Ok, well I'm a novice on most lures except texas rigged plastics and spinnerbaits; BUUUTTTT I'm a complete moron when it comes to crankbaits...... I would love to be able to fish these lures but I have no clue how to tell how deep a particular crankbait will dive or even how to select the appropriate color! I would imagine that I should us a color that matches the baitfish in the area, but why would you do that when there is soooo many different and sometimes funky colors that crankbaits come in!? Anybody care to hook a lowly rookie up with some good info!? :-? ;D

The longer the bill, the deeper the dive.  The fatter the head, the wider the wobble.

Here is some info from Iaconelli

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/iaconelli_crankbaits.html

Here is some info from Iaconelli

http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/iaconelli_crankbaits.html

That'll work thanks yall for pointing me in the right direction!

Sarge,

 Haven't been fishing cranks for very long myself. Probably wouldn't be a lot of help :-[. I really hate it when you take a new crankbait and it doesn't run true (straight line back to you). You can get them from cheap to High dollar. There are 2 that I have never had a problem with, Rapala and Bandit. You might give 'em a try ...

                                  As Ever,

                                   skillet

The rapala DT series (dt=dives to) have the running depth in feet printed on the bill of the bait.  For a beginner, this is very helpful because you can have a bunch of cranks with different diving depths and be able to select a bait based on diving depth very easily.

Also, all cranks dive deeper with thinner line so that is an additional factor that will affect the depth that your crankbait runs at.

And most importantly Staff Sergeant--USMC, thanks for serving our Country!!!

One more thing to point out is that crankbaits are much more weedless then they look. I was originally scared to throw them into lay downs, timber, etc. because I figured the treble hooks would get caught up. But usually they do not because the nose of the bait points down and the bill deflects off of cover before the hooks can hit it.  Bouncing crankbaits off of wood and other cover often triggers bass into striking.

The rapala DT series (dt=dives to) have the running depth in feet printed on the bill of the bait. For a beginner, this is very helpful because you can have a bunch of cranks with different diving depths and be able to select a bait based on diving depth very easily.

Also, all cranks dive deeper with thinner line so that is an additional factor that will affect the depth that your crankbait runs at.

And most importantly Staff Sergeant--USMC, thanks for serving our Country!!!

Yes- Thanks and God bless you and yours.  

Thanks Yall, Your show of appreciation and your help means more to me than you can ever imagine! Most all Military folks don't want nothing from anyone, except mabey a simple thank you! You guys rock!!!  

There is also a book on the market, I believe Joe Bucher wrote it.  It is a reference on crankbaits.  It will tell you how deep a particular crankbait will run depending on what pound test you have it tied to.  Lots of good info in that book.

From one NCO to another, welcome back from down range.

I'm a complete begginer myself with cranks.  One thing I've learned is what LooksLikeSinbad said...  they won't hang up quite as much as you expect.  Don't be afraid to chuck 'em into wood and everything else out there.  That being said, be prepared to lose a few, and the chock it up to the learning process.

As far as colors, one thing I read recently in a bassmasters book that has helped me out: because of the many different lip sizes and colors, pick a couple of basic colors, with several different lip sizes.

What I did was pick two opposite colors, Citruse (kinda pale blue sides, chartreuse belly) and a dark red/black color.  Then I got one of each of these colors in the super shallow square bill, and then one each in the bigger sizes.  Now instead of worrying about both color and depth, I can worry less about color and focus more on depth and technique.

This has allowed me to start catching some, and then go on to focus more on specific colors and patterns.

Good luck and welcome back.