Quote Originally Posted by fisherman 2 View Post
i hate blue chrome only been a few times it's worked very well for me...most times it's a one hit wonder...i allways put it out in the begining to see if it goes, most times it catches one fish and then nothing...i've wasted many hours running so it's not like i don't give it a chance...in fact it's a running joke on the boat now that once it gets one fish just take it off and put something else on.
I seem to remember that we too struggled to initially catch fish with the Blue Chrome bandits once they came out.I would read the fishing reports of others doing well with them,but when we used them would only catch one or two or nothin.But we also were not the best catching with cranks either back then.I actually had to buy a third blu chrome last year,due to how scratched up the other two had become from teeth marks.The cranks shine in the early spring when water temps are under 50 degrees.But we have also been doing well with them in the summer in deeper water.The past 3 years,we have been running the bandits off our inline boards east of Kellies with weight and long leads.My favorite, is a blu chrome bandit 50ft/2oz weight/then 100ft more going 2.5mph.That settup has caught alot of fish for us.
One thing you can do to improve your crank success is to make sure they are tuned properly.One of the great advantages of bandits is they run pretty darn straight right out of the package.But,i check all the cranks when i put out to make sure they are tuned.Even our bandits.A great tool to tune your cranks is a product offshore makes that is a small metal piece with a slot in it and can put around your neck.To tune,put out crank 20ft back behind boat in the least turbulent water back there and watch to see if the lure is running straight.Then point rod tip right at lure and reel it in.If it runs straight in,it goes out and on a board.If it comes in off to one side or other i use the tool to bend the eye on the lip.You can use pliers,but the plier are harder to bend the small amount needed.You bend the eye the opposite direction the lure is running to get it to run straight.So,if reeling in it is moving to your right.Get crank out of water facing you and bend that eye slightly to the left.Put back out 20ft again and reel it in.Keep adjusting till its running straight.May seem like extra work,but is worth the few minutes tuning compared to the hours that crank is running off your boards.The cranks can even become untuned when netting a bigger fish too.
Getting close to early fishing.Good luck.