GEARING UP
HOW TO CHOOSE
CRANKBAITS WITH
A MASTER MAKER, ANGLER
There’s a lot you don’t need to know about crankbait design
to be successful, but some things should be considered essential info
By Curtis Niedermier
Most bass pros are experts at
putting a variety of baits to
work to catch fish, but few
have the same level of expertise with
regard to any one type of bait as MLF
pro Cliff Pace has achieved with
crankbaits. The 2019 Bass Pro Tour
Stage Eight champion has helped
Jackall Baits design plastic crankbaits
for market. He’s also the owner,
designer and manufacturer of the Black
Label Tackle brand of hand-built balsa
crankbaits.
Black Label crankbaits are built following
a tedious 45-step process that
ensures every component – from the
ballast weight to the final protective
clear coat – is manufactured and
assembled to Pace’s exacting standards.
His design process is just as rigorous,
since altering the body shape,
weight, line tie location, bill geometry
or any other detail will result in an
entirely different end result.
Pace, as well as others schooled in
crankbait design, understands the
nuances better than most of us will
ever need to, but all bass anglers
would be wise to study what makes
some crankbaits work better in common
situations than others. And for
that, Pace has great advice.
Test and Classify
First things first: You can’t always
judge a crankbait when it’s in its package.
Sure, some are obviously designed
to be fished certain ways and around
certain types of cover. Also, most companies
do a solid job of explaining where
and when to throw their baits. But to
really understand a crankbait’s action –
and to compare one to another – you
often need to see them in the water.
Hand-made balsa baits, especially,
require some first-hand water review
because no two are alike. One might
hunt hard, while another “identical”
bait doesn’t. Two baits from the same
batch might deflect or wobble differently.
The variations are usually the
result of natural inconsistencies in the
balsa and the handwork that goes into
building them, and that’s why most
bass pros in the know have a box of
“special” tournament crankbaits that
are just a little better than the rest.
Tight vs. Wide Action
According to Pace, most crankbaits
can be categorized into two groups
based on their action type: tight action
and wide action.
The wider the wobble, the more
vibrations the bait puts off in the water.
The subtler, tight-action baits create
less vibration.
Most of the time, tight-action
crankbaits have narrow bills, and wideaction
crankbaits have wider bills. A
steeper bill angle creates more vibration
(and helps with deflecting off
cover), and a shallower angle creates
less vibration.
Other factors are in play, but that’s
the 101 explanation of what creates the
two action types. What’s more important
than how a bill design affects the
action is how the action applies to fishing
situations.
“Typically, your tight-action baits
are going to be more effective in colder
water, and the wider-action baits are
more effective in warmer water,” Pace
says. “Same thing with water clarity. I
like a tighter-action bait in real clear
water and a wider-action bait in offcolor
water.”
In addition to temperature and clarity,
also consider the fishing pressure. A
tight-action bait can put bass in the
boat when bass have been fished for a
lot. For this reason, when fishing near
his home in Mississippi, Pace throws a
tight-action, flat-sided crankbait a lot in
the fall after a long season of fishing
pressure.
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FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | JUNE-JULY 2020