switching to cranks

Tie them on and start paddling your cayak until you maintain a speed of about 2-3 mph, depending on what kind of mood the fish are in.  Obviously match the dive characteristics of the crank to the depth of water you want to fish.  Brighter colors on sunny days and darker colors on overcast days seems to be a good rule of thumb.

My advice would be to switch to a boat with a motor so you don't get so tired out!

I was out today on Oahe. Couldn't get a bite to save my life on crawlers or leeches. Switched to cranks and the 3 of us limited in 3 hours. I was going about 2.5-2.8 mph. The faster the better it seemed.  The jointed white salmo's were the ticket.

I would never switch completely to cranks. Many times the fish completely quit biting and the only thing that would work were live bait rigs. We almost always start with cranks but if the boat traffic is heavy it can slow down real fast. Last weekend we started with cranks down at Cattail and switched over to live bait. The bite was on big time in 8 to 10 feet..
Sometimes while fishing the current in the river we crank up, then quickly switch to live bait and drift down. You have to be flexible. We have our best luck with blue and silver shad raps.

Cranks are just another tool in a long list of techniques for walleye fishing. At times they work great as does jigging, rigging, and bouncing. I would never exclusively fish cranks and only cranks. You'd miss out on a lot of good fishing.

Remeber a scoop of minnows may be $5 but  a good crank is closer to $7 there are days when cranking you can loose a lot of lures. I know I cringe every time I loose one.

I've heard faster trolling works better on Oahe compared to Sak.   Is that true?

Bought a couple of those new-fangled Storm Kickn' Minnows today.  Pretty excited.  Any experiences?  They look killer on TV and in the package.

Like some have already said, you will be disappointed if you decide to throw cranks and think it will be no brain city.  I have started to crank more and more but without livebait there would have been days a person would have sat in the boat and scratched their head.  Simply put (and best put by someone else) cranks are just another tool.  Walleyes are a challenging fish to catch and cranks just add another presentation to the seemingly endless arsenal we already posses.

So don't put away the lindy weight, jig or bottom-bouncer.  You'll be sorry if you do!

Buy yourself some gulp crawlers and leaches for your yak.  They work just as good, if not better on a jig or lindy.  And you can leave them out in the hot sun.

I wouldn't leave them out in the hot sun for long.  They melt and even rot.

I have seen the guys on devils lake that would rather go home empty than do anything other than pull cranks.  I know guys who have tons of cranks but will only pitch them and never pull them.  I know some guys that will only fish pulling bottom bouncers.  I know some guys are pretty much exclusively jig fishermen.  Way to one dimensional for me.  There are days I have hammered them on cranks, but after a cold front I will pull out my lindy/leech combo every time.  On a tough bite, your best bet might be a slip bobber fishing the trees.  I personally believe that the guy who is so one dimensional in his fishing to use only one tactic is the guy who is going to go home empty a lot.