Had a little club tourney yesterday and noticed several things. Might have been the heat not sure. Love throwing crankbaits and noticed I dont have 1 crankbait that swims as it should. Everyone was running side ways or doing circles or whatever they could do to scare the fish away. Another problem I had on at least 3 baits were at least one of the hooks was bent. Had one Norman little N that was sinking when it wasn't supposed to. Then i noticed on my jerk bait the last treble had only 2 barbs. Checked my other baits and several had the same problem. Another problem i noticed about every 3-4 throws my hooks would intertwine with each other. This isn't even counting the times i bounce them off rocks and the first hook catches the line and it looks like a helicopter coming back at you. Most of my equipment is top notch and I don't mid spending money for good baits. So my question is this 1) what kind of upkeep or preventative work do yall do? crankbaits, spinner baits, chatterbaits, line, 2) Do you ever look at a bait and say i will never throw that and still keep it in your boat? 3) Where do you buy bulk crankbait hooks.......Any other words of wisdom on the art of cranking would be extremely WELCOME !! Did i mention it got hot yesterday afternoon.

First it sounds like you don’t pay enough attention to your stuff. I buy my hooks from Shortys Hook sales or Captain Hooks Discount Warehouse.

Are you keeping your stuff in the boat and the boat is parked outside exposed to the heat and elements?

That might be the cause.

you might be on to something.....i carry my rods inside everytime. The boat has a nice awning attached to my house with a privacy fence on other side. This makes it almost completely roughed in....but i do leave all my tackle in the boat where im sure its much more susceptible to the weather.

I’m not sure about all the issues but the Norman CB sinking I have seen. I have had several leak around the seam or the hook attachment wires. I’ve caught a pile of fish on them but when they start leaking they are junk.

Several times I've had auto PFD's go off that I have left in the boat. And my boat has a cover, and sits under a top. So it's not in the direct sunlight but inside those compartments can get pretty hot.
I take almost everything out. That heat just breaks down everything over time.

Crank baits can come right out of the package and not run true. Grab the string tie eye with a good pair of needle nose pliers and bend it ever so slightly in the opposite direction from what it’s running. If you feel the eye give up then you probably went too far. For your hook issues swap them out with better short shank wide gap trebles. This will help prevent them from hanging up on each other or over the bill. As far as missing barbs I’ve never had the issue but this could be easily overcome by changing out the treble.

I’ve bought tons of cranks through the years and there’s a few that really standout from the rest in my opinion. I buy only cotton cordell big o square bills, luhr Jensen hotshots, flicker shads, flicker minnows, rat’l traps, rapala sticks and jerks. And that’s all I buy anymore because all else seems to have problems. I hear good things about academy H20 lures but haven’t tried many. I’m sure that there’s a bunch of good ones I’m passing by but these I mentioned are pretty solid and they catch fish. Jigs on the other hand, I’ll buy just about any kind. Vmc is top notch but I hang up quite often so I have no problem with eagle claw jigheads