OK...everyone has seen and probably done the old crankbait test. Pick up the bait and shake it back and forth like crazy. Whatever sound it makes is the sound of the crank. Nearly every lure review or whatever they do this. 

 

Here's my question/comment. Almost none of these lures shake back and forth violently while being reeled. They might shake a bit side to side or with the occasional stop/start, but not front to back as fast as a person can shake them. 

 

If you actually take a crankbait and put it through the air like it would go through the water the sound is 100% different. Some loud baits are still loud, but some baits are basically silent like this. I can't imagine it'd be any different underwater. 

 

Anyways this has always bothered/annoyed me and today I got out about 20 crankbaits and worked them through air like they are underwater and maybe 5 of them sounded similar to just shaking the hell out of them. The rest were totally different. So all of these lure reviews based on sound and shaking a bait, IMO, seem like a bunch of hooey. 

We gotta remember we're looking at the whole fishing deal through our eyes & interpreting it with our brain.

 

Don't know why when we pick up a crankbait we gotta shake it. Kinda like blowing on a buzzbait's blade.

Crankbaits can have one or two metal balls inside of them that move and cause a rattle.

 

Do the balls make any special sound that would attract a bass' attention?

 

Yes, and you have to remember sound carries farther in the water than we can hear on land.

 

I had a friend who threw a Chug Bug and was extremely successful. One time on the Pamunkey River I put my Chub Bug on my line and mimicked him when the casted, where he casted, and when he reeled in the plug.

 

He was nailing the bass right and left and I could not buy a bite. So I asked him what I was doing wrong and he laughed and said he would tell me his secret: he cut open the Chug Bug, removed the two ball bearings and replaced them with one ball bearing; and closed and painted the bottom so you could not tell it was opened.

 

The Chub Bug then had a different action and sound and for some unknown reason, it attracted the bass better than the Chug Bug I was throwing.

 

All I can say to your query is: go figure!

23 hours ago, Sam said:

The Chub Bug then had a different action and sound and for some unknown reason, it attracted the bass better than the Chug Bug I was throwing.

I have a couple one knocker lipless cranks that catch fish when a same color Bill Lewis won’t ….. Go figure.

Your right cdn angler, I think some of my cheap lipless don’t wobble enough to rattle. I’ve go some I can hear the last few feet of retrieval. But I think just because I can’t hear it doesn’t mean it’s not. 

On 1/26/2023 at 10:42 PM, Cdn Angler said:

OK...everyone has seen and probably done the old crankbait test. Pick up the bait and shake it back and forth like crazy. Whatever sound it makes is the sound of the crank. Nearly every lure review or whatever they do this. 

 

Here's my question/comment. Almost none of these lures shake back and forth violently while being reeled. They might shake a bit side to side or with the occasional stop/start, but not front to back as fast as a person can shake them. 

 

Same reason we kick the tires when car shopping ... because we dont know enough about what to check but we have to do something, right?

1 hour ago, garroyo130 said:

 

Same reason we kick the tires when car shopping ... because we dont know enough about what to check but we have to do something, right?

Like shaking the rod in the store or flexing the tip against the carpet ?