Caught a Few Using A Little Crankbait

I’ve been trying out some little crank baits out on the river and at the small creek near the house. Throwing them on 4lb mono using a Daiwa Revros LT 1000 and a Pflueger Trion 20B. Both on L/UL rods.

I’ve never tried crank baits until this week. I actually bought a couple to try trolling for crappie at the lake. Hadn’t gotten around to using them, so I made myself tie one on while I was out in a kayak on the river.

Within a few casts, lucked out and landed 3 smallmouth bass. Needless to say, I went to the store and bought several more to try. They are the Arkie 220 crank baits. Walmarts in my area sell them for a little over $2 each.

The bluegill, red breast, and rock bass have been lighting them up, as well. These things are a blast to fish. A few pics below. I will also post a couple of videos on my YouTube channel over the next week or so. Had a few good trips using these.

Can’t wait to see how the crappie react to them. Fingers crossed!

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Beautiful fish ! Especially those redbreast .
Crankbaits can be very productive and fun to fish with , you never know what’s going to grab them . That’s why using using 4# test is a good idea .
Now that I’m trying out some braid , maybe I should dig out some of my little cranks .

Beautiful catches. I have seen those baits at Wally World. Last trip we picked up a couple micro cranks no bigger than the first thumb digit. Gonna pond fish them. Thanks for sharing your successes with us

Picture of the crank baits you used? I found a square bill floating several days ago, replaced the trebles that were rusted and used it yesterday. It was a bluegill pattern. Didn't catch a bass but the channel cats were hammering it and caught six of them before losing it to a snag. Got to find more of them.

Nice ones

Some of the prettiest colors I’ve ever seen on a hill variety. The gold and red is off the charts. Crankbaits will git with it now and then.

John, those may be butter bean cranks. I’ve got some too that I haven’t tried yet, so keep us posted.

I had a small chartreuse crank in TN and it was spring, didn’t dive very deep. I found a bank out of the wind and set my power drive motor as slow as it would go and headed for the other end. I was looking for bass and I’m sure they’d have loved it, if I could’ve gotten the crappie to leave it alone. Caught 11 of a 15 limit on that bank, never turned a bass. The best laid plans…….

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Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

Picture of the crank baits you used? I found a square bill floating several days ago, replaced the trebles that were rusted and used it yesterday. It was a bluegill pattern. Didn't catch a bass but the channel cats were hammering it and caught six of them before losing it to a snag. Got to find more of them.

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The crank baits were the Arkie 220. Here’s a link to a video I did on them earlier today for any who are interested. Caught a bunch of small creek fish on the red and black one!

CATCH FISH EASY WITH THIS $2 LURE - YouTube

https://youtu.be/DwPqM966dns

Beautiful fish! Got a bunch of Lucky Craft Craw-Pea and Micro Craw-Pea. All of them have single barbless hooks but will change them out with micro barbed hooks. Haven’t fished them since moving to Arkansas.


Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

Beautiful fish! Got a bunch of Lucky Craft Craw-Pea and Micro Craw-Pea. All of them have single barbless hooks but will change them out with micro barbed hooks. Haven’t fished them since moving to Arkansas.


Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

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Thank you so much! I could live with less bass and more red breast… but I take what I can get in this heat! Are the micro barbed hooks single or treble? These treble hooks are a pain to keep untwisted. I’m counting the days until ski boat season is over and I can take my little pond prowler back out into some coves.

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Originally Posted by Pistol_Creek

Thank you so much! I could live with less bass and more red breast… but I take what I can get in this heat! Are the micro barbed hooks single or treble? These treble hooks are a pain to keep untwisted. I’m counting the days until ski boat season is over and I can take my little pond prowler back out into some coves.

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They are single hooks. I’ve got a lot of Eden cranks for trout and they however came with front and rear trebles. I changed all of those out and only put on a single hook on the rear. Works out pretty good.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

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Originally Posted by Alphahawk

They are single hooks. I’ve got a lot of Eden cranks for trout and they however came with front and rear trebles. I changed all of those out and only put on a single hook on the rear. Works out pretty good.

Regards


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

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I will try swapping a single hook on one of these crank baits to see if it hurts the hook up ratio. If not… sure will make life easier. Seemed like I spent half my time untangling the trebles from each other or the line. Ha!

I watched your video and subscribed to your channel. Sure looked like fun. Went to Walmart yesterday and picked up a half dozen squarebill cranks for about the same price of a whopper plopper for all of them, even found two of the same bait I lost the day before. Going to replace the belly treble with a single hook and leave the treble on the back and see how that works.

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Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

I watched your video and subscribed to your channel. Sure looked like fun. Went to Walmart yesterday and picked up a half dozen squarebill cranks for about the same price of a whopper plopper for all of them, even found two of the same bait I lost the day before. Going to replace the belly treble with a single hook and leave the treble on the back and see how that works.

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Thank you so much! I really appreciate that. What kind of hooks are you adding to the front? I ask because I was just thinking about doing the same thing after reading some comments from AlphaHawk. The whopper ploppers look and seem to work fantastic…but, yes.. they are a bit pricey. Especially if you are like me and tend to throw a few casts into the trees. [emoji38] I’m not a big bass fishing guy, either. I do enjoy catching smallmouth when I can, but crappie and bream are hands-down my favorite to pursue. I’d take a 14”-inch Crappie over a 5lb largemouth any day of the week.

That sounds crazy, I know. Back when my papaw was still around, we used to take his little Jon boat out every Fall and catch crappie on minnows. Some of my favorite memories are from those days. Ever since I got back into fishing, I’ve become obsessed with Crappie. I’m not very good at locating them yet, with tons to learn. But.. boy it sure is fun trying to figure them out.

Thanks for posting! Just what I need, one more thing to try!

I used the Gamakatsu single lure hook in size 4 to replace the belly treble. Had a few left over after dressing some up for the spoons I made in the tying section of the forum. These hooks have a large eye that was originally going to be used for a stinger hook on some spinnerbaits but for that I needed a flat eye hook. Model # 329408.

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Originally Posted by JUNGLEJIMJIGS

I used the Gamakatsu single lure hook in size 4 to replace the belly treble. Had a few left over after dressing some up for the spoons I made in the tying section of the forum. These hooks have a large eye that was originally going to be used for a stinger hook on some spinnerbaits but for that I needed a flat eye hook. Model # 329408.

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Thanks for sharing that. I have tried Gamakatsu hooks once before and they seem to be really good hooks.