i recently received a windfall for a $500.00 gift card to bps thru the mo lottery i have used cranks before but not alot i have plenty of rattletraps, countdown rapalas, and deep diving cranks that i troll with on occasion. i want to expand my use of cranks and need some advice. im looking at kvd square bill silent cranks , red eye series, and wake baits. my concern with the wake baits is are they worth the high cost. any other suggestions appreciate y'alls help

Wow! Congratulations on your big gift card. First off, I would not worry much about wake baits, as you can fish just about any shallow-diving crankbait as a wakebait or you can use a topwater like one. I fish crankbaits almost exclusively, and my favorites are Strike Kings. Pick up some of the Bitsy Pond Minnows, anything will hit one of those. Also, you can't go wrong with the red eye series. I personally have not seen or heard much about the KVD silent series, but pick one up if you feel like it. The one thing that motivates me to buy a certain crankbait over another one is just gut feeling, get something that you will fish confidently from the get-go.

I'm a multi species fisherman so I choose many of varieties of cranks. Like usual I buy cranks that catches me first. Then I try to make them catch fish.