Crankbaits Flat or Round

[Bud Kennedy]

Selecting the right crankbait for the conditions.

I have always believed that in the spring when the water is cold this is when a crankbait fisherman will throw a flat sided bait.  Nothing special just slow down a bit and let the lure do its thing.  Good for those conditions of cold water fishing rip rap or laydowns.

When the water warms up that is when you start using the squarebills and other round body baits.  Fish this bait a little quicker than a flat side as you are looking for the reaction bite as you deflect off of cover

So basically the clue is cold water = flat sides, warm mater = round sides. 

who else has some input to this common belief about crankbaits?

[SteveTX]

I grab the one I like and start chunkin. If I get a hit I keep chunkin. If I don't I grab another and start chunkin. Not so sure I get into all the things that are preached as condition relative.

Some things just use your brain like the effects of cold water on plastics. But as far as action I have caught fish on lipless year around and the same on plugs of many shapes sizes and actions. I'm not just saying "a" fish I mean where it was the bait that was working and accounted for numerous fish.

Maybe that is a northern thing? 

[Wizard]

I don't believe it matters as much in warmer southern waters. In lakes from LOZ north it does make a difference. Flat sided lures such as a lipless crank, Tennessee Killer and Flat Wart give off a vibration bass seem to prefer. Flat sided baits are more subtle than fat baits.

Wizard

[Oldfart9999]

It's a general rule, a starting point. As usual it's most likely going to be the way to go but often enough not so you experiment. Of course you can just keep chunking, don't catch anything and go home saying  "they just weren't biting".
Rodney

[analfisherman]

Of course you can just keep chunking, don't catch anything and go home saying  "they just weren't biting".
Rodney

I use lipless year round too.
BUT I yo-yo them off the bottom often in the Spring.....before the Veg. starts growing.

Now I've been back on my daily fishing rotations and the waters are like 36-40 degrees yet.
Heck, yesterday it was 38 with a 15 mile wind...air temp.
Oh NO......not smart enough to take a day off??
Got 3 Smallies and one LGM....no real size...but I only fished for like and hour and a half/45 mins.

But one thing I do do.....with GREAT SUCCESS.......is I down size my cranks.......use like Crappie Cranks size.......not the lipless though.....I throw usually the same size year round with them.

I have caught a couple this year on full size SquareBills.........BUT THE Crappie Cranks are working best.....SO FAR THIS YEAR!

[Oldfart9999]

Crappie c ranks were one of Rick Clunn secrets in the fall chasing shad up to the back of creeks.
Rodney

[D.W. Verts]

Hmmm... Right off, I've had most of my success, for whatever reason, with the flat-sided baits during the fall transition. I think it started because here in MO we're huge believers in square bills, usually B-2's, in Autumn. So I tried the new square bill flat-sided baits when they arrived on the scene and had a lot of success with them.

Now this is interesting- I've read several times in my short tenure here about the "tight wiggle" baits being for cold water, and the "wide-wiggle" baits shining in the summer time. And that's pretty much exactly the opposite of what I like.

While I've caught fish on both styles in all seasons, I've always preferred the WIDE WIGGLE baits (read Wiggle Wart) in cold water, and the tighter-wobble baits the rest of the year.

Very interesting.

[Wizard]

There is something to what Dale says. There is a period in the cooler part of spring when the "Wart" bite is on. If you're fishing cranks, it better be a Wart. It is almost an Ozark tradition. I use flat sided lures first, transition to the Wart and then it's time for tubes.  A jig, grub or jig worm is always on deck. The jig worm catches bass in hot or cold water and is a great " Hail Mary " lure to save a tough tournament day.

Wizard

[analfisherman]

Bud, when you are talking 'Flat Sided' crankbaits, your talking about lures like the Bomber Flat A, Bandit Flat Maxx, Strike King KVD HC Flat Side Crankbait.........not so much a lipless crank like RattleTraps.....RIGHT?

