Favorite Stream Bass Crank

[gotmuddy]

lucky craft american shad in clear water, any craw colored square bill.

[Al Agnew]

Obviously lots of cranks work. What I do is approach it with a bit of a system. I want one deep diving crankbait that has a wide, slightly erratic wobble--Wiggle Wart fits that bill perfectly. One deep diving crank that will wobble well with some dressing on the belly hook (something I have LOTS of confidence in--Norman Middle N is the best I've found. One deep diving crank with a more subtle wobble, imitating a minnow--the Shad Rap is the classic in that genre. And one shallow running crankbait--my homemade one, but the Manns Baby 1-minus is excellent as well, and there are others. Regardless of the fact that a couple people here have already mentioned shallow cranks, I find them to be very under-utilized for stream smallmouth.

I don't consider the regular Rapalas to be crankbaits. They are minnow baits, and I fish them more as a topwater lure than a classic crankbait. I also don't consider the suspending jerkbaits to be crankbaits, even though you can fish them like cranks. But the relatively new hard swim baits, mostly slow sinkers without bills, and the lipless cranks like Rattletraps could be considered classic crankbaits in some ways, but I don't use them.

As for colors, keep it simple. For deep cranks, you want a dark color or two that loosely imitates a crawdad in color, and a couple light colors that more or less look "minnow-ish". For shallow runners, a dark color for very murky water, and a couple light, bright colors for clearer water. I don't think the exact colors make much difference.

Just as important as color is size. Longer, slimmer minnow-looking baits should be around 3.5 to 4.5 inches. Shorter, fatter baits should have bodies that are around 2-2.5 inches (not including the bill) for most waters, maybe a little smaller for smaller, clearer waters.