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Your favourite smallmouth cranks

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Hey all, just wanted to see what everyone likes for their smallmouth cranks. 

For squarebills, I like the Megabass S crank in Megabass Kinkuro, and for anything deeper, I am often throwing the Ima beast hunter in Fred's perch  

Lets hear your faves!

I fish rivers for smallmouth and have had good luck with a DT 6 in demon. 

  • Super User

I fish a Cotton Cordell Big O 3inch crankbait in natural craw color. The big smallies love it.

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DT-6s, and the old Fat Free series are still some of my favorites.  The old Fat Raps deserve an honorable mention, too.  The Cordell and Normans still show up in my rotation, also. There's something to be said about classics that don't go out of style. 

  • Super User

 The6th Sense Crush Flat 75X Crankbait has been very good for a couple of years now.

The SK 1.5's  & 2.5's very solid.

And the Spro "Mike McClelland" RkCrawler 55 Crankbait has been the Best clear water smallie crank I've used in AWHILE.

btw - change out the hooks to Mustad short shanks.

A-Jay

Rapala floating minnow and SK Kvd 1.0 and 1.5 

  • Super User

I have caught more smallmouth on SK KVD 1.5's and 5xd's than all my other crankbaits combined.

The 3xd has always struck me as a perfect smallmouth crank in my home lake, but oddly they prefer the 5xd, even when I fish both baits in the same depths. Which is usually 8-12 feet. Both baits hit bottom with ease on long casts at these depths with my line choice, but the 5xd get's there quicker, and stays there for a longer duration of the cast, and "digs" the bottom better..........Some people will tell you a deep crank "plowing" the bottom is not optimal,and you want one that just "ticks" off the bottom, but I am telling you, where I fish, plowing that bait on the bottom gets more bites.

  • Super User
1 hour ago, ww2farmer said:

I have caught more smallmouth on SK KVD 1.5's and 5xd's than all my other crankbaits combined.

Thanks! 

:love4:

17 hours ago, ww2farmer said:

I have caught more smallmouth on SK KVD 1.5's and 5xd's than all my other crankbaits combined.

The 3xd has always struck me as a perfect smallmouth crank in my home lake, but oddly they prefer the 5xd, even when I fish both baits in the same depths. Which is usually 8-12 feet. Both baits hit bottom with ease on long casts at these depths with my line choice, but the 5xd get's there quicker, and stays there for a longer duration of the cast, and "digs" the bottom better..........Some people will tell you a deep crank "plowing" the bottom is not optimal,and you want one that just "ticks" off the bottom, but I am telling you, where I fish, plowing that bait on the bottom gets more bites.

I'm a big fan of this technique, and it's been effective for both, largemouth and smallmouth.  In fact, I very rarely run a crankbait that runs less than a foot deeper than where I'm fishing.  If the bait is slowing or coming up off the bottom, I want to be able to be the one to trigger that.  

  • Super User

Rapala DT10's, Xcalibur XCS100's, and Cordell Super Spot are my top 3 producers.

  • Super User

A lot of greats baits mentioned. The Rapala original floater and countdown have a place on my boat. Not my favorite. Just because. Because they work.

On 8/21/2016 at 5:52 AM, ww2farmer said:

The 3xd has always struck me as a perfect smallmouth crank in my home lake, but oddly they prefer the 5xd, even when I fish both baits in the same depths. Which is usually 8-12 feet. Both baits hit bottom with ease on long casts at these depths with my line choice, but the 5xd get's there quicker, and stays there for a longer duration of the cast, and "digs" the bottom better..........Some people will tell you a deep crank "plowing" the bottom is not optimal,and you want one that just "ticks" off the bottom, but I am telling you, where I fish, plowing that bait on the bottom gets more bites.

mine is the exact opposite, they wont eat the 5xd but absolutely LOVE the 3xd (my favorite). Also the Rapala dt10 is my 2nd favorite! 

  • Super User

Rapala skitter pop ,floater and SK 1.5

nobody mentioned the old rebel wee craw. love the big o as well.

Storm original wiggle wart, bandit 200, bomber square a, fat a, 5a, and 6a, Norman deep baby n and deep little n, rapala shad rap size 7 and dt10, sprouts little John md and dd, strike king 3xd and 5xd, arashi wake crank and flat crank, lucky craft skt mr and dr, lucky craft Rick clunn 1.5dd, duo realis g20a, megabits flap slap, tiemco flat pepper and mad pepper, zoom wec and ph customs balsa cranks, excalibur fat free shad. All baits are in combinations of 3 colors. Black or blue back with white or silver belly to imitate shad, brown, green, or red with orange highlights to imitate local craws, and chartreuse patterns that for some reason even Clearwater smallies love. I catch fish on all these but the wiggle warts are probably my favorite

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