Square Bills

[MIbassin]

hey all!

i know that square bill are a lot of peoples favorite lures.

would they work in weeds ?

when do you fish them?

do they work on inactive fish?

thanks!

[Fishn4-5]

When i use the Sqr bills in weeds i use 17pnd floro so i can rip it througe and yes they will get a reaction strike when fish are inactive i like to use the silent sqr bills on inactive fish

[SAC2]

i prefer them while fishin wood personally. yes, they would work in weeds, but i think there are better suited lures for fishing weeds that are in the square bill depth range (ie: spinnerbait/fluke)

[papajoe222]

Square bills were designed to reduce the possibility of getting hung up when fishing wood or rocky cover and it's there that they shine. Like most cranks, they can be fished any time of year, although you may need to vary the retrieve. Yes, they will trigger inactive fish when bounced off of cover. The sudden change in direction of the lure often triggers a reaction strike.

There are much better bill designs than the square bill for fishing weeds and they're usually combined with a fat body to the lure. These narrow, pointed bills won't pick up as many weeds as a square bill and the fat body helps keep the swinging trebles from catching on the weeds.

Square bills still get hung up and pointed bills on fat bodied cranks still catch some weeds, but they do their job better than the standard bill and that's why they're on the market.

One thing to remember when fishing any style of billed or lipped crank; when that bait does contact the cover, stop your retrieve momentarily. Same thing when you rip it free from clinging weeds.

[Bluebasser86]

I love fishing squarebills over the tops of weeds. Keep them ticking along the tops and rip them out when you feel them hanging in the weeds. This will often trigger neutral or inactive fish buried in the weeds. Bouncing them off of wood and rock is a great way to trigger reaction strikes from less than aggressive fish also. I normally fish them late spring through late fall.

[Arv]

Depending on how tall the weeds are I'll hold my rod tip up higher to keep the sq bill from acting like a bulldozer, picking up weeds and killing the action. It just takes a little trial and error. If I feel the wobble stop I'll give my rod a good rip to the side to get as much of the weeds/grass off, and continue my retrieve.

[WRB]

The first suare bill deep diving lures were the original Bomber, looks like a bomb with square metal bill. Bandit came out with a flat side square bill and that lure started the "square bill" popularity. No treble hook lure with a diving bill can be effectively fished in heavy weed cover. You can work a lipless crankbait or square bill crankbait though the edges of weeds or sparse weeds by ripping the weeds off the lure, but when you run into a clump of weeds you must pull in the clump wraped lure and remove the weeds.

The definition of an inactive bass is a bass that is not interested in chasing down a fast moving lure. If you work any lure slow and close enough to a inactive bass it may strike it. An active bass feeding in the weed cover is what you should be targeting.

Tom

[merc1997]

as tom mentioned the old metal lipped bomber was about the forst square bill that i remember. after that i would say that fred youngs hand carved square bill plugs were the next breakthrough in squarebill technology. of course, cotton cordell made the big o in plastic and the rest is history. others copied the big o of course. the next popular square bill in our area was the bagley balsa b'. you had to buy about a dozen of them to find one that would run right though.

i still have some big o's, and still catch fish on them every year when condition are right. i still feel that the big o's come through cover every bit as well as the newer version square bills.

bo

[bassmainiac]

KVD is a master of this. Watch some videos of him on youtube. The way he snaps his rod to clear weeds works almost every time and like previously stated can cause a reactions strike.