Bass anglers want to go fast and cover water; you see it in the giant outboards pushing most bass boats and the powerful trolling motors that pull them. Then there’s tournaments, the timed contests that drive the sport, even for non-competitors. The need for speed races into lures, too. It’s no surprise that crankbaits, with their constant cast-and-wind retrieve, have become so popular, a seemingly infinite selection filling tackle shop shelves and websites. But all those choices of crankbaits for bass can cause confusion, stopping many anglers in their tracks.
Lures are tools, each designed to extract bass from certain fishing situations. Just as you would drive nails with a hammer and not a screwdriver, you need the best lure for where and when you’re fishing. Apply that approach to crankbaits, and you’ll choose the right one every time. That starts with recognizing crankbait types and identifying their abilities.
Navigating the myriad crankbait choices starts with one question: How deep do I need to fish? Depth dictates crankbait type, of which there are three. Once that’s settled, refine your choice by bill length and shape and body style. You also need to consider how they deflect off cover, an important means of generating strikes with crankbaits.
1. Lipless Crankbaits
- Diving depth: Unlimited
- Popular sizes: 1/4-ounce, 1/2-ounce, 3/4-ounce
- Wobble: Tight
- Body style: Flat
Originating with Bill Lewis’ Rat-L-Trap in the late 1960s, lipless crankbaits are known for their noisy rattles and rod-shaking vibrations. They sink, so they fish at any depth. Straight reeling and pull-and-drop retrieves are most popular. They can be fished around varying amounts of cover, and as with the other two types, popular patterns include versions of baitfish for clear water and crawfish and flashy, such as fire tiger, for stained and muddy water.
While this crankbait type is collectively called “Traps,” Lewis’ version isn’t the only choice. Other popular rattling models include Strike King’s Red Eye Shad, Lucky Craft LV500 and Eurotackle’s Z-Vibber. In waters where fishing pressure is heavy, models with one large rattle, such as Booyah’s One Knocker, or without any, such as Damiki’s Tremor 65 Silent, often generate more bites.
Lipless crankbaits make the most commotion in spring, when the water temperature is between 45 degrees and 65 degrees. Prespawn bass leave their wintering holes, moving along creek channels, points and other structure toward shallow spawning flats. They and the cover they use along the way is usually out of sight, except on your electronics. Reach them by letting your lipless crankbait sink to the appropriate depth, then start a steady or pull-and-drop retrieve. The latter is best around aquatic vegetation; ripping it free from leaves triggers strikes.
Keep a lipless crankbait rigged in summer, when bass school on deep structure such as river channel ledges, humps and points. Using that same pull-and-drop retrieve, swim it close to bottom. Aim your casts at sweet spots — pieces of cover on structure — including brush piles, stumps and manmade objects such as old house foundations.
2. Square Bill Crankbaits
- Diving depth: Surface to 4 feet
- Popular sizes: 3/8-ounce, 1/2-ounce
- Wobble: Wide
- Body style: Rounded
While they run steady and relatively shallow, even at fast retrieves, square bill crankbaits bulldoze through shallow heavy cover. Their bill design keeps them from rolling around cover, so most impacts are violent and require a pause, allowing the crankbait to float up then climb over obstructions.
Square bill crankbaits are easily identified by their short bill, which has straight edges and can protrude nearly perpendicular from the body. They’re available in buoyant balsa versions, such as Black Label’s Wreck and Bagley’s Flat Balsa B, and durable plastic such as Storm’s Speed Trap and Bandit Series 100.
You’ll want to sling a square bill during postspawn, when water temperature is between 60 degrees and 75 degrees. Many bass linger for a bit in shallow water after the spawn. While some guard fry, others focus on the shad spawn, which follows the bass spawn. These baitfish swarm pieces of cover, especially laydowns, dock posts and clumps of aquatic vegetation, during low-light periods. Bass enter those narrow daily windows to eat them and any well-placed square-bill.
Keep casting square bill crankbaits throughout summer on rivers and Northern natural lakes. Bass usually stay shallow and tucked in heavy hard cover on the former. And you can bounce square bills off shallow rocks and docks, particularly those surrounded by aquatic vegetation, on the latter.
3. Lipped Crankbaits for Bass
- Diving depth: 4 feet to 25 feet
- Popular sizes: 3/8-ounce, 1/2-ounce, 1-ounce
- Wobble: Wide or tight, depending on body style
- Body style: Flat or rounded
Most crankbaits are this type. Bill length, which drives diving depth, is their main differentiator. A stubby one, for example, may only take its crankbait down 5 feet, while those with the longest bills can touch bottom in more than 20 feet. Bill shape is important, too. Rapala’s DT series, for example, sport rounded ones, which roll around obstructions, avoiding some snags. Coffin-shaped bills, such as those on No. 7 and No. 9 Berkley Frittsides, split the difference between rounded and square.
Body shape creates action. Rounded bodies, such as those found on most Norman crankbaits, including its Deep Little N and DD-22, produce wide wobbles that attract the most bass in warm water. Flat-sided crankbaits, such as Rapala’s Shad Rap, have a tight wobble, which produces best in cold water.
Fish lipped crankbaits year-round. Pull ones with rounded sides and bills across prespawn spots 8- to 12-feet deep when the water temperature is in the 50s, pausing after each collision with hard cover, creating an opportunity for following bass to strike. Late in postspawn, use the same crankbait to keep pace with bass hopscotching between pieces of isolated cover as they swim to deeper water. Use a speedy retrieve to cover water, a key to catching more of these mostly lone wolves.
Use long-lipped crankbaits for bass to reach sweet spots on deep offshore structure during summer. Getting one there requires long casts, which offer more distance for a crankbait to dive, and a thin-diameter fluorocarbon line, which offers less water resistance and sinks. But the secret to triggering more bites is the retrieve direction. Keep casting the same way, such as deep to shallow, and bass will grow bored and stop biting. Get them going again by showing them something different. If a change in direction fails to produce or the bite slows again, try the same crankbait in a different pattern.
Ease into the back of creek arms when autumn leaves are brightest, and you’ll see bunches of bass busting baitfish. Fight temptation to throw a topwater at the swirls; a lipped crankbait that dives 5 feet or shallower will catch more. Crank shallow ambush points — ditches, laydowns, stumps, dock posts — where bass wait for baitfish schools to pass before attacking, a situation repeated at the same spots throughout the day.
Once the water temperature falls well into the 40s, conventional wisdom puts bass in the deepest stretches of water. But you still can catch plenty elsewhere with the right billed crankbait. Besides a bill capable of reaching the correct depth, which could be 10 feet or shallower in some places, it should have flat sides. Balsa ones often outproduce plastic models in winter. Add bits of lead tape to its belly, making it suspend or slightly sink on pauses. That provides sluggish cold-blooded bass one more reason to bite.
