I was going through my Baits last night, Yea I know thats hard to belive,LOL 
I noitced I have a large number of straight baits compared to the number of jointed baits, {crankbaits}…I seem to use Straight baits more in my applications then the jointed, I know and understand of coarse the body of water dicatates alot of its use, water temp, clarity ect…. I would like to to hear other members views and theories ;on there take on jointed baits vs straight. Weather it be casting or trolling….
Todd Frank
I probably won't have anything constructive to add here, but I have not fished enough recently and so am getting pretty squirmy and just have to vent…
I have a hard time casting my jointeds, just because I get so twitchy when casting crankbaits and I like the way that straight ones dart. There are some jointed baits that look sweet when twitched but its usually more of a fits-and-starts high speed jumpy type twitch, if you know what I mean. It really helps my confidence when casting jointeds if that thing has a 'squirrelly' tail somehow.
But when trolling, my jointeds tend to see the water more because they withstand the higher speeds better without blowing out (which is why we don't rip and twitch them!). I just don't like straight retrieving too many things, but when I do jointed DepthRaiders have probably been the most productive.
Don't know that amounted to anything helpful, but it helped me sitting here at a desk and not in a damn boat…
Great topic.
My opinion is similar to Duke, the straight ones work for how I like to fish a crank when casting. I'll still cast jointed cranks when:
– I want the illusion of speed
– I want the bait to make a lot of noise but not with rattles
– night fishing
Trolling for me is about 50/50 but the fish will almost always show a preference, not only seasonally but from day to day.
Jointed Lokes have been my #1 producer for trolling over 3.5 mph. Hoginaters,Lokes and Mordas Minnows all work for us. Our new Talonz Slasher got tested this past week and passed with flying colors all the way up to 7 mph. Good wander at 4 to 5 mph. It Jointed and made of hard Cherry wood. Everyone knows we Twitch Claws and they are straight. I have caught only a handfull of Fish trolling straights but I know someone who has stuck some real big fish on Jakes 8) 8) . For me when Im trolling slower like 2.8 to 3.5 I like the Tuff Shads as they are working great for us. I consider them to be a shad style lure not a straight. I also dont care for jointed deep divers. Kingfisher
Well the Jointed versions of our new Slashers accounted for 7 fish this past trip to St. Claire. four big ones at 41,44,48 and a very nice 49" all came on the 7" jointed model in Coco perch and one came on the Black sucker. The straights looked great in the water but the Muskies showed thier preference by blasting the jointed Coco perch almost every day we were out. Clear to semi stained waters no problem. Great action at 4.2 to 4.6 mph gps. Tuff shads gave us two smaller fish Lokes batted .00 . We ran our lures on one side and others on the other side of the boat. At one point we had only one Slasher out and it was the one that got the fish. We were very pleased with the results. They will be available in two weeks. Kingfisher
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