WEIRD Crankbaits - on the cheap.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

By now some of you may know that I am an ebay junkie. I love to scour the on-line auction giant, just to see what I can find. Sometimes I turn up nothing special and sometimes I find, well, an oddity.

These crank baits are in the latter class. I got five of them for $0.99 with free shipping. There were other patterns than seen here, too, and frankly I didn't really care just WHAT they were. For a buck, I'll try anything! So they came in today and I was mildly impressed at first glance:

Now, I've added a little gold paint to the first one and the fluorescent orange to the second one. They don't look too bad. right?

That's when you realize how thin they are. Take a look here at this view:

They are made of plastic and have a rattle chamber in them, if you can believe that! Naturally, I've tinkered with them. The hooks have been switched out with doubles, and one has a trailing single Sproat, a la the Modica  Method. They came with a single attached at the rear only, so this was necessary. I piddled with the paint, as mentioned.

They are made of plastic and have a rattle chamber in them, if you can believe that. They remind me of blade baits, which I haven't seen in many years. They sink like stones in my test pool - a large bucket. I'm guessing these things will be fast burners, not something you fish in the slow, cold months. The fish better be chasing their food if these are to have any effect!

Anyway, for a buck - - what the heck. Weird is wonderful! We'll see what happens.

[Leo Nguyen]

It's not frugal. It's called wise and productive approaches without the high costs. Do you see the islanders use hundreds' dollars equipment? Yet they capture fishes just as effective has those without the fancy gears. What ever works best, either be $0.99 line-hook combo on a broom stick, or a $12500 gold covered rod with platinum reel body. The one that catches the more fishes get the bragging right..

[cal okeefe]

these kinda remind me of the cicaida baits that are flat.. actually even narrower then these..  you probally could catch bass on these..

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Thats my hope, Cal. Im gonna take them down to the lake this weekend and see how they run.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

You got it, Leo. I cant claim to be a great fisherman; I'm just a guy who likes to fish. I do want to improve my catch rates, though, like anyone. So I'll try all sorts of things, as long as they are within my budget outlines.

On a side note - one thing Im keen on is knowledge, particularly how to turn the "mystery" of finding fish into a repeatable method, sans luck.

The question has been asked here, thus:

"If faced with a new lake or body of water on any given day - how would you find the fish?"

That is where my thinking is currently running. These lures probably cannot "find" fish, but they are different enough that they may entice them should I figure it out......

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Well, I went and tried these today. My final grade: B

Their main fault is that they are very narrow and do not track well. A "regular" crankbait, a Rat-L-Trap for example, tracks well because it has some frontal area and width. These lack that and so you have to burn them to get them righted and then they tend to swing wide with little wobble.

They do cast well on light line, though, and they flutter nicely in the water. One thing I discovered is that they look convincing as "wounded baitfish," if moved along the bottom in a lift-and-drop retrieve. You cant let them hang, on the other hand, because they have a fast sink rate.

I can see them being used to fish over fairly clean bottoms or cast to schooling feeders, like white bass. Another option might be where fish are moving around and relating to structure. Warm water, in other words, at moderate depth.

I'll keep a couple of them in the tackle pack.

PS if anyone wants to get some, PM me for an ebay link.

[John Sheehan]

Yes David the rattletraps also work good If you have smallies in the lake , ripping them off the bottom and letting  them flutter down using  a semi horizontal presentation.The baits you have there remind me of the Storm Thinfins.I have caught LM Bass,Perch and Pickerel on the shallow running Flourescent Tiger model . Yours have  no lip though .