I, like others, choose a crankbait with a particular application in mind. 

 

Shallow: Spro little Jon, big m squarebills, Rebel wee r, and a few others.

 

mid-depth: Norman deep baby n, big m's, and Rebel deep wee r.

 

Deep: * It's all relative....... Norman dd 14. I don't go much deeper than 14-15 feet. 

I like way too many and never fish them enough.

 

I usually prefer smaller ones in the 1.0 size, but one crankbait that I really have liked right out of the box are the XCalibur XCS100's. I have had my best days with the Xcalibur's when I want a wide wobble and I like the Shallow shad rap in the cold instead of a squarebill or a Rapala DT Flat just don't fish them too hard, the bills break on certain ones, but the DT-3 is a good lure.

 

Subwarts, Speed traps, KVD, Norman..All companies make good cranks these days, key is the hooks, Some cheaper cranks work well like store brands but the hooks are often junk. BPS for example.

1 hour ago, blckshirt98 said:

Check out 6th Sense - made in America, Japanese quality, domestic price.

I've snatched up about 4 or 5 of these on sale the last couple months. I'm excited to give them a try when it warms. I saw they also just came out with a wakebait that's now available on TW. Thinking about grabbing a few of them too. 

10 hours ago, MattMurr said:

Not on the cheap side but my fav cranks the last couple years are the spro little johns

And the come with good hooks.

 

The KVD's are a good value but the hooks are garbage.  I switch them out and it becomes a great bait.

i fish manns -1  alot

Rapala Shad Rap.

"What Is The Best Crankbait"

 

I wish I knew

Most of my success has come from the Rapala DT in Helsinki color so that what I use, buy, and through. I have had limited success with Storms Arashi series and my try other brands but if it not broke don't fix it.

I like strike king baits from square bills to the xd series.  I dont use the normal series.  I also like the spro baits all i have are the MD series.  The black back chartreuse and the cell mate work well.  I also like the duo m65 and the smaller bait.

On 1/13/2017 at 5:30 PM, blckshirt98 said:

Check out 6th Sense - made in America, Japanese quality, domestic price.

I haven't bought a 6th sense lure I haven't liked yet, very nice lures

My go to is a Bomber 6 or 7A in Firetiger or TN shad. also if you come across some Rebel deep Wee R's snag 'em up (they are discontinued now i believe), they have done good for me in the past as well.  Like others said the shad rap is a staple with most bass fishermen.  Good luck!!

On 1/13/2017 at 4:40 PM, whitwolf said:

<snip> .... big m squarebills....<snip>

 

 

 

Really? So I'm not the only Marty fan here?  Love his work!  One of his 3-5 ft coffin bills is possibly the most productive shallow crank I've ever owned.

Don't know if it is the best but I have caught a bunch of fish on Bandits, 100, 200, 300.

No lipless love here?  Wow.  The only Lipless I don't really like are the KVD.  My fave is the Xcalibur and then the Cotton Cordell...preferably in Royal Shad.  As for a traditional crank, I found a BPS Balsa Boogie a couple of years ago in a bargain bin and have killed with it.  The only bad thing is that I'm limited on where I can throw it because I don't want to lose it!

The 6th sense crush 50x is currently my favorite squarebill. I've caught some nice fish on it this year on weedlines. Every 50x I've tied on has run true out of the box. There was only one that required a little bit of tuning, but I smacked it off of wood, concrete, rocks, etc. They are a little pricey, but definitely a more affordable premium bait. 

Love my pre-rapala storm wiggle warts for mid range cranking. 

 

21 hours ago, Jeff H said:

 

Really? So I'm not the only Marty fan here?  Love his work!  One of his 3-5 ft coffin bills is possibly the most productive shallow crank I've ever owned.

well i guess i'm going to look at these now 

On 1/13/2017 at 6:23 PM, primetime said:

I like way too many and never fish them enough.

 

I usually prefer smaller ones in the 1.0 size, but one crankbait that I really have liked right out of the box are the XCalibur XCS100's. I have had my best days with the Xcalibur's when I want a wide wobble and I like the Shallow shad rap in the cold instead of a squarebill or a Rapala DT Flat just don't fish them too hard, the bills break on certain ones, but the DT-3 is a good lure.

 

Subwarts, Speed traps, KVD, Norman..All companies make good cranks these days, key is the hooks, Some cheaper cranks work well like store brands but the hooks are often junk. BPS for example.

 

Did another company pick up the XCS crankbaits or is Ebay the only place to buy them?  I know Booyah does XCalibur's old lipless, but have never heard about XCS going under a different name.  

 

To answer OP's question....

For squarebills, I use Storm Arashi, KVD 1.5, bomber square A.  I plan on buying some Spro Fat John 60s, heard good things about them.  Keep in mind that Spro Little Johns are more of a flat sided crank bait.  They will have a wobble thats more on the tight side.  Doesn't make them a bad crankbait, but I generally would reach for something else once the water warms up.

Deeper crankbaits - Rapala DTs, wiggle warts, SK 3XDs and 5XDs.  Plan on adding some Spro Fat Papa 55s to the rotation this season.

 

The one I don't have.

Im gonna amend my reply. Im a big fan of norman cranks. But if i were starting from scratch, I'd go with bandits 100, 200, 300. Good fish catching baits, simple model selection, lots of colors to choose. And they carry plain black, something they don't see alot but kills.

 

We have yet to hear from the OP, but he's probably busy taking scrupulous notes    

 

Roger