lure selection, you need to slow down and ease up.
Bass sometimes bump or nudge a crankbait before really taking it, and even when they do hit it hard, you should resist the temptation for a hard, fast hookset.
Give that bass just a split second to really let the barbs get entangled with its mouth and jaw. Just keep your line tight and give a gentle tug–you’ll be surprised at how strong your hookups will be.
Redirect the motion of your hookset
Another common mistake is the strong overhead hookset.
Think about what that does to the lure. Depending on the distance from your rod, that may force the crankbait down, driving those treble hooks into the bass’s lower jaw. But closer to your boat, it’s likely to lift the back of the crankbait, pulling the hooks up and out of the bass’s mouth.
Instead, think horizontal. When you want to set your hook, sweep away from the fish with a sideways motion. That aligns the hooks with the bass’s mouth, putting the nasty stuff where it needs to be.
Loosen your drag
Cushion, cushion, cushion: that’s the secret to good hooksets with crankbaits.
And one mistake that many anglers make is to have their drag set way too high, as though they’re fishing with soft plastics and single hooks.
Turn your drag down a bit, softening the hookset slightly. That will help prevent you from ripping your crankbait free, or worse yet, bending or breaking a hook.
I’ve seen that plenty, with both crankbaits and jerkbaits, when the drag was cranked up and the rod wasn’t ideal for crankbaits.
Crankbait 101: Cover Hunters, Not Open-Water Runners
When you look for advice about fishing crankbaits online, there’s a lot of worthwhile information out there.
Issues like color choice, depth, lip shape, and even rod and line selection are common topics, and we’ll cover them as well. But the first and most important thing to know about crankbaits is how they’ve been designed to be worked.
While you can send a wobbling crankbait down the side of a weed bed or skim it along the top, these open water applications are just not the strongest suit this lure has to play.
Instead, crankbaits are specifically designed to be run into cover, with the intention that they deflect, bounce, and skitter off rocks, trees, stumps, branches, and anything else down there – including the bottom.