When Did The Square Bill Appear And Become Popular?

[rockchalk06]

Up until last year, the only crank bait I had ever used was the Bomber 4A. I've been a jig guy most of my life and never fished anything else much.

I got turned on to square bill crank baits after moving to the Oklahoma City area last year. We have really shallow waters and I'm stuck on shore. I was cleaning and arranging tackle during the KU beat down of WVU and noticed that I have around 40 now of various sizes, weights etc.

When did square bills become popular, or invented?

Thanks

[Sam]

Looked up square bill crankbait history and here is part of the story:

 

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, another site 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."

[Blue Streak]

My first was the Bagley Balsa B many years ago. It is still very effective and very hard to hang up.

[Bluebasser86]

The original Big O dates back to 1967 when he first started hand carving them out of balsa wood. They certainly have to be in the conversation if you're talking about the roots of what we call a square bill today. Depending on your definition of square bill though, lots of even older baits had short metal diving lips screwed into the front of them. 

[smalljaw67]

Good post!!! I like this because I've had square bills in my box for years as I love fishing the Big O , I have both wood and plastic models. Rick Clunn came out with a series by Lucky Craft and a bunch of guys liked those and of course the DT Fat 3 came about but these were all alive and well until VanDam won using a square bill and suddenly everyone was talking about them again, the funny part is most of us that have been at this for at least 10 years probably had a few in the box. I have to admit that I got caught up in the moment myself and went out and got a couple KVD 1.5 and 2.0 baits as well as some Xcalibur XCS baits.

[Blue Streak]

Correct me if I am wrong my memory is getting old. Wasn't it the Big O that really started the crank bait craze?  It seems that  when the pros started to win tournaments with them that other bait companies started to produce what was known as the alphabet series of crank baits. Bomber had the Model A and I think Norman started the N series during that period. There were others that I can't remember.  The Big O had a big impact on fishing at that time, that was all you heard about and they were hard to get and very expensive. I heard stories of pros actually renting them for tournaments.  Still to this day I have never seen an original Big O, I would love to just hold one of those because of the history it had with fishing. The plastic series that Cordell produced were not even close to the effectiveness of the original.

[Avalonjohn44]

Original Big O's (hand carved by Fred Young, not the Cotton Cordell plastic or recent wooden reproductions) are worth some big money. 

Shortly after that Bagley made some great ones as well, they are also pricey.  I am lucky enough to have grabbed a bunch of bagley squarebills  but never got my hands on a Big O... 

Rick Clunn's 1.5 (Lucky Craft version) might be better than all of them in my opinion.

[bassh8er]

I used to fish the Strike King Spence Scout with the metal lip in the late 90s. I loved that bait and it was before I even knew what a squarebill was.

[rockchalk06]

I figured it had been awhile. Thanks for all the info

[Primus]

rockchalk06 I've been fishing them since the Lucky Craft RC series came out and haven't stopped, a big part of my shallow fishing technique. Since you are a shorebound fisherman add a few supershallow runners like the Mann's Baby 1 Minus or Jackall Cherry 56 zero crankbait if you don't already have them. Also, wake cranks that run on the surface will also make good additions to your arsenal such as the Deps Buzzjet or Lucky Craft LC Wake to name a few.

[kadas]

I used to fish the Strike King Spence Scout with the metal lip in the late 90s. I loved that bait and it was before I even knew what a squarebill was.

[/quot I still fish a scout--have 2 of them and they both still catch bass today