Flat sided cranks with a 'bill' on them in other words.   

[Bud Kennedy]

Thats right any flat sided crank.  I just got more curious about the choices after playing the the Cranking Concepts product we swapped last month and the small bait that Polaris sent .  Fact is I really don't have an opinion but am very curious about the reasons.  I have caught fish all through the year using both round and flat sided products.  I guess the rest of the story would be about types of bills etc.

Like others I have had good success on small baits traditionally designed for Crappie but the bass like them too.

[analfisherman]

Ya I did notice that lure was pretty thin. 

[coldfront]

Selecting the right crankbait for the conditions.

I have always believed that in the spring when the water is cold this is when a crankbait fisherman will throw a flat sided bait.  Nothing special just slow down a bit and let the lure do its thing.  Good for those conditions of cold water fishing rip rap or laydowns.

When the water warms up that is when you start using the squarebills and other round body baits.  Fish this bait a little quicker than a flat side as you are looking for the reaction bite as you deflect off of cover

So basically the clue is cold water = flat sides, warm mater = round sides. 

who else has some input to this common belief about crankbaits?

hey folks, just a quick question to ask:  can we take some stabs ALSO at identifying what is, what is not cold water?  will vary from lattitude to lattitude, but good to know what you see it as and how it drives your choice of 'flat' vs 'fat'.

[D.W. Verts]

For ME- Ultra cold, below 42-44... Cold (early crankbait fishin') is 44-52 or so... After 53 its Katie-Bar-The-Door. A Buzzbait works in MO in 53 water.

[Bud Kennedy]

Around these parts, I have always considered cold water to be anything in the 50s

[Oldfart9999]

Here mid 40s and lower.
Rodney

[analfisherman]

Water temps here are
Rivers.......42-45
Ponds & lakes 34-40

[Deadeye]

Here Cold Water is anything under 70*.

That's not a joke. The Florida Strain Bass really shut down when the water temps drop below 70*.

Now I have still managed to catch them at or below that temp, but that is when the Live Wild Shiner bite comes on. Also why the many Guides prefer using them for their clients during the winter months here.

This past year I started experimenting with some of my old Jerkbaits from my Northern Days and had success with water in the 50's. Something I plan to expand on next year.

[Smallie_Stalker]

Two observations here. A lot of times around here you can't even get guys to agree on what constitutes cold water, and secondly because our waters freeze over it depends on what time of year you ask that question.

In the fall if the water goes from the low 50's to the mid to low 40's most people call that cold water. In the spring, not long after ice-out when the water temps hit that low to mid 40 degree range a lot of folks call it warm water.

Up here in the north where the bass have been living in frozen over ponds with water temps in the 30s (or maybe even lower, I don't honestly know) and the water gets to be 40+ degrees the bass actually get fairly active. Yes you can still catch them on a suspending jerkbait, but you can catch them on spinnerbiats and buzzbaits too.

Side note to you Bud. In the dead of summer if I am fishing a crankbait down an open lane in a pad field or line of grass I will throw a flat sided bait like a Norman Tennessee Killer because it won't kick out and hunt like a fat body will. By using a tight wiggling bait like this and controlling the direction of the lure with the rod I can keep it from hanging up this way. When the bass have seen a ton of lipless cranks or spinnerbaits come through those open lanes this can be enough of a change to get them to bite. 

[Smalls]

I started throwing a flat sided crank for the first time late summer last year, and I noticed a lot more bites in stained water. Maybe the fish could feel the tight movement a little better, really hone in on it? I'm certainly no expert, but it proved to me that at least where I fish, it was not just a cold water bait.

