Plastic or Wood Crankbaits? Both Please!
When our American ancestors began producing and selling the first commercially made crankbaits, there was only one choice: wood. The material was readily available, and craftsmen were adept at cutting and shaping it. In fact, any boy handy with a pocket knife could sit down and make his own home-made topwater “plug” while sitting on the porch after supper. Purchased or home made: Wood worked.
Back in 1932 the world record bass, (22 pounds, 4 ounces), was set by George W. Perry, on a Creek Chub Perch Scale Wigglefish. It was made of? Wood, of course. But as modern chemistry opened up the new world of plastics, it was inevitable that these new materials and technology would make an impact on the world of fishing. And from the first moment that two similarly shaped crankbaits hung side by side on the tackle stores displays, one constructed of wood and the other plastic, anglers have been asking: “Which one is best?”
The answer is simple: Yes! That is, both have an important role to play in fishing. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. Just as “regular” and “Phillips head” screwdrivers both find a place in the tool box of a mechanic, plastic and wood crankbaits equally have a place in an angler’s tackle box. Therefore it is important to know the unique traits of both plastic and wooden crankbaits if a fisherman is to increase their success on the water.
Manufacturing Differences
Many of the differences between plastic and wood crankbaits are a result of the manufacturing processes used to create them.
The tools and machinery necessary to make wooden crankbaits are fairly common and readily available to the average handyman, and this explains why there are so many small regional lure makers producing balsa, cedar, and basswood lures. To compete worldwide, many of the larger wooden lure manufacturers have invested in expensive, “highly specialized”, production equipment to cut and shape their products. But large or small, each manufacturer’s process is centered around removing wood chips, fibers, and saw dust from an existing block of wood until it resembles the desired shape.
Plastic lures, on the other hand, are created in hardened metal molds that were machined by tool and die makers at great cost. You could buy a new modern bass boat for the investment required to produce one mold. The financial investment required to make several models of crankbaits in numerous sizes is tremendous and beyond the reach of the average tackle entrepreneur.
The manufacturing process begins with the mold being attached to a plastic injection molding machine. It’s purpose is to melt plastic beads at high temperatures and then force it into the closed mold. Once the empty cavity is filled with the liquid plastic, it quickly cools and hardens. Within a very short time the mold is opened and the finished halves of a lure body fall into bins for later assembly.
Needless to say, the start-up costs to produce a plastic crankbait are exorbitant compared to wooden baits. Those looking for just a few hundred specialized lures or less could not afford to create the steel molds necessary to produce them in plastic. However, when it comes to mass production, once a mold has been finished, the plastic parts come flying out at an incredible rate, allowing the selling price to be competitive with wooden baits.
AESTHETICS
One last note – hot plastic flowing into a mold with take the exact shape of the cavity walls, and therefore any detail found there will be duplicated in the parts produced. Designers concerned about the aesthetic qualities of a lure love the fact that scales, eye details, gill plates, etc.. can be permanently added to the outside appearance, protruding from the body and making the lure more life-like. Because it is difficult for fine details to be physically shaped or carved into the body of a wooden bait, the body surface usually remains smooth, and these details are largely left to the painter to create.
Computerized machining of plastic lure molds also allows extremely complicated compound curves to be utilized in the crankbait’s body contours. However, the spinning cutters and sanding tools used in wooden crankbait production do not allow for the same flexibility in producing such intricate compound curves.
It is naïve to believe that the aesthetic qualities of a crankbait do not play a part in the market place. Hence, it is fairly safe to say that the advantage in terms of artistic or visual appeal is increasingly going towards the plastics side of the crankbait business. But while the newer plastic lures are extremely beautiful, artistic, and eye catching, it is doubtful that these body details and shapes are appreciated by the fish who generally have very little time to inspect a fast moving crankbait before deciding to crunch it or not.
LURE CONSISTENCY
What does the manufacturing processes have to do with the characteristics and actions of crankbaits? To begin with, the crankbait bodies produced in a mold are more consistent. That is, the density of the plastic in each crankbait is identical, the weight, size and shape does not vary, and the assembled crankbaits tend to run the same. (Naturally, exceptions always exist to the rule, but for the consistency of plastic crankbaits is very good).
