Best Fishing Line for Crankbaits: In-Depth Guide

Crankbait Fishing for Bass: Summary

The crankbait is one of the original hard baits for imitating baitfish of all kinds, as well as various other critters that bass love to eat. It’s an incredible bait for covering loads of water, as well as hitting the strike zones of a large range of depths.

A crankbait’s action is marked by a consistent wobble that bass can’t stand. It drives them crazy and often they won’t even want to eat the bait, but they just have to take it out. These types of bites are regarded at reaction bites, and when it comes to reaction bites, you don’t get much more effective than a crankbait.

Today’s discussion involves line, and which is the best line type for a crankbait. Line is a crucial element to crankbait fishing, so let’s get into it.

What is the Best Fishing Line to Use for Crankbaits?

For a crankbait you’ll want the following qualities in your line in order to get the best results:

1. Abrasion resistance

You’ll often be throwing crankbait around standing timber, logs, and other hard cover that can be damaging on your bait and line. To get the best action out of your crankbait, you ideally want to be deflecting off this type of cover — adding irregularity to your bait’s action.

For this reason, you’ll need a line that resists fraying and abrasion.

2. Low stretch

Having zero to low stretch in your line is important for the following reasons:

• Sensitivity: The less stretch in your line, the more you’ll feel any bumps and objects. This is a crucial indicator for knowing your bait is in your desired area.
• Hooksetting: Having less stretch will help us get a cleaner and more direct hookset once that fish bites.

3. Thinner diameter

Line diameter has a major influence on the way our baits fall and sink. With a thinner diameter, there is less resistance and the bait will sink faster. With a thicker diameter, there is great resistance from the line and the bait will sink slower.

If you’re looking to fish a crankbait in deeper channels, you’ll ideally want to fish a strong line that has a thinner diameter. However, if you want to make sure your crank sits nearer to the surface, you should look to use a thicker diameter.

Fluorocarbon Has Everything

If you add all the above qualities up, you get fluorocarbon. Quite simply, this is overall the best option for fishing crankbaits. Kevin VanDam himself will fish both crankbaits and jerkbaits with fluorocarbon, purely because he gets the desired features.

Using fluorocarbon will give you the key qualities to ensure you cover the right water, feel where your crankbait is, as well as get better hooksets and lose less fish.

Best Pound Test Line for Crankbaits

This very much depends on the depth as well as the type of cover you’re fishing, however, a general range would be 10-14lb test.

10lb would be more suitable if you’re looking to get your crankbait deeper (thinner diameter), and 14lb would be better if you’re fishing shallower cover with more threatening forms of cover such as brush piles, stumps, or logs.

Best Fluorocarbon Line for Crankbaits

Below are some fantastic fluorocarbon fishing lines to test for the next time you throw a crankbait: 

Seaguar Tatsu

Tatsu is one of Seaguar's most premium lines, and rightly so. This line offers the complete package for fluorocarbon and a spool will last you many trips.

One of the key benefits of Tatsu is its low memory, making it a dream to work with. It is also incredibly abrasion resistant — perfect for throwing your crankbait around the rough stuff.

Sunline Super FC Sniper

It's hard not to mention FC Sniper when talking about fluorocarbon. Once again, this line has it all when it comes to fluorocarbon, making it a perfect option for a crankbait setup.

Conclusion

Although many bass anglers may prefer to use braid or monofilament for crankbait fishing, there's no denying that fluorocarbon has incredible qualities that can't be ignored. For this reason, several bass pros won't use anything else for throwing crankbaits.

Added sensitivity, abrasion resistance, and a clean hookset. What else do you need for fishing crankbaits like a beast?