For tournament fishermen, finding fish and finding them fast can be the difference in picking up a check or going home empty-handed. For the recreational fisherman who might not get to hit the lake as often as they would like, locating fish can save a lot of time and effort.

One of the best lures for accomplishing this mission in both instances, Rountree Outdoors owner Chet Chapelle said, is the crankbait.

“It’s a bait that lets you cover a lot of water fast,” he said. “You can use jigs and plastics to bounce along the bottom, but a crankbait can cover that same area of water a lot faster.”

Crankbaits, Chapelle said, come in all different colors and sizes. One of the most important factors, he said, is the size of the bill.

“The larger the bill the deeper it’s going to dive and the smaller the shallower you can use it,” he said. “There are also lipless crankbaits like the Strike King Redeye Shad that are also effective.”

The shape of the bill also plays a factor in which lure to tie on,

Chapelle said. Rounded bills are more effective in open water when there are few obstacles for the bait to bounce off of. However, he said square bill crankbaits offer a more effective bait in timber.

“You can throw them in treetops and the square bill will make them bounce off,” he said.

The round-billed crankbaits, while an effective tool in the right situation, are more likely to strike an object and turn to the side and cause the hooks to snag.

When it comes to color choices, Chapelle said he has had great success with pearl and chartreuse. Both colors are used in a combination on the Strike King Sexy Shad, a bait he said is a go-to for many anglers.

“It’s really popular,” he said. “A lot of people get one that dives from eight to 14 feet because that is the most common depths you are going to be fishing.”

There is a certain amount of maintenance that goes into crankbait fishing the fisherman must observe, Chapelle said. The baits must be tuned properly to ensure they track correctly and present a more natural swimming motion. However, he said the Bandit 300 series crankbaits take this aspect out of their lures.

“I can take that bait right out of the package and it’s ready to fish,” he said. “There’s no tuning. It’s ready to go as soon as you tie it on.”

For the most part, Chapelle said fishing a crankbait is as simple as throwing the bait out and reeling it in. But, he said, fishermen always experiment with retrieves that might be more effective.

“A lot of people like to throw it out there and reel it a little bit to get it to dive,” he said. “Once they get it to the right depth they might pause and let it rise and then reel it some more. A lot of times the fish will hit it during that pause.”

As far as price, Chapelle said fishermen can expect to pay anywhere from $2.99 to $15.99. depennding on the lure.