However, the lumber that wooden cranks are made from is rarely consistent. Even the greatest craftsman cannot guarantee consistency because of the variations in the density of the wood, the amount of water or resin in the fibers, etc.. In fact, Rick Clunn, (professional bass fisherman), once wrote “Mass production of quality wood baits is an oxymoron! For every 6 baits purchased I might find 2 grade ‘A’ wood baits, 2 grade ‘B’ or ‘C’ baits, and the remaining 2 would not perform at all.”
NO TWO WOOD BAITS THE SAME
Unlike plastic crankbaits, every wooden crankbait will be uniquely different. No two of them will float, weigh, or run the same due because of the huge variations in the density and nature of wood. Despite their identical external patterns, paint jobs, and visual appearances, some wooden crankbaits run deeper, rise faster, or wiggle more erratically than others.
When a wooden crankbait is purchased and found to have that perfect combination of characteristics that triggers fish into striking, it is quickly marked, treasured, and never loaned to one’s back-seater. Professional fisherman, who are supplied by their sponsors with dozens of baits, don’t mind testing them all and then marking and stuffing the “grade A” baits into special sections of their tackle box. Weekend anglers rarely can afford to purchase crankbaits in huge numbers to sort through and appreciate the consistency of plastic cranks.
Ironically, the fact that each wooden bait has its own character, is actually appealing to some anglers. One balsa bait manufacturer emphasizes this variable characteristic in their ads, “When you buy a plastic bait it will be the same as all other plastic baits of that design. When you use wood you will feel like you have a lure that no one else is fishing. In populated fishing waters having something different can be extremely important.”
Hmmm… perhaps there is something traditionally mystical about using a one-of-a-kind wooden bait, but when it comes to consistency within a specific model of crankbait, plastic wins hands down. Having said that, there must be more to wooden crankbaits that endears them to so many anglers.
BUOYANCY
One advantage wooden baits have displayed in their past is their buoyancy. Wood floats. When a retrieve is stopped, the bait begins to pop to the surface. Anglers who fish in densely wooded waters find this to be a true advantage. When the bill of a balsa bait hits a limb, branch, stump or rock – the angler merely stops and gives the line some slack. Unless the trebles became foul hooked, the wooden bait tends to rise quickly. When it has floated far enough above the obstruction, the retrieve is continued. Quite often, the fast rising of a stopped crankbait will trigger a fish to strike the bait. Many pros, therefore, will use wooden baits in snaggy situations, but switch to plastic in more open water situations.
There are many times and places where a buoyant bait is undesirable. It is impossible to fish a jerkbait slowly if it keeps popping to the surface all the time. Until recently, professionals often went to great lengths to accomplish neutral buoyancy in order to keep a wooden jerkbait suspended in the strike zone. Some would drill holes in the bellies of their favorite minnow baits and fill them with lead plugs and seal them. Others would wrap lead wire around the treble hooks, or purchase suspend dots/strips and stick them to the body of the bait to add weigh. Hours would be spent, experimenting, adding and subtracting weigh, and testing the results in a bath tub, swimming pool, or bucket of water.
But in recent years, plastic jerkbaits have been developed with internal weights that could suspend consistently and without the need for any modification by the purchaser. For this reason, almost all suspending jerkbaits are plastic.
If you’re fishing “the jungle” in your favorite lake, filled with roots, brush, laydowns, or submerged tree tops, you might want the buoyancy of a wooden bait. On the other hand, when you desire a crankbait that suspends for a slower presentation, go with plastic. An angler will need both.
WATER TEMPERATURE
Speaking of slower presentations, one of the reasons fish become sluggish or inactive and require slower retrieves is because of colder water temperatures. Since plastic crankbaits do not have the natural buoyancy of wood it’s easier to crank them down deep and slow your retrieve to a crawl. The same retrieve with wooden baits would only end in their quickly rising to the surface, removing them from the smaller strike zone of a sluggish fish. Therefore, a general rule is – with colder water slow down and use plastic crankbaits.
When warmer water temperatures occur, fish activity increases, and faster retrieval speeds are utilized, (and in some situations preferred). A rapidly moving crankbait can trigger reaction strikes, especially when it careens off structure. According to many professionals, wood cranks glance off of rocks, trees, and other cover better than plastics. But, as far as we know, there has not been any scientific testing to determine if deflection is greater with wooden baits than plastics. Pro anglers and tackle manufactures are split on both side of the deflection issue, but most agree that in colder water, plastics have a small advantage.
