I used to be a little gun shy with cranks, but I have started to use them in situations where I would normally throw plastics and it has paid off.

My fav. time to use them is on the river when fishing for smallies. Around here I have had tremendous luck with Storm Wiggle warts and Suspending Wiggle warts in fallen timer, rocks, and submerged grassbeds.

As was stated before, just keep them in the water and you will catch fish.

Who NEEDS to bang it into something?

Everyone. Deflections = More fish.

I disagree that everyone needs to bang it into something. Perhaps it's possible, or probable, that deflections = more fish, but it's not necessary to catch them. I've caught thousands of fish on crankbaits without banging them into anything.

Fish are hard-wired to be attracted to motion and crankbaits certainly have attractive motion. One of the things that deflections accomplish is to suddenly change speed and direction and a lot of that can be done with rod and reel. I do try and retrieve erratically.

Correctamundo Marty! While I bang into everything with my deepdiving cranks, most of my hits on shallowrunning and lipless cranks come in open water.

Well said Marty.

They were my go to bait when I was pounding ponds back in the day, but I have WAY to many lures that I would rather use than a crank.  But they are a great lure when looking for fish.  I should use them more often