going tomor morning, my bro has some colors he thinks is good, the catch he only has the silent versions. they are kvd 1.5s.. So question, is there some way to know that silents are gonna be good(over the rattled version) before getting on water, we shore fish, and just wanted to know without tieing on a bunch. Have no problem on the re-tie, but just wanted to know

ps. Stained water, not sure depth, but lots of tree laydowns and alot of submerge trees with just tips out.

Try a Firetiger or a Black Back Chartreuse. Thats what i usually use in stained/ muddy water

There is no way to know with 100 percent certainty but there are some clues that can make you lean one way or the other. If water clarity is muddy or poor, rattles may help the fish to find the lure. If a lake is highly pressured and the bass tend to be familiar with every rattling bait known to man, a silent crank might be better. The only way to know for sure is the tried and true mantra, "Let the bass tell you what they want."

thanks to you both, i have both of the above mention, so i may let him take my stash of cranks with him

I know what the conventional wisdom is, but I've seen so many exceptions that I don't know if it means anything at all. One example is I used to fish parts of the Erie Canal from shore very frequently. The water was murky with perhaps 12-18" of visibility at its clearest. One of my most effective lures was the original Shad Rap. That lure is rattleless and has a narrow wobble, but the conventional wisdom says use a wide-wobbling lure with rattles in those conditions.

Some say rattles can spook a fish, others say it attracts them. Like everything else, for any given day fish behavior cannot be reliably predicted so you have to do different things on the water to see what works while you're out there.

good read and advice thanks, marty

A lot of people use swivels when crank fishing. It's a lot easier to switch depths and colors more efficiently. It doesn't affect the action of the crank in a negative way and I don't think visibility is usually a problem. The only time I wouldn't do it is if the fish are being real finicky in which case I even remove the split ring to give the bait a much tighter wobble.