SOUND
What is rarely argued over, however, is the understanding that wooden baits tend to be quieter. In recent decades, the majority of plastic crankbaits have been manufactured to contain rattles. (To explore the debate over whether to add rattles or not, see “Crankbait ABC’s – Sound and Vibration”.) Many believe that rattles catch the fish’s attention from far away and trigger fish to strike as it comes close. Others believe that crankbaits with rattles catch fish despite the noise created by the metal BB’s and knockers inside the bait, and can sometimes frighten fish away.
Rick Clunn believes that in heavily pressured waters, with fish relentlessly encountering rattling baits, a quieter presentation is best – more natural. In the past, if you found yourself fishing heavily pressured waters, and suspected the fish were being put off by excessively loud clacking or rattling baits, your only option was to go with wooden baits. Rarely are rattles designed into wood cranks because the sound made is almost negligible compared to the noise metal BB’s make on hard plastic.
Again, Rick Clunn has closed the gap in this area by working with a company, (Lucky Craft), to produce “quiet, plastic, square-billed crankbaits that run at the same depth, and with the same wobble and buoyancy of the best wood crankbaits.” It is not that Clunn is completely opposed to baits that rattle, “I sometimes like a rattle in muddy water and when I’m cranking over heavy vegetation,” he said. “But, day in and day out, I prefer no rattles.”
Not all plastic companies have chosen to follow suit in producing rattleless versions – it appears the majority of fisherman are still convinced rattles are the way to go. Until more plastic lure manufactures jump on board, the angler looking for a silent crankbait will find the wooden versions in all shaped, sizes, and colors.
(But note; even wooden baits make subtle sounds as the treble hooks slap against the sides of the lure body. No bait is completely silent).
However, when anglers want a crankbait that that can be heard coming underwater, the sound of hard plastic banging against numerous metal BB’s or single large “knockers” can’t be beat. Though different plastics produce different sounds under water, overall, plastic crankbaits excel over wooden baits in producing noisy baits. With both available, it’s up to the angler to decide if they want a silent or noisy presentation.
DURABILITY
Which baits are more durable? Well, define durability. If you are talking longer lasting under normal fishing conditions, plastic versions win hands down. As Rick Clunn puts it, “Wooden baits are fragile. A plastic crankbait lasts 10 times longer.”
On the other hand, when fishing around rocks or concrete bridge pilings, an angler quickly discovers the disadvantages of plastic crankbaits. A misguided cast that careens the crankbait off the bridge or rocks can come back cracked or broken allowing water to seep into the body cavity and rendering the bait useless.
That is not to say wooden baits cannot suffer damage when deflected off of objects, but the majority of the damage is to the finish, since the wood itself absorbs impact very well. Never-the-less, a crack in the finish can allow water to slowly seep in and soak into the wood fibers changing the action, hardness, and buoyancy of the bait. Wooden baits need to have their coating constantly inspected, and when cracks, chips, or splits appear, the angler needs to reseal them with a waterproofing finish. Many anglers keep a small bottle of clear fingernail polish in their boat for fast repairs.
The most vulnerable portion of any crankbait is its bill or lip. Because of its thinness and length as it protrudes from the front of the crankbait, any glancing blow off a hard object, can result in a ruined bait. And this is true of wooden or plastic crankbaits.
If a crankbait is to experience only normal fishing abuse, plastic versions will outlast their wooden cousins. But for fishing around rocky bluffs, riprap, or concrete bridge pilings, wooden baits may have a slight advantage.
ACTION
“Hollow plastic and solid wooden crankbaits just move differently through the water.” Or so the debate goes.
Johnnie Crain, (Bassin’ USA prostaffer and outdoor writer), describes the differences between the two this way, “The action of a wooden bait is much more reserved than the quicker action of plastic baits. Wooden baits are slower to react when reeled in and being heavier tend to dive deeper than plastic baits.” It is interesting to note however that Mr Crain is also a prostaffer for Poe's/Yakima Lures – a major producer of wooden crankbaits.
