Shallow(ish) River Crankbait Help

[WI_Angler1989]

Hey all, I need some help. Like the title says, I fish a LOT of rivers and want to find a good, durable and effective shallow running crankbait to try. 

My rivers can be plenty deep but more often than not, if I'm on the bank, I'm dealing with 6ft deep or so. The waters can be pretty snaggy with lots of rocks and wood from high waters etc.

I see tons of cranks that aim for deeper water which just won't work for me. Plus I need something that is as snag resistant as possible. 

So what's everyone's favorite shallow-running river crankbait? 

 

[CJ]

Lot's of choices out there but a couple of my favorites are Bandit 200 and a Rapala DT6. The DT6 is probably the best running and I think the best at producing strikes. The durability isn't as good though. They are wood and the lip is glued in for one and I've had a couple pull out. They will crack if run them into shallower rocks hard enough. The Rapala Shad Rap is also great but will hang up a little more than the others. Also, Strike King KVD 1.0 and 1.5 square bills but they won,t go as deep.

[HookdUP]

Bling 55 , I like the 6th sense crankbaits as well... 

[heavyduty]

1.5's in 4'-6' for me. Baby minus 1 if a little shallower, especially over grass!

[fishballer06]

Squarebills, DT4 and DT6, Wiggle Wart. All are solid choices. 

[Cgolf]

52 minutes ago, WI_Angler1989 said:

Hey all, I need some help. Like the title says, I fish a LOT of rivers and want to find a good, durable and effective shallow running crankbait to try. 

My rivers can be plenty deep but more often than not, if I'm on the bank, I'm dealing with 6ft deep or so. The waters can be pretty snaggy with lots of rocks and wood from high waters etc.

I see tons of cranks that aim for deeper water which just won't work for me. Plus I need something that is as snag resistant as possible. 

So what's everyone's favorite shallow-running river crankbait? 

 

I have had tremendous luck with Bandit 100s. Over the last 7 years probably have accounted for 40% of my river smallies. This year I also did really well with the new Strike King shallow square bill, they really liked it best paused once in a while. These baits were worked in 4ish feet of water with a lot of rocks. I have also used X the tail dancer some when I fished deeper stretches, but generally I have stuck to shallower stretches. The only recomendation other than the baits is to go heavy braid, many times I can get them pulled free from snags, but do lose my fair share of cranks to the river gods. 

[WI_Angler1989]

38 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I have had tremendous luck with Bandit 100s. Over the last 7 years probably have accounted for 40% of my river smallies. This year I also did really well with the new Strike King shallow square bill, they really liked it best paused once in a while. These baits were worked in 4ish feet of water with a lot of rocks. I have also used X the tail dancer some when I fished deeper stretches, but generally I have stuck to shallower stretches. The only recomendation other than the baits is to go heavy braid, many times I can get them pulled free from snags, but do lose my fair share of cranks to the river gods. 

I've heard good things about the bandits, they a classic by the sound of it.

I'll be checking them out for sure. Hopefully store here have some so I don't have to go online with shipping cost

[scaleface]

Bomber Flat A is my number one lure   for fishing the Mississippi river . Theres been days where I caught not only bass but a half dozen other species  with it .

[bigbassin']

I've always gotten the kvd's to come through rocks and wood pretty good without snagging. With that being said, I don't typically use cranks while river fishing, so take that with a grain of salt.

[Cgolf]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Bomber Flat A is my number one lure   for fishing the Mississippi river . Theres been days where I caught not only bass but a half dozen other species  with it .

How does it do in faster current, does it blow out or run true?

[WI_Angler1989]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Bomber Flat A is my number one lure   for fishing the Mississippi river . Theres been days where I caught not only bass but a half dozen other species  with it .

I like their 4A model. It's similar is profile and depth but isn't flat sided. I really like their "real craw" patterns.

[scaleface]

5 hours ago, cgolf said:

How does it do in faster current, does it blow out or run true?

I've never had any problems with them . I use them mostly along rip rap banks and wing dams .

[smalljaw67]

The Bomber flat A is a freak, if you are undecided as to whether you should use a lipless or lipped crank, use the Flat A. It is a rattle trap with a bill but the nice thing is that it dives but it also is very slow rising, almost suspending so it works in all kind of conditions. For me it is more of a cold water deal but in the spring I use it on my rivers. My river is a large, shallow and rocky river and shallow cranks do really well but certain ones seem to be better. For the shallowest areas I like the Mann's Baby 1 minus and the BabyX, basically the same bait but the 1 minus only dives to 1' while the X has a really squared off lip and dives to 2'. After those I like the Arashi silent and rattling square 3 and then the 5 and then the 6' depth I like the Yo-Zuri 3DB crank medium. Now those picks are newer to me and they do work well, I normally would have said the DT-4 and DT-6 to cover the 4' to 6' range but they are balsa baits and a few good crankbait days can really beat those up and it seems you are concerned for durability so that is the only reason I didn't list them but I do use them as nobody talks about the DT-4 but it is a killer river crank. I also have an honorable mention, I didn't include it because I only have 3 trips with it but the Bill Lewis Echo 1.75 is looking to me like a sleeper bait, no other square bill or shallow crank I own work like it, the bait is loud and vibrates really hard and every single fish caught on it absolutely slammed it, I'm thinking a full season with this it may become my new favorite if it works like it did last year.