Wouldn’t it be great if there was a lure that you could cast out and just reel in and catch fish? A lure that made its own action and caught all kinds of fish like crappies, walleyes, northerns, catfish and of course bass? Well there is and it’s called a crankbait!

The idea for this article came from a friend of mine, Eric Gilbert, who is not an avid fisherman but called the other day to tell me he went fishing and caught a bunch of fish, mostly catfish, on a hard plastic lure that looked like a crawdad with some kind of a scoop on the front of it.

He was very excited as he went on to explain that this lure was great, he would just cast it out and reel it in, the lure did all the work. If the word crankbait was in the dictionary the definition would read something like “A hard bodied fishing lure that dives and wobbles as it is retrieved, also known as a plug”. That sounds simple enough so you head to the tackle store to pick up a few crankbaits and whoa, you are faced with an assortment of colors, shapes and sizes that is rivaled by no other type of lure.

Sorting through this sea of lures can be confusing so let’s break down the two main components of a crankbait, the body and the bill. The body of the crankbait is the actual bait and is shaped like some type of natural prey, normally a crawdad or a baitfish and made of either plastic or wood with the majority being plastic. The body not only attracts fish by sight but also sound. Most crankbaits have built in rattle chambers that make noise as the lure wobbles during the retrieve. The bill or lip protrudes from the front of the body and is what causes the bait to dive and wobble. The length of the bill is what determines how deep a crankbait will dive, the longer the bill the deeper the bait will go. The width of the bill determines the wobble of the crankbait. The wider the bill the wider the wobble and the slower the bait can be retrieved and still wobble.

Knowing how a crankbait works will help you pick the right bait for the conditions you are fishing. Don’t panic when you look at a crankbait and see that most of them have two sets of treble hooks hanging off of them. It has been my experience that you catch more fish when your crankbait is hitting the bottom or the cover. A high quality rod like a Falcon will greatly increase your feel so you can tell exactly when your bait touches something or a fish touches it. Yes you will snag but not as often as you think if you follow one simple rule - when you feel the bait hit something stop reeling. The reason this works is a crankbait dives with the bill down making it the first point of contact; the body of the crankbait is the buoyant part so when the bill makes contact and you stop reeling, the body will actually back the bait up slightly as it floats up. If your bait is making contact every crank of the reel handle then switch to a bait with a shorter lip and vise versa if your bait is not making contact at all then go with a bigger lipped bait.

Next time you go fishing take 3 crankbaits with you - a short, medium and a long bill and make a few casts with each and discover how great they can be. No one bait works every time you go fishing but crankbaits come in such a huge variety there is sure to be one that fits all of your hot spots. Until next time keep your lure wet!