(Editor's note: This is part 1 of a 2-part story about the resurgence of the square-bill crank. Part 1 deals primarily with the bait's history, while part 2 focuses more on present-day use, with tips on how to fish it.)
New bass-fishing baits, and the techniques to fish them, are developed nearly every season. Whatever their source, the gestation period is typically quiet. Eventually, though, word leaks out and the baits enter (or re-enter) the bass-fishing mainstream.
Look no further than flipping or dropshotting, or the Senko, swimbait or Chatterbait for prime examples. Popularized by a few forward thinkers, these baits and techniques are now used by every serious bass angler throughout the world.
The whole process not only moves the sport forward, but also spawns new ideas, which beget yet more new ideas – thus perpetuating the energy and life of the sport.
But as mentioned, trends don't always involve new baits. While we have yet to see a resurgence of the O'Shannon (a double-spin) or the Matty (a jig with a spinner off the hook), the square-bill crank is one old-timer that's enjoying what could arguably be its new golden era.
And what's especially cool about the retro tool is there's few, if any, baits with a more storied history.
Arguments say the square-bill crank was invented by Fred Young of Big-O fame in the 1960s, and a curious part of the bait's history is how it's gone from limelight to disregard at least three times. Today, though, it's regarded by many to be one of the best baits ever developed – a bait that every serious bass angler has on hand whenever he or she's on the water.
What brought this nondescript bait back into tackleboxes? To get an idea, BassFan sat down with two pros – Rick Clunn, who by most arguments is the greatest angler of all-time, and 2007 BASS Angler of the Year Skeet Reese.
What follows is their take on the bait's latest comeback, along with their tips on how to fish it.
A Brief History of Square
Clunn's history with the square-bill dates back to the '70s. "My first experience with square-bills was in June of 1976 when I drew Fred Young at a tournament on Clark's Hill Reservoir," he said. "It was the second or third day of the tournament and, although I'd never fished one of his baits before, I wanted to show him some respect by having a rod rigged with one of his baits.
"After making a couple of casts, he asked me if I'd like him to show me how to fish the bait," Clunn added. "He stood up for the first time that day, fired the bait out as far as he could, reeled it in as fast as he could and then said, 'If you don't believe anything I say today, believe this – you need to fish this bait fast.' That opened my eyes and that's when I started experimenting a lot with square-bills."
Clunn further noted that toward the late-'70s, the "bait pretty much vanished," but in May of '91, he won the Truman Bassmaster Invitational with one, which "started the second wave."
"After that, it faded again until April and May of 2000 when I won and got 2nd in back-to-back FLW tournaments on Beaver Lake and the Mississippi River," he said. "Those last tournaments are when the bait made its final comeback."
Clunn said he first got on the square-bill in 1976, when he drew Fred Young at a Clark's Hill tournament.
Inconsistency and Availability
Square-bills of days past were all handmade and difficult to get. Plus, there were still other problems.
"The best baits back in the day were made by custom guys in the Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky area and you had to know those people to get them," Clunn said. "Still, even if you did get them, you had to go through a lot to get the right ones. The baits are hard to duplicate because the wood is inconsistent and it's difficult to put the line-ties and bills in perfect each time.
"A good example of what it took to find the right ones is: If you bought six baits, there might be two that were what I called grade-A, a couple that were grade-B, and the rest didn't work at all."
Clunn noted that the difference between the two grades was that was the "A" baits ran straight through the water on a high-speed retrieve, even after hitting an object, while the "B" cranks would search-for-center or hunt after they hit an object.
"I didn't like the grade-B baits as much and still don't because I find I lose more fish on them," he added. "(But) it got to the point that I could look at a bait in the package and I knew whether it would work or not just by the line tie."
Breakage was another big problem with wood baits, and he was troubled by the fact he couldn't fish them everywhere. For example, he'd never fish his "A" baits around docks or in heavy cover. That's because if the cast wasn't dead-on, the bait would bang and get destroyed. And he'd barely use them in practice – they were pretty much tournament-day-only tools.
"The Truman win was a great example of this," he said. "In practice, I went to one of the best banks on the lake and there were three bass-club boats fishing. We talked a while and they caught a couple of fish on spinnerbaits. As they left the area, I picked up a Bagley's BB3, pulled up to the first stump I saw and caught a 5-pounder. The next log I went to resulted in another 5-pounder.
"I fished the first 2 days of the tournament with the Bagley's bait but ruined all my good baits in the process. That's when I picked up what ended up becoming the Poe's RC3 and won the tournament on that bait.
"The deal with that win was I was fishing a bait that everyone else had forgotten about," he added. "In essence, I was fishing a completely different lake than the rest of the competition. I could go behind anyone and catch fish behind them and that's what got me that win."
Notable
> "What I find funny now is that people are complaining about $15 baits," Clunn said. "Back in the first days of square-bills, they cost between $25 and $50 and you weren't guaranteed they'd work."
– End of part 1 (of 2) –
