Advantages of Flat Sided Crankbaits
Wednesday February 3, 2010
Captain Mike Gerry lists some advantages of flat sided crankbaits and why you should use them in the early spring.
picture (c) Captain Mike Gerry
Captain Mike Gerry lists some advantages of flat sided crankbaits and why you should use them in the early spring.
Explore Freshwater Fishing
Must Reads
About.com Special Features
Learn to Play Tennis
Following these step-by-step tennis tutorials will help you wow your friends on the court this summer. More
Baseball Basics
You may know that it's 1, 2, 3 strikes you're out, but there are many more rules to learn about the ol' ball game. More
©2010 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
All rights reserved.
Comments
Mike, good article on flat-sided crankbaits. Interesting observations. I was not aware of several of the things you mentioned. I can see why they might work better swimming them up against current but can’t figure out why they would work better across current. I would have predicted that the flat side would block the current more than a rounded side might, but I never really paid attention to that since I always used them in reservoirs. I never noticed they got into action any faster, either. I’ll have to pay closer attention to those out next time I fish moving water.
Growing up in East Tennessee, where flat-sided crankbaits originated, they saw a lot of use in my boats on Cherokee, Norris, Douglas, Patrick Henry, Melton Hill, Ft. Loudon, and other reservoirs near my home. The ones I used were jig-sawed from red cedar (a.k.a. Virginia Juniper) planks, and the flat side was a lot easier to form. The edges were rounded off, baits were painted, bills of various shapes and sizes attached, hooks, eyes, etc. and presto… crankbait!
The fellow I bought most of mine from lived near Kingsport. He used mainly coffin-cornered bills in three lengths for various depths. My observation was that the flat-sided crankbaits produced a tighter, faster, more subtle wobble than the round-bodied balsa baits. With no rattle, they worked better as stealth baits for clear water conditions. They were made of denser wood, too, than the round-bodied baits (mostly balsa) so they cast further and didn’t rise as quickly, which made them a better stop-and-twitch bait. I retrieved them on low gear ratio reels — no more than 5.3:1 and usually 4.2:1 (my older Ambassadeurs from the ’60’s worked great for this). Many times, when they bounced over logs or against stumps or rocks, I’d kill my retrieve, pop them a couple times, and then resume. Seemed to have worked pretty well…. impossible to say if that was better than just plowing on ahead or not. I’m going to have to pull a few of them off the shelf and put them in my crankbait tray for the next few months. Thanks for the reminder.