My bread-and-butter ultralight bait box includes four basic styles of lure: a crawdad imitation, a tight-wobbling minnow imitation, a wider-wobbling minnow imitation and a lipless crankbait. Once you start focusing on these types of lures that weigh a quarter-ounce or less, you’ll probably be surprised at how many choices you have. Manufacturers know how effective small crankbaits can be, and they continue to refine and expand their offerings.

If I could choose only one bait for my ultralight crankin’, it’d be the little crawdad. Over the years, I’ve caught more fish on that particular style of lure than on any other I’ve ever fished. I’m most familiar with Rebel’s 7700 series, which weighs in at a tenth of an ounce, but other effective options are available these days -- no doubt the result of the Rebel crawdad’s long-term effectiveness and popularity.

My ‘secret’ baits are the Rebel No. 7760 for clear to slightly off-colored water, and the No. 7734 for stained/dirty water. The former has a moss-green back with an orange belly; the latter is fluorescent chartreuse over orange. I’m sure that plenty of color combinations are effective, but those two have worked for me. Your own favorites will emerge as you spend time casting little crankbaits in your favorite fishing spots.

This general approach to lure color stays the same when I switch to the minnow imitations or the lipless lures. Natural, subtle combinations are the ticket in water that’s clear or just a little off-color. Brighter colors are the ticket in water that’s stained or dirty.

Just talking about all this cranks me up -- because I’ve seen first-hand the enormous effectiveness of ultralight crankbaits.

That said, you should also have a couple of blue-over-silver or black-over-silver minnow imitations and lipless baits in your arsenal. Particularly at reservoirs and larger lakes with healthy shad populations, these patterns work especially well on bass and crappie.

And believe it or not, you can also troll these little baits with great results. Slow-trolling is the key: Use rods with tips sensitive enough to reveal just when the baits start moving in the way that their designers intended. I’d like to report here some magical, mysterious key to trolling success, but it doesn’t exist.

When I troll these little lures, I simply cast them off the side of the boat and then begin a very slow troll. I note when the rod tips start wiggling to suggest the baits have reached their optimum depth and are moving as they should, then I simply pay attention to maintaining the speed they need to work.

If you fish a lake that has some flats, shallow bays or coves, trolling those spots will produce fish -- especially from late afternoon through sunset. If shad are present, definitely opt for the blue/silver or black/silver color combos.

Whenever you’re on a lake and you’re just casting and cranking, focus on getting your bait into spots any predator would prefer. Anglers rarely think about this, but all game fish are predators, no matter their size. They are going to ambush easy meals whenever they can.

My experience has been that the best fish I take on tiny crankbaits are positioned perfectly to strike swiftly, hiding in little cuts and breaks in shoreline structure or amid weedbeds along the edges of trees that have fallen into the water from the bank. No matter what kind of fish you catch, fishing these ultralight lures is most effective when you imagine you’re bass fishing.