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Posts: 7092
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | While bored and perusing my baits hanging on the wall in the garage (I do this while contemplating fishing and wishing it wasnt frickin snowing out and my boat wasnt in the shop) I noticed about 85% of my crankbaits are straight vs. jointed. Then I realized that when I'm cranking, probably 95% of the time I'm throwing or trolling straight cranks and use my jointed baits mostly as a "last resort, the fishing sucks" option.
QUESTION to the masses: when are you going to a straight crank versus jointed, and why? |
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Posts: 82
Location: deep in the slop | Funny I have about the opposite ratio. I seem to have more depth raiders than anything. My findings are I do better with straight cranks during the day. My jointed cranks do better at night. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | straight = active - neutral (twitch-pause aggressive retrieve)
jointed = neutral - negative (straight retrieve) |
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Posts: 1209
| All Crank baits show me followers and straight puts 33" walleyes in my boat on pelican lake MN |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | rip the pee out of em ... if you don't break a few anti-reverse's then you're doing it wrong ... |
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Posts: 1209
| Will try |
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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | Straight.
I figger there's a reason why Suick ain't made no jointed Swix yet...  |
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Posts: 1220
| Don't know why, but most of my jointed baits stay in box. Really don't know why?? |
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Posts: 20263
Location: oswego, il | jonnysled - 4/6/2016 2:04 PM
rip the pee out of em ... if you don't break a few anti-reverse's then you're doing it wrong ...
Ripped a few crank handles off too.
I never really used jointed cranbaits until I started trolling lsc. Never had much success with jointed baits anywhere else. As far as casting cranks, I twitch straight baits. |
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| Casting, I prefer straight lures. Trolling, jointed lures seem to get more fish for me. |
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Posts: 1660
Location: central Wisconsin | Jointed at night over the weed tops, walleyes luv em too. |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Straight the majority of the time as I do not like the way a jointed looks in between jerks/pauses. Unnatural looking to see the back joint swinging towards the head. The jointed cranks also do not kick out like straight cranks do.
I do use jointed on occasion. One scenario is cold water where straight cranks are not cutting the mustard, and neither is the kick-outs. So I will go to a jointed, retrieve much slower, and do light “taps” rather than jerks during the retrieve. Other scenario is I will use jointed cranks with metal lips that I modify to make countdowns. Countdowns inherently have less action and thus I utilize the joint to help impart a bit more action when I want a countdown crank.
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Posts: 291
Location: Minneapolis | Trolling a jointed believer will work dang near anywhere, not just LSC. I agree that for casting twitching straight cranks works better. |
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Posts: 396
Location: Northern Illinois | I have a lot more straight cranks as well. I like to impart a lot of action with them - twitching, pausing, getting them to kick to the side etc . However, I do have some jointed cranks that are very effective casting as well. I agree with the comment that the jointed cranks look unnatural on the pause. For that reason I don't completely pause them. I vary the retrieve speed, but when a jointed lure is on my line it's always moving and the tail is always wagging (even if it's almost stopped). I have a couple of 6 inch jointed Loke's that walk on the retrieve and do very well. Find a wood one that walks and you can play with the retrieve speed while casting to make it come alive. You can still impart action by varying the retrieve speed, but it can be a different type/thing than the action (not the kicks and tricks) you might put on a straight one. |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | A jointed "Pikey Minnow" can be very good twitching and pausing,.. Then rip.....Pause....Bamm!! |
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Posts: 1530
| each has a time. take a jointed and take straights. put each out watch action. the joint achieves more action. it appears to be moving faster then the straight bait. try it . that tells you . in colder waters straights get bit more. . lead legnhts also control action. a wire leader opposed to a 5ft trolling leader. snaps/awivels also. a rounded snap lets baits impart more action/wobble. experiment gents, it will put more fish in the bag. |
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Posts: 1425
Location: St. Lawrence River | 50/50 I guess. But I do like shallow invaders. I don't know how to classify that one. |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | Have never damaged any rod, reel, handle, bait while twitching my Slammers. My son twitched a 9 inch Grandma's lip clear off throwing to a 46 incher that followed trolling, then wouldn't commit and wouldn't leave. |
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Posts: 285
Location: NE Wisconsin | Have trolled Depth Raiders on LOW in October since they came out, both jointed and straight. I do a lot of bottom bouncing on rock. Without a doubt, the straight ones will back off the bottom many times better then the jointed. Jointed gets hung up much more. I also feel, the straight has more side to side action. Also feel the straight ones have better action without a split ring and the jointed work better with a split ring. I have twice as many straight DRs as jointed, but have caught some dandies on jointed ones trolled on the outside rod along cliffs. |
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Posts: 18
| I havent fished enough to be able to see a difference but any of you guys have any experience on jointed vs straight vs the water color. It would seem, altough visually creating more movement, jointed cranks replace less water or create less vibration than straight crankbaits. |
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Posts: 20263
Location: oswego, il | I can recall one instance from a couple years ago. We were trolling LSC in November. 2 weeks of North winds left the south half of the lake chocolate milk. We had heard guys doing well on straight baits. We tried them for 1/2 the day and nothing. With no visibility, I tried on my two rods the 9" jointed nokken from tackle industries. It took ten minutes to catch the first fish and 4 for the day on my two rods. My partner refused to change and his rods blanked. The next day we caught 4 more on the nokken, an abbreviated day due to a storm. |
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Posts: 582
| I rarely use jointed cranks for casting, but often rip straight cranks around as others have noted. One application for casting jointed cranks, however, is under high skies or cold front conditions where the front angler uses a jointed crank as a search bait, with a straight, steady, moderate-speed retrieve. We've had some success on LOTW under these conditions where fish are lackadaisically following blades, not engaging in the 8 at boatside. The jointed crank (jointed d-raider to be specific) gets down deeper (which can be critical under high skies) than a bucktail and even though it isn't being retrieved at the same speed, it offers the "illusion of speed" (as others have noted) and makes cover collisions, with rocks, which can trigger strikes. Also, it's pretty good in the 8 at boatside. But again, we don't rip the jointed cranks around. Just a straight, steady retrieve has been most effective. |
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Posts: 1202
Location: Money, PA | Its all, what I believe to be, cyclic Andrew. I used to hammer fish on jointed baits and the bigger the better. In recent years, its mainly straight baits and smaller stuff. So you just never know. Another factor for me, is the specific bodies of water....some tend to be better for jointed baits and some not so much. I let the fishing successes dictate what I always start with in regards to color, size, shape ST or JT and even bodies of water fishing. However, I will always generally start (while trolling) with at least one jointed in the spread, but last few years, we usually end up with all straights. Weird!
Hope you get those Hammers wet soon! |
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Cranks: Straight Vs. Jointed