Crappie Cranks

[brian prewitt75]

Noticed that there are a lot of manufacturers building black cranks for crappie. Anybody using them and how are they working?

[grizwilson]

Have had better luck with the chartruse than black. When they are shallow and aggressive works well

[RSBreth]

I've used Norman tiny N and Deep tiny n for Crappies for about twenty years. The newer ones are pretty good - I like the Strike King mini 3 (which is the same thing as the crappie crank).

Try retrieving them slow and steady - erratic doesn't seam to work as well. Tiny cranks are great for little creek Bass and Goggle-eyes, too.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Tiny cranks are great for little creek Bass and Goggle-eyes, too.

That is where I like using them too. You can have a blast tossing them all day on a smaller creek.

[brian prewitt75]

Been using small cranks myself but just more curious about the black and where it may be handy. Dont see a black crank too much.

[Quillback]

I tried black when I used to troll for crappie, it would catch a fish every once in a while, but it was not my favorite color for crappie.

[Stoneroller]

I've found the big key to crappie on cranks, 3 inch soft swimbaits, 3 inch grubs, etc (fishing for the big ones) is a slow, really slow steady retrieve. A beetle spin has been my go to lure for big crappie for years because of the thump from the single colorado blade. The same principle holds true of the crappie cranks I throw. they need to have a nice wobble to them at a slow speed. many cranks, especially some of the smaller ones have almost no action unless you burn them and from what I've seen crappie may roll on them or swipe at them when they are burned, producing the occasional fish, but when I slow down, really, really slow down I catch far more big crappie.

think slow, steady, thumping action. and I've not seen a big difference in color variation once you get that thump down, they don't seem to care about the color.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Although I think color can play a roll in catch rates, some times more than others, our resident professor of all outdoors says color doesn't mean a thing. So I don't know anymore. My whole fishing world has been turned upside down.

[Stoneroller]

*for moving or 'reaction' baits:

I think it matters sometimes, but why does it matter? we like to think that other animals use their senses the same way we use ours. our primary sense is sight. for a fish it's touch. most waters are murky enough the fish can't see the lure until it has commited anyway. and in water that is clear enough for the fish to see the lure, does the fish go after the lure because it looks 'natural', or because it's behaving in a way that is unlike the healthy preyfish the predator fish is used to seeing and it sees an easy meal?

A ton of 'professionals' say color means very little. In my experience, for the most part* that holds true. But, huge caveat, how many times has the same person fished two different color baits, 'side by side', with the same action and produced verifiable and repeatable results? Some people swear by a certain color and that can work, but maybe it's because that's what they throw all the time. It's not to say a different color might not work just as well. Specifically though on moving baits, on a hair jig suspended below a bobber, where the fish may look at the lure for 2 minutes before committing, color can mean everything.

[drew03cmc]

Tiny cranks are great for little creek Bass and Goggle-eyes, too.

That is where I like using them too. You can have a blast tossing them all day on a smaller creek.

Yep. I love tossing these things on my L action spinning rod in creeks, up here or down in the Ozarks.