Rapala does have a lot of my money over the years. As for crankbaits, Most ponds i fish tend to be weedy so thats why i use the rapala original floaters and shallow divers. either pearch, shad, or even trout colors. my tecnique may be unconventional but its worked for me. if its a new pond to me I'll actually troll over the dropoffs. this helps me cover a lot of ground in a short time, and find out if the bass are active that day. If I dont have any luck I'll change up the color and if still nothing I'll cast into shores. My tecnique for casting is let the bait sit and float for at least 3 seconds after i cast. I cant tell you how often this has produced bass. Then I will work the crainkbat with a ziz/zag motion and twitching, again letting the bait sit for a second or two each time it comes back up. I love it when a bass will come up to blast it. I would say the downsides to using these baits are I dont typically catch large bass. So once i better understand the bass pattern i will change up to a larger crankbait or different bait altogether. I also catch a wide variety of fish using crankbaits, which can get frustrating if none of them are bass. hope this helps