I might be in self-proclaimed tournament retirement, but I still struggle constantly with just how much information to provide on the site, more directly with tourney "secrets" or stuff I've learned or figured out over the years. This topic is one such occasion, and I've decided to "spill the beans" if you will. Are you ready?
All Bandit crankbaits are NOT created equal!
There, I said it, now what in the hell do I mean by that. First, fill up a sink or tub with water. You won't need a ton, about 7"-8" worth. Next, go yank the crankbait box out of your boat and bring all your bandit crankbaits inside with you. Don't let the wife or girlfriend see you doing this. Next, the easiest way to see this one for yourself is to take a little 1/16-oz. crappie jighead and one by one, hang the crappie jighead off the front trebles of your Bandits, setting them in the water and then tapping them on their back like you're trying to get the bait to sink into or under the water...then pay attention.
What you'll see is that some Bandits are faster risers with lots of buoyancy and really struggle against your prods to stay on the surface. They even have a slightly different angle at which they lay at rest on the waters surface. Yet other Bandits are slower risers with much less buoyancy and can easily be pushed under the waters surface with a good prodding. I've never figured out exactly why. Could be a difference over time with the plastic formulation they've used to mold them with. Perhaps a change in design or weighting. Doesn't matter whether you're testing 100's, 200's or 300's. Some will pop right back up and some just take their sweet little time. They tend to align to a certain degree by color pattern, but this certainly isn't an absolute either.
Regardless, if you were to look in my crankbait boxes, every Bandit in them will either have a tiny black dot on the throat or it won't. That way I know at a quick glance which ones are the high floaters and which ones aren't. Why does this matter? It matters tons at times as the buoyancy rate can be used to make these baits way more effective when paired to certain situations. For instance, in the spring and late fall when I'm fishing over newly growing or recent dieback vegetation in cooler water, a slow riser allows me to keep the bait down with a slower retrieve right in the strike zone. Same with cranking rock banks in the early spring. Tick, tick, tick as I can really slow the bait down and work it right along the rocks with added twitches and pauses and yet maintain depth. To make this even more effective be sure to add a couple Suspenstrips or similar to your slow risers. You don't really want them to suspend, just to rise slowly under their own accord. A little extra weight similar to the test using the jighead helps.
For your fast risers, these get the bulk of the work in the late spring or summer when burning baits over vegetation and ripping them through weeds. When fish have a faster metabolism and will react to a bait that pops up quick out of the vegetation. Another situation would be when cranking around wood where you want a bait that will back up and rise quick after running into the cover, often triggering a bite. Don't add any extra weight to these.
Chances are you have both styles of Bandits in your boxes right now, but never even realized it. It's also a good bet that if I've ever fished against you in a tourney, I've probably made a donator out of you a time or two because of this "trick". After all, my partner and I didn't give our Bandit cranks the nickname "Mr. Money" for no reason.
