Personally I have never tried the thundersticks but they have a good reputation as a fish producer.

I would wager that a fellow could take almost any crankbait into the Q and do well with it.

A few things to keep in mind.......Plastic cranks have a bigger and wider wobble than balsa lures. Hence I prefer the balsa in cooler water temps and the more aggressive wobble in warmer temps.

I am torn over lures with rattles. There are times I believe they are counterproductive. All things being equal I like them in stained or discolored water or if there is a lot of surf and wave activity. In quiet clear waters I like a quiet bait. Remember, the hooks and split rings are already making plenty of noise.

I am not familiar with the hooks on the thundersticks. If they are not sticky sharp then make them so with a small file. Avoid getting the point itself so fine that it becomes weak and actually breaks when pressure is applied. You will keep missing a lot of fish thereafter should that happen without realizing why. I sharpen so I get 4 cutting surfaces.......sort of like a diamond pattern. You could choose to trade out the hooks altogether with top of the line hooks. If I'm going to have a "dedicated" crankbait that is just going to be used for trolling I will often remove the forward hook and upsize the rear hook by one size. This makes the lure more snag resistant (you are fishing near the bottom aren't you :question) and easier on the fish and safer for you when you go to remove the lure from the fishes mouth.

Try a variety of cranks and see which one you like and how they produce. That's all part of the fun!

Thanks, good input. I actually did pick up a number of thundersticks so i'm asking after the fact here. I feel it was a was a compromise for sure as most of the hard baits i've used have been rapalas, and shallow divers at that. It's been almost exclusively soft baits for years now. For various reasons, my small collection of divers is but a shadow of it's former glory and to replenish with balsa is prohibitive (buying for 2). The ones i have have both types of trebles, maybe the mfg date or model make the diff. Didn't know it till now but storm is a wholly owned subsidiary of rapala and that's a plus for me at least. One annoying thing is that the box mentions "deep" but doesn't define. I know depth changes drastically with speed, line type and distance but i kinda like to see " 20' or 30' " on the box anyway. ok another look on the web shows these are rated 10-24 feet.

yep that's the diff. the larger madflash has the barbarian trebles. all the rest not. oh and (sorry dude) the madflash is trout pattern, others are original pattern natural perch and silver scale. also got wiggle warts in brown craw and silver scale.

I hate to break this to you Jax.........but somebody has to so it might as well be me. There is a percentage, howbeit very small, of trout who are evil. These trout need and deserve to be punished.

So do what I do..........when I'm reeling in that fat laker or marble eye on my trout colored crankbait I just say to myself......."you had it coming bub.........you deserve to have gotten eaten because of what you did to aunt Clara".

That is my advice. Your mind will remain free and clear of any guilt. It is also quite surprising how the size of the fish being caught seem to be in direct proportion to the guilt pangs you may feel of feeding little imitation trouts into the maws of the denizens of the deep. In fact, when I see my trout colored crankbait I get a warm fuzzy feeling all over  .

jaximus wrote on May 24^th, 2011 at 9:13pm:

yeah that's why the "sorry dude". if i'm a predator looking for a  baitfish, a baby bass is a hot dog and the trout a juicy brat. i really wonder how much difference is noticed between the shad pattern and trout, the difference is very subtle.