Favorite 1/4 To 1/2 Oz Shallow Hardbaits

[microotter]

What are your favorite baits in this weight range. I have been really enjoying shallow cranking with my new setup and would like to experiment with some new baits. So far my favorites have been kvd 1.5 squarebills and norman minus 1.

[tholmes]

Bandit Footloose and 100 series, Bomber Square A, Norman Squarebill Wake, Bagley Honey B are all good \.

 

Tom

[scaleface]

The Rick clunn baits at Wal Mart are pretty good. I dont remember who makes them.  At five foot the Rapala Fat Rap is one of my all time favorites  but they are not a Square bill.

[Bankbeater]

Mann's 1 minus. I have had very good luck using them this year.

[Senko lover]

KVD 1.5

[robster80]

h20 xpress baits r good for the money

[Catt]

1/4 oz Rat-L-Trap

Hold your rod @ 11° clock

Fast retrieve

Bass aint heard that kink of noise during summer!

[K_Mac]

One more vote for the 100 series Bandit. It is my go-to shallow crank. In a lot of wood I like the kvd squarebills. I like the 1.5 better than the 2.5 but have had success on both.

[Silas]

Megabass Griffon! No one else throws one.

[*Hank]

KVD 1.5

I wonder how many people on here are going to say that

In it's price range though you can't beat it!

[Bluebasser86]

H2O or Strike King for shallow running needs. The Baby -1 is a good one too but I consider it more of a topwater/wakebait since it's so close to the surface. 

[smalljaw67]

I like the Manns 1 minus, and the Baby X (baby X is a 1 minus with a square lip that dives to 2'), those are readily available.  I have some discontinued Sebile Crankster SR 50 that are 1/4oz and they dive about 6" or so, they make a small wake when reeled slow but both largemouth and smallmouth seem to really like them. The others that I like have been mentioned, like the Bomber square A but one that wasn't and is new a little harder to find is the Bagley Rattlin' Kill'R B2, it isn't balsa, it is a plastic bait and on 10lb line it hits 3', the rattle is very low pitched and they deflect really well and most importantly they catch fish. Last, but not least, look at the Yo-Zuri 3DS series, the "S" means small, most baits run 1/4 to 1/2oz but the 3DS crankbaits  are really good, I have the SR (shallow runner) versions in Holo bluegill and Tennessee shad and they aren't square bills but they deflect well and run great at high speed, the 3DS popper is something you will want to look at as well.

[blckshirt98]

I'm in the Strike King KVD camp!  They work and they're cheap so I'm not as hesitant to throw them into rip rap!

[iabass8]

zoom wec1

LC 2.0

TH Kustom wake 

[RUSS9999]

KVD 1.5

[AdamsEye]

Fishing that shallow I prefer a floating jerkbait over a crankbait.

[gulfcaptain]

Have several, for me shallow would be less then 3ft of water, so I would say the new SK shallow 1.5, Manns Baby 1 minus, and then one that I don't see thrown very often, the Heddon Swimming Image.  These three baits I can fish shallow over grass, (not fishing them as a wakebait) and all have different actions. 

[the reel ess]

Rapala floating jerkbait F11 or F13. You don't see this one mentioned much, but I have decent luck with the large floating, jointed Rebel minnow in chrome/light blue when fish are active. I like the Bandit Flat Max around shallow wood. I bought an H2O Xpress bluegill swimbait, but no luck on it yet. The reviews are good though, with some people saying they're good for big bass.

 

A topwater if they'll bite it. Something small like a Pop R or Torpedo.

[scaleface]

Now my favorite shallow bait has not been made for a long time and I only have one. Thats a Rogers Big Jim. It out fishes the KVD's and the Rick Clunns by a bunch in my experience  . They are hard to find .The baits dont have a lot of action to them , which I think is the key . So much so that I'm going to try tying directly to the eye of the other baits, no split ring , to see if I can closely  duplicate  the same action as the Big jim .

[MasonV]

h20 xpress baits r good for the money

I 2nd this. Very good crankbaits and cheap. I'm getting to where they're about all I use.

[microotter]

I had never heard of the h20 baits until this thread. They seem nice. Are they all decent? The topwater and swimbaits interest me at that price.

[MasonV]

I'm still relatively new to the H2O baits but have thrown quite a few of their different crankbaits and every one has ran true out of the box, good colors, and catch fish. I JUST bought one of their TWS models (Spook style bait) and one of the hard bodied jointed shad swimbaits. Haven't thrown them much at all but they do both have good action and the swimbait runs true. Actually did catch a little one on the swimbait, nothing on the TWS but it's been brutal here with triple digit air temps and the water being 85-90.

[Dypsis]

1/4 oz Rat-L-Trap

Hold your rod @ 11° clock

Fast retrieve

Bass aint heard that kink of noise during summer!

 

My buddy caught this guy yesterday.  Even the sunnies love them!

[bigbill]

Bomber FAT A size 05 shallow. Discontinued

Bomber model A size 05 shallow

Bomber shallow A

Norman Thin N

Norman Fat Boy

With any floating crankbaits by adjusting your speed it can run shallower. Any floating hard bait can be used topwater by getting jiggy with it over submerged weeds over the open pockets. The bomber shallow A has a round bill

[Cgolf]

Will get lots of hate for this, but the KVD 1.5 and 2.5 are the worst square bills I have thrown, they just don't catch fish for me.

I do really like the KVD 1.0 square bill and the new shallow square bill is killing it this year. My number one shallow cranks are the bandit 100 and flat maxx. Can't beat the price on any of these 4 baits.

To be fair on the strike King baits, some models are epic fails for me and others work great, not sure why, but it is what it is.