Favored Walleye Trolling Crankbaits

Ok, what’s everyone’s favorite crankbait?

Ecnook introduced me to the jointed shad raps this past May, and lately they have been producing. On one of our local lakes, we have been catching ‘eyes and monster white bass with them. So right now, for me, I guess its a fire tiger JSR-5 for me!

Of course one should not be lulled into complacency; if your “confidence” bait fails to catch fish, you have to know enough to tie on something else. Just tonight, we were fishless on fire-tiger, reluctantly I tied on a red craw and Larry tied on a blue shad. On the next pass, Larry nailed a 17″ white bass on the blue shad.

What works best for you on the river? Fat Raps? Wally Divers? Bomber Long “A”s? Shad Raps?

Joe

Hey Joe,

I can remember there was a post of mine a while back where I cursed the Jointed Shad Rap…I couldn’t catch a fish on them…then I realized I was fishing them all wrong…All cranks shouldn’t be fished the same way…some times the same crankbait shouldn’t be fished the same way as the day before…

But back to your question …. I really line the Grappler Shads, the Walleye Divers, and the Rattlin Fat Raps…also the wiggle warts too….

thats just for long line trolling and pitching cranks….when we start talking handlining and three way’n i have another list of cranks…

The jointed shad raps worked great for us this past weekend on Pool 5A; both casting and trolling. Best color was a fairly dark orange/green; not much luck on the fire tiger color, but it has worked very well in the past.

I always love to troll Shad Raps–#5’s and 7’s. The perch and fire tiger colors seem to work under many conditions and locations. For deeper water (+10 feet) Thundersticks and T-stick Jr.s seem to do well. Using Fire Line seems to get the lures a bit deeper without letting out too much line.