In recent years, a growing number of crankbait manufacturers have gone to supplying their baits with wide gap style treble hooks, such as pictured here. Wide gap style hooks simply do a better job of keeping the fish that bite buttoned up. (Mark Romanack photo)
January 12, 2026
By Mark Romanack
Crankbaits come in every size, shape, diving depth, and color option imaginable. In short, there’s a crankbait that’s designed to replicate just about every common forage species a bass, walleye, pike, musky, trout, salmon, crappie, or steelhead might call food. The fact that there are so many crankbaits to choose from is one of the biggest reasons these hard baits put so many fish in the boat. North, south, east or west, anywhere there are fish to be caught, crankbaits consistently catch them.
Despite the fact that there are seemingly endless options when it comes to picking a crankbait, avid anglers spend a considerable amount of time “customizing” their favorite baits to make them even better fish traps. The custom touches crankbait enthusiasts use to tweak their baits are almost as interesting and extensive as the baits themselves.
CUSTOM HOOKS If crankbaits have an Achilles heel, it’s the treble hooks most manufacturers use on these lures. In an effort to keep the price points down and the profit margins up, most crankbaits come with hooks that are functional but far from ideal.
In some cases, these inferior hooks are just not as sharp as they could be. In other cases, the hooks used are constructed from a wire material that isn’t sturdy enough for the job. Often, the hooks supplied by the manufacturer are too small to deliver good results.
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Certainly, a few crankbait manufacturers pride themselves on putting ultra-premium hooks on their lures. Bill Lewis Lures, for example, makers of the famous Rat-L-Trap lipless crankbaits and the Precise Walleye Crank, aka PWC, equips their baits with Mustad Triple Grip treble hooks. Considered by many to be the best hooks money can buy, Triple Grip trebles feature an extra-wide hook gap that does an excellent job of keeping hooked fish buttoned up.
Swapping out the factory-supplied hooks for ultra-premium aftermarket hooks is an easy way for anglers to enhance the performance of their favorite baits. Just about every brand of hooks on the market produces a lineup of ultra-premium hooks that are sharper and designed to penetrate with less force than run-of-the-mill hooks.
Each of these lures is sporting a “custom” paint finish. In many cases, a third-party painter buys lures, repaints them, then in turn sells them to retailers who ultimately sell them to their customers. The average “custom” painted crankbait costs about four dollars more than the stock factory colors. (Mark Romanack photo) SIZE MATTERS Upgrading crankbait hooks to larger treble hooks is a common means of improving the hooked-to-landed fish ratio. This step, however, can be a slippery slope because increasing hook size adds weight to the bait, changes the lure’s balance, and can negatively impact the lure’s intended action. In most instances, though, bumping up one size improves the hooking potential without hurting the lure action.
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WIDE GAP VS. ROUND BEND Traditionally, crankbaits have come equipped with round-bend-style treble hooks. A move wide-gap-style hooks, such as the Mustad Triple Grip, Trokar Wide Gap Treble TK949, or the Gamakatsu Extra Wide Gap Treble can deliver a significant improvement in how many fish are landed. Wide-gap hooks present the hook point in such a manner that it’s more difficult for a struggling fish to throw the hook.
REDUCING LEVERAGE When a fish is hooked on a crankbait, it goes wild, doing everything in its power to escape. If the fish is hooked by more than one of the points on a treble hook, or by points on two different hooks, the fish can often gain leverage that enables the fish to tear free. A couple of rigging tricks work toward eliminating the leverage, making it much more difficult for hooked fish to shake free.
Rigging the treble hook to the crankbait body using two split rings instead of one is a simple means of giving the hook more freedom of movement. Rigging a split ring to a barrel swivel to another split ring is another option for eliminating leverage. Swapping out treble hooks for single hooks is yet another trick that makes it much more difficult for a hooked fish to regain its freedom.
REDUCING SNAGS Because crankbaits are equipped with two or even three treble hooks, they are very susceptible to snagging. Removing the belly hook can help to keep crankbaits running through cover or near bottom while reducing snags significantly. This trick works best on crankbaits that run with a distinctive nose-down orientation in the water.