[coldfront]

I started throwing a flat sided crank for the first time late summer last year, and I noticed a lot more bites in stained water. Maybe the fish could feel the tight movement a little better, really hone in on it? I'm certainly no expert, but it proved to me that at least where I fish, it was not just a cold water bait.

after a steady diet of LOUD RATTLING baits, wide wobbles, etc, I think bass get 'wise' and things that are different or more closely match what they're feeding on in terms of visuals and/or behaviors can be an advantage.

personally have gone to tossing a lot of the 1.5 squarebills with out rattles.  toss primarily jigs without rattles anymore.


don't see baitfish or crayfish out there trying to call attention to themselves. 

[D.W. Verts]

The premise behind flat-sided baits isn't about the "tight" wiggle- a Bomber Model A has one too. The idea is that the flat sides "push" more water, creating a much different sound and vibration (really the same thing to a bass). Make sense?

[scottemory72]

I can only speak for what works for me here in IL (please don't hold that against me).  Early in the year I throw a lot of jerkbaits Rogues and X-Raps, if we get some nice days I throw red crawdad colored lipless, especially the Red Eye Shad 2-tap and Spro Little John 50 crankbaits plus pitch a black and blue jig with a beaver trailer.  But, the number one cold water early spring bait up here is the Shad Rap in Crawfish or Demon patterns.  The great thing about that bait is you'll catch largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, whites, and occasional crappie.  Once the weather starts to really warm up I'll be throwing round crankbaits like Wiggle warts, Spro Rk Crawlers, DT series (which isn't really round) Strike Kings, and some spinnerbaits.  Once I know they're shallow I give them a large dose of squarebills (my favorites are the Spro Russ Lane Fat Papa, Strike King KVDs, and the Rapala Brat).

[Kris]

Around here I find that lipless crankbaits do work all Season. Speed adjustment is key with colder water. I also find that smaller squarebill crankbaits work well as the water starts to warm high 40s-low 50s.
Once the water is in the mid-50s it's all bets off and bring the whole crankbait selection with you.
Some days they like quiet crankbaits, some times one knockers and other times rattling baits. I believe the only constant in that equation is color. By that I mean, shad lake = shad color base, bluegill lake = bluegill base and so on. I don't believe we have any lakes using blue back herring up North.

[bigjim5589]

I've also caught fish on both types of cranks and at various times of the year. My experiences as  far as temps is like what Kris has said, mainly because we both fished in MD. I considered "cold" water to be below 40 degrees. In the 40 to low 50 degree waters I treated lure selection differently, as there never seemed to be many constants except that certain types of waters warmed faster, and sun shine or cloudy days made a big difference in finding fish when water temps were in that 40 to 50 degree range. I didn't often use crankbaits in that temp range, but went with lures that could be fished very very slow. Above 50, to temps that became too warm, shade & O2 were always good bets to look for as that is where the baitfish or other forage would be most active. There, crankbaits would work well if I could keep them out of the snags. Sometimes casting parallel to shore wit a crankbait was a good way to pick up larger fish when they would start to move out of the snags in search for food. In MD's tidal rivers, shallow mud flats would warm up faster in cold weather on sunny days, as in the spring, and baitfish would congregate in those places, so a crank thru those areas could work.

Back to the cranks, IMO any can have a time & place where they work well, regardless of temps. Even though I've caught fish on typical rounder body cranks, I always seemed to do better with the longer "minnow" shaped lures, and sometimes down to the ultra light sizes. Even jerkbaits fished like a crankbait was a good choice for me. For bass, I sometimes did well on the smaller size lipless lures. The shallow tidal waters I fished may have had something to do with that as the bigger one may have been too noisy. The bigger lipless lures are something I've used a good bit for Striped Bass so always had them but never seemed to do great with them for bass.

I've tried many colors and often went with some of the more "natural" color schemes. I've never got too picky about exact colors, and even "Herring" to me is a "Shad" color as both are similar enough. IMO, the lure action & motion is more important than the specific color most of the time.

[fishballer06]

Your theory is pretty much true and I stick to it as well. The only thing that leaves me scratching my head is why a damn wiggle wart is so darn productive...