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Picking some crankbaits

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Hi guys. I am trying to get stocked up for spring, and wants fill a 3700 with crank baits and lipless crank baits. If you were to spend 50 bucks to fill up that box, what size, color, brand would you buy? I am trying to get a set for all depth, any help would be appreciated.

  • Super User

I'll start with brand.

Academy Sports H2O's are 4 to 6 bucks a peice and worth 15 bucks.

  • Super User

For lipped cranks I would go for Bomber Fat Free Shads and the Strike King Pro Model cranks.  I mostly use the Fat Free Shad Jr.s and Strike King Series 5-6.  I really like Rootbeer, Pearl Shad, Citruse, Tennessee Shad, and Pearl White in the Bomber baits; Rootbeer, Sexy Shad,  Gizzard Shad, Pearl Black/Splatter for the Strike King.  Rapala DT's wouldn't be bad choices either.  For shallow runners I like LC RC baits.  Lipless I'd go SK Red Eye Shads and Excalibur XR's.  I tend to like more shad and natural colors.

Bomber Model A

I'll start with brand.

Academy Sports H2O's are 4 to 6 bucks a peice and worth 15 bucks.

He beat me to it.

Here are a few inexpensive baits that I reccomend...

Storm Wiggle Warts

Mann's Baby 1 Minus

Strike King Red Eye Shad

  • Super User
Hi guys. I am trying to get stocked up for spring, and wants fill a 3700 with crank baits and lipless crank baits. If you were to spend 50 bucks to fill up that box, what size, color, brand would you buy? I am trying to get a set for all depth, any help would be appreciated.

First let me say after spending $50 bucks, you'll have room left over in that 3700 box. I'd probably get two lipless and the rest lipped. I don't know what depths you need to cover, but I'd get something for 1-2', 3-5' or 4-6', 6-8' and whatever your depth needs are.

My personal beliefs are that color isn't a big deal. I generally use a muted color and a bright color, such as firetiger. There's a lot of so-called conventional wisdom, but most of these colors will work in a variety of conditions, such as water clarity.

There are any number of good brands. Two that come to mind that are modestly priced are Norman and Bomber.

For lipped crankbaits I always buy bomber fat free shads, square A's, and model A's. I keep it simple by sticking to 3 primary colors: foxy (sexy) shad, something chartreusey like the rootbeer chartreuse that has killed it for me, and some sort of craw or red colored crankbait. As for lipless cranks I always buy the red eyed shads and I stick to basically the same color patterns except for the sexy shad color is the chrome blue or chrome black back and I have has success with the Tennessee metallic shad as well. I've learned over the years to load up on the certain colors that produce for me instead of buying 1 of every color.

i wound go with bandit series crankbaits ,they dont cost alot and they have alot of diffrent colors to chose from as far as lippless ..ask the baitmonkey

  • Author

thank you guys. going to order bomber fat free shad from tw.

Two lipless and the remaining lipped for sure.  Two narrow wobble, two  3-5 feet standard style divers and two 5 to 8 feet divers. Red Eye shads or Rattle Traps at 5.00 apiece, LJ Speed Traps at 5.00 apiece, Strike King Series #1 at 4.00 apiece or Bandit 100's at 5.00 apiece.  SK or Bandit 200 series at 5.00 apiece .  That leaves you with about 11.00 bucks to split on a one footer and deep diver.  I have no idea for your  forage base so colors would be a baitfish color and crawfish color.  When in doubt Tennesee Shad or Char.Rootbeer works everywhere.  Ask your local  tackle dealer what flies off the pegs in your area and hope they tell you the truth.   :D

Check your local Dicks Sporting Goods. They have their Excaliber Lures on sale 2 for $5. You can load up on Fat Free Shads, Guppys, Fat Free Frys, and other good crankbaits that catch fish.

I also second the H20 Academy Brand baits. Be on the look out for their new Bluegill and Shellcracker crankbaits.

Check your local Dicks Sporting Goods. They have their Excaliber Lures on sale 2 for $5. You can load up on Fat Free Shads, Guppys, Fat Free Frys, and other good crankbaits that catch fish.

I also second the H20 Academy Brand baits. Be on the look out for their new Bluegill and Shellcracker crankbaits.

Any word on when the spartanburg store will have the bluegill and shellcracker cranks?  I've been everyday for the last week with no luck finding em.

Check your local Dicks Sporting Goods. They have their Excaliber Lures on sale 2 for $5. You can load up on Fat Free Shads, Guppys, Fat Free Frys, and other good crankbaits that catch fish.

I also second the H20 Academy Brand baits. Be on the look out for their new Bluegill and Shellcracker crankbaits.

Any word on when the spartanburg store will have the bluegill and shellcracker cranks? I've been everyday for the last week with no luck finding em.

If the store here is any indication, they didn't have much on the shelf when I went Friday. They had some carts with boxes in them, which I assumed was merchandise they were going to put out.

I used bomber fat free shads, and lipless I use red eye and xcalibur xr50 in citrus.

Check your local Dicks Sporting Goods. They have their Excaliber Lures on sale 2 for $5. You can load up on Fat Free Shads, Guppys, Fat Free Frys, and other good crankbaits that catch fish.

I also second the H20 Academy Brand baits. Be on the look out for their new Bluegill and Shellcracker crankbaits.

Any word on when the spartanburg store will have the bluegill and shellcracker cranks? I've been everyday for the last week with no luck finding em.

If the store here is any indication, they didn't have much on the shelf when I went Friday. They had some carts with boxes in them, which I assumed was merchandise they were going to put out.

We had the same empty shelves friday.  Went over this morning and they have the new colors in.  Got almost 1 of each bait in the new colors.  Somebody needs to get the monkey off my back. :D

  • Author

I must have missed the sale or something, because when I was there this weekend they were all gone... The sales associate told me that, they only had a few to begin with.  >:D

  • Author

So I have bought the following items:

Bomber fat free ½ oz, 8-14 ft, in foxy shad and Rootbeer char.

Strike king pro crank 1 series, 2-5 feet, in Tennessee shad and Firetiger.

Strike king red eye shad ½, in firetiger and sexy shad.

The lakes I mainly fish are only 10.2 feet deep, and contain several small shallow coves. Do you guys think those Crankbaits would cover what I need right now? If not, what else would you add to the selection? Thx!

Good choices, when you can add some Storm Wiggle Warts & Mann's Baby 1 Minus.

x2 on the bandits. i've used these since day one and they swim and look just right. rootbeer is my most productive color. also i'd pick up a rapala shad rap. its my when-all-else-fails crank

  • Super User

Some of these:

0-2'  Bomber Square A, Norman Fat Boy, Mann's -1

2-4'  Bagley BII, Rick Clunn 2.5 & 3.5

4-6'  Sebile Flat Shad 77, Rapala DT-6, Wiggle Wart, Bandit 200

5-10' XCalibur Xr50, Lucky Craft LV-300, Bomber Fat Free Shad

10-15' Lucky Craft LV-Max-500, Yo-Zuri Rattl'N Vibe, Rapala DT-12

15-20' Norman DD22, Mann's 20+, Rapala DT-16 & 20

Deep:  Mann's 25+

  • Author

Thank you Roadwarrior, back on TW for more stuff... ;D

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