Brian K. Moore, owner of BassHunter Custom Crankbaits insists, “The major difference between plastic crankbaits and balsa wood crankbaits are, balsa wood crankbaits have an enticing movement backing up when paused and their bouncy causes them to run or track completely different; that’s what causes bass to strike them.”
Both Johnnie Crain and Brian Moore are wooden crankbait enthusiasts, who represent a group of dedicated anglers believing that wooden baits appear more lifelike to fish. But until we can communicate with fish and actually ask them if that is true, we will accept their statements as the subjective conclusions of experienced and successful fishermen, but as of yet, lacking scientific evidence.
Another outdoor author wrote, “Plastic baits also tend to have a wider wobble and therefore displace more water and create more vibration at slow speeds.” However, the wobble or wiggle of a bait is primarily a factor of body shape and water flow. Both plastic and wooden baits of the same body type and size displace similar amounts of water. Fatter, round bodies do produce a wider wobbling motion, and flat sided baits tend to produce a faster wiggle.
As to vibration, the density of a bait does affect this characteristic somewhat. But without and studies or reach, it is hard to verify the claims that “Plastic baits tend to create more vibration.”
Many anglers are under the impression that wooden baits produce a finer vibration, but this is probably due to the fact that the first and easiest baits that wooden lure makers produce are flat-sided baits that do indeed create finer vibrating wiggles. But flat-sided plastic baits do the same.
It is easy understanding the soft spot in many "angler's heart" for wood crankbaits, and the undeniable mystique to fishing a handcrafted wood bait. But statements like, “By design, wood baits produce a much finer vibration and appear more shad like as they move through the water”, still need to be backed up by scientific study.
It is interesting to note that professional pro-staffers representing plastic crankbait sponsors say the same thing – that plastic baits produce a finer vibration and appear more shad like as they move through the water. Let’s just say, that for now anyway, the jury is still out on this hotly debated topic.
CASTING
As plastic crankbait designers have gotten more sophisticated, they have begun to design into the hollow bodies of their baits, channels that allow the belly weights to slide to the tail of the bait during casting. Upon landing on the water, the weigh rolls back to the belly section where it stabilizes the bait and may even produce noise as the bait is propelled through the water.
Children learn early in life that a paper airplane flies longer, smoother, and truer when a metal paper clip is attached to the nose. In the case of plastic crankbaits, this recent weight-forward design accomplishes the same thing, (due to the sliding weight moving to the tail during the cast) – preventing the “propeller spin” that often happens when throwing light balsa minnow baits into a breeze.
It is important to note that not all plastic crankbaits have this sliding weight advantage, (it is expensive to retool all the existing molds, and some baits seem to rocket through the air already). It is also necessary to point out that not all wooden baits “propeller spin” when cast. Because the sliding weight channel design is difficult to produce in wooden baits, it is unlikely show up in the near future, if at all.
When it comes to casting, the newer, sliding-weight channeled plastic baits, seem to have the advantage, especially when it comes to the longer profile minnow versions.
WORD OF CAUTION
Some of the differences between wooden and plastic are obvious; buoyancy, sound, durability, castability, etc. But much of information anglers are fed about the differences between wood and plastic baits is based solely on feelings, preferences, and myths perpetrated by professionals and manufacturers on both sides.
When you hear the professionals make statements like “Wooden baits hold their depth integrity much longer than a plastic lure,” or “Wooden baits need more tuning than plastics”, or “plastics are preferred for deep divers” – take these statements with a grain of salt. If it is a pro-staffer or professional tournament angler, check out the expert and who sponsors them. And then listen carefully to their explanations with a health dose of skepticism. When it comes to crankbait development, and the differences between wood and plastic baits, there is still much to be placed under the revealing scrutiny of science.
For now, it is enough to know that both wooden and plastic crankbaits are unique tools. It is therefore essential to have both in an angler’s tackle box. And many a wise fisherman has fished a bank or location unsuccessfully with one, only to turn around and fish the same bank with the other and suddenly slay the fish. Learn the obvious differences, apply them both to your particular lake and conditions, and don’t be surprised to see more fish coming into the net.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Would you like to be notified when a new "Feature Article" is added?
It's as simple as filling out your name and email...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*************************************************************** ***************************************************************
(Note: Article Reprint Permission info is found on CONTACT US page.)