The author is a fan of using large profile baits like this to catch walleye, but he doesn’t think these lures need three treble hooks. The third treble hook catch little more than the landing net. This Bill Lewis PWC features two oversized wide-bend style treble hooks to maximize the ability to hook fish, while making it easier to remove fish from the landing net. (Mark Romanack photo) Lures like the Storm Hot ’N Tot, Yakima Bait Mag Lip, Bomber 6A, and similar lures are good examples of baits that often produce best when the belly hook is removed.
Minnow-shaped diving baits that feature three treble hooks are another issue. While these baits are often used to catch suspended fish, where snags are not an issue, the extra hook does present a problem in the landing net. Crankbaits with three hooks can be a nightmare to free from the landing net after a fish is boated. Removing the middle hook helps to reduce netting issues without sacrificing the lure’s ability to hook fish.
A few diving minnow crankbaits solve this issue by coming with only two treble hooks. The Bill Lewis Precise Walleye Crank is a large-profile bait that uses two oversized treble hooks instead of three of the smaller hooks routinely used on baits of this size class.
CUSTOM COLORS Historically, most crankbait manufacturers have offered their baits in a modest number of factory-painted color options. These days, a lot of third-party custom lure painters take these stock lures and spruce them up with various custom finishes. These lures are then sold to retailers who offer them to their customers at an upcharge.
The sky is the limit when it comes to finding and buying custom-painted crankbaits. Most of these paint designs start with a bait that features a solid white, solid clear, solid chrome, or solid metallic gold finish. The custom painter adds in color patterns aimed at catching the eye of fish, but also fishermen.
HOME-GROWN TOUCHES On average, custom-painted crankbaits cost about four dollars more than the same lure with a factory paint job. To save a little money while adding more color options, a lot of anglers take custom-painting chores into their own hands. Armed with an airbrush, some acrylic paints, a little clear coat, and a touch of imagination, anyone can try their hand at custom crankbait painting.
Using larger hooks than factory-supplied and also wide gap style premium hooks is a simple way to improve the hooking ability of any crankbait. (Mark Romanack photo) Another less sophisticated approach is to use permanent markers or strips of adhesive-backed flash tape to add color to the lip of a bait, ladder-back patterns on the lure’s sides, or splotches of color on the sides or bottom of the lure. The ink from permanent markers will adhere to crankbaits for a long time before touch-ups are required, making them the down-and-dirty approach to adding color to favorite cranks.
ADDING WEIGHTS Before the advent of the neutral-buoyant crankbait, bass fishermen commonly added weight to their favorite jerkbaits to create a lure that would suspend or slowly sink instead of popping back to the surface like a cork.
These days, every popular jerkbait is offered in a neutral-buoyant version, but there is still a reason to add weight to crankbaits. With soft lead wire wrapped around the hook shank, any floating/diving crankbait can be converted to a suspending bait. Adhesive lead strips like Storm Suspend Strips are another option for strategically placing weight on a crankbait to make it suspend or perhaps to create a bait that is either tail- or nose-heavy. These modifications create crankbaits that deliver a uniquely different action than their factory counterparts.
Anglers who do a lot of crankbait trolling can use in-line weights, such as the Off Shore Tackle Pro Weight System, to get their cranks to deeper depths. For trolling applications, these in-line weights are rigged with a planer board-style line release that allows the weight to be placed anywhere on the line. When a fish is hooked, the fish and weight are reeled in together until the weight is within reach of the boat. The in-line weight is then quickly removed from the line to facilitate completing the fight and landing the fish.
The author has over 30 years of crankbait fishing experience to his credit. (Mark Romanack photo) Adding in-line weights to crankbaits while trolling allows anglers to reach greater depths with their lures while at the same time keeping trolling leads modest. The most common size of in-line weights used in trolling is 2-ounce sinkers that help lures reach significantly greater depths without adding too much drag and resistance. This, in turn, allows trollers to use in-line planer boards to spread out their baits while covering more water.
SUMMING IT UP It’s hard to imagine an artificial lure category that has more fishing applications or appeal than the crankbait. Cast or trolled, these baits do a great job of imitating a host of natural forage species. Adding some custom touches to crankbaits makes these already productive lures that much better.
