silent crank baits

[bassz21]

Im a young fisherman and i am always learning new things but my question is what are the advantages of using a silent crankbait vs one with rattles, and when would i want to use it thanks

[ash]

My go to crank for the Delta and Clearlake is the Lucky Craft BDS 3 - and the strike king 1.5 is coming in close - I dont have many balsa crank baits but all three do not have rattle chambers - however make no mistake they are far from silent as the hooks bang and rattle on the crank bait - I think the big thing with a silent bait is it is just a reaction and does not have an associated sound to give it away - it appears NOW fish react NOW and my big success with them is in grass and timber- I dont think fish are hunting these baits as they do with my Normans on lakes I dont think they "call fish" very well like say a rattle trap or a bait with a rattle chamber that can call fish out to investigate - so for me its a shallow water grass and timber bait - if I was fishing points or flats I wuold go with a rattle bait - I personally like the one knockers or Bomber Long A - big deep thunk thunk thunk vs the high pitch rattle - but it verys from day to day

[Oldschool]

One school of thought is go silent in bright conditions in clear water and noisy in low light conditons and off color water. I usually start fishing in low light early morning conditions on clear water deep structure lakes with shad and crawdad colored lures, both with and without rattles and let the bass decide what they prefer. As the sun raises and the pace slows down, I tend to go with silent deep divers in lighter shad colors. As the late afternoon approaches it's back to the early morning routine.
The original Poe supercedar wooden 300 series and Bomber 7A are good silent crankbaits and Original balsa Rapalas and Lucky Craft RC3 & 1.5 good shallow silent series. Rattle traps make the most noise and Norman cranks are good noisy deep diving crank bait.
Try them both, you never know what the bass will prefer.
Tom

[yjjustforme]

One school of thought is go silent in bright conditions in clear water and noisy in low light conditons and off color water. I usually start fishing in low light early morning conditions on clear water deep structure lakes with shad and crawdad colored lures, both with and without rattles and let the bass decide what they prefer. As the sun raises and the pace slows down, I tend to go with silent deep divers in lighter shad colors. As the late afternoon approaches it's back to the early morning routine.
The original Poe supercedar wooden 300 series and Bomber 7A are good silent crankbaits and Original balsa Rapalas and Lucky Craft RC3 & 1.5 good shallow silent series. Rattle traps make the most noise and Norman cranks are good noisy deep diving crank bait.
Try them both, you never know what the bass will prefer.
Tom

X2 I go silent when the waters clear and rattle when the water is cloudy. I also throw silent ones when site fishing during the spawn

[GKramer]

Of course, "silent" is a relative term. All cranks are noisy underwater, with split rings and hooks tapping the lure body. "Quiet" cranks would be a better designation.

[Skunk]

I agree with the above. Let the fish decide. In addition to what they suggested, you can also try quiet cranks when the fish are under a lot of pressure. When a bunch of folks are tossing noisy cranks at them all the time and they ain't biting, a quieter crank might end up being the ticket.

Try this out during the spawning season: take a beefy crank, tie it up drop-shot style (but with a very short leader), and drop it on some bedding bass. The floating action of the crankbait looking down on a bed can drive a bass nuts - especially if it's bluegill colored. The more realistic looking, the better. I like to take the rear hook off, and attach a bigger hook to the middle of the lure. Sometimes shaking this drop-shotted crank will cause the fish to react better, and sometimes simply letting the crank silently hover over the bed will do it. It doesn't always work, but sometimes they will react ferociously! Experiment and have fun!

[bassz21]

Thanks for input so far guys really is appreciated

[Caudawg]

Another approach is to do a "switch up" on finnicky bass. I like to burn a rat-l-trap or similar vibrating /rattling bait 2-3 times under a dock...then switch to a similar bait that is silent and see if it will draw the strike. I can't remember the name of the silent lures I used to use because they went out of production years ago. But they were flat sided crank baits like a Rat-l-Trap but had no rattles and over sized eyes. This "switch-up" technique worked well at CL when there was a lot of fishing pressure.

My team partner Jay Reichert and I would also alternate noisy deep diving baits with silent baits. Jay might throw a mag Wart and I would follow up with a silent bait like a Poe's 300 or 400 or a Bagley's DB-3.

The "Switch-Up" works!

[ash]

I learned a few things from this thread and the one that blows my mind is that CDawg fishes

[Oldschool]

Of course, "silent" is a relative term. All cranks are noisy underwater, with split rings and hooks tapping the lure body. "Quiet" cranks would be a better designation.

Maybe cranks with and without rattles would be approriate, however the lure mfr's market their crankbaits (plugs for us old timers) as silent.
Bass hear primarliy with the lateral line and anything moving displaces water creating sound waves gets their attention, quite swimbaits for example. They also hear using "ears" for things very close for better separation of background noise. The one thing rattles do is sell crank baits; about 50 to 1, so marketing "silent" crank baits opens up a market, we now need both, with and without rattles or rattle.
Tom

[mark poulson]

Tom,
You don't think plug manufs. would try to sell us "silent cranks" unless they really worked, do you?

[flippenfool]

They both have a time and a place, water color and fishing pressure will dictate most of this for me. Ultimately the fish will tell you, there is no right or wrong though. Fish that are heavily pressured can become conditioned to rattles just like any heavily used presentation. The same rule applies with topwater baits, good luck.

[Lugnut]

Everybody has there own theroy on this subject. I have enjoyed quite a bit of success using some "old" silent lures. I still never leave home without my Poes and Wiggle Warts....just my .02

[Andy Giannini]

I think the first rattling cranks were production error. The ballast weight came loose.

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Most swimbaits do not have additional noise makers incorporated, and they seem to work just fine for most..Extra noise from any bait may help, especially if the visibility is low..Are they necessary, absolutely not..

mac