Use Crankbait to Catch Bass

The most popular lure for catching bass is crankbait. Crankbait is a lure made out of wood or plastic that looks like a fish. It normally has one to three sets of hooks sticking out of the bottom of the body. Most crankbait have a lip that makes the lure dive when pressure is provided by the fishing rod and line. Crankbait gets its name from the fact that the lure must be cranked through the water to produce an action that hopefully mimics a fish swimming through the water. The cranking also allows the lure to dive because of the lip on the lure. Crankbait are manufactured to dive to certain depths.

Crankbait can be purchased with hollow or solid bodies. Hollow bodied crankbait are filled with metal or plastic bb’s. These bb’s rattle and the sound attracts fish as the lure is cranked through the water. Crankbait with rattles can spook fish off particularly if the water is crystal clear which is when crankbait withour rattles would be used.

Crankbait must swim naturally to successfully lure fish to bite. The movement of the lure must look like a live fish. To determine if crankbait’s movement is natural it must be tested. If it looks mechanical it probably won’t catch fish. Cranbait can be tuned to perform better.

As you can imagine there are a lot of different types of crankbait for fisherman to spend their money on. Crankbait are designed for particular depths. Most bass fisherman will have crankbait to cover the shallow areas, the 5’ to 12’ area and the deep area’s up to 22’ as well as cranbait designed for suspending over fish structure rather than cranking more of a twitching movement is used by the fisherman.

The bill of the crankbait is also an important feature. Round lipped crankbait bills get hung on structure less often and are easier to use. There are semi-round lipped bills which deflect off of structure differently than round lipped and square billed crankbait with flat sides which deflect uniquely and are used in shallow water. The different types of deflection offered by the lips cause the fish to react in different ways. Fisherman will often try a couple different lip styles around structure to see if they can get a strike. There are also lipless crankbait.

It is frustrating when crankbait gets hung on structure or fish cover. A good artificial fish cover used in ponds is the honey hole tree which has polyethylene limbs which can be fished through without snagging. The honey hole tree is also an excellent fish attractor.