Manns Baby Minus 1

[mheichelbech]

Is there any better lure at doing what this bait does which is dive to 1 foot or less with a nice wide wobble?  This bait has proven to me time and again to be a great fish catcher in shallow water situations when other methods did not work.  It seems to be especially good for paralleling docks and other linear cover.  The Bandit Footloose is another good one but I mostly find myself reaching for the Minus One.  I do believe the Footloose is a little bit shallower than the Minus Ones....at least the ones I have fished with.

 

A couple mods I do with this bait are:

 

1)  Always put surgical tubing on the back hook split ring to keep it from tangling with the front hook.

2)  Always change out to Mustad Triple Grips or Gamakatsu wide gap trebles, sometimes #4 in the front and #6 in back.  I do like the short shank versions to minimize tangling.

3) Sometimes will put a feathered treble hook on the back....adds very nice action to the bait as it swings its way through the water and when it stops, the feathers open up which I think can be that final, subtle movement to entice a bass to bite if it was not hitting on the move.

 

This bait seems to do well in open water or in cover. 

 

I just hadn't been able to find any other similar versions of this bait that I like as well as the Baby Minus One or Footloose.  I have tried the Lucky Craft SSR but reverted back...maybe I didn't have enough patience.  The Minus One seems to be one of the baits where it doesn't pay to pay more than 5 bucks for a bit...another aspect of it that I really like.  The only negative is that sometimes you do get one that doesn't run right and the only thing you can do is trash it or return it but that is not common.

[wdp]

This bait has been my go-to and favorite crankbait for awhile. I can't seem to find another that produces quite as well in shallow water conditions. 

 

I've had my best luck with it during late spring thru fall around shallow, sparse vegetation. Best retrieve has been to burn it & pause, kind of like lipless crank fishing. Like you said, every once in a while, I'll get a bait that I can't get tuned just right & it'll blow out when I'm burning it. I set those aside & give em away to some kids I know.

 

Def need to change out the trebles to something better. 

[Deleted account]

Those are 2 good baits, and a good complement. The foot loose is tighter and shallower. Yeah, there are other baits, and each has its time and place, but IMNSHO you aren't missing much. I have a couple of Bombers that I bent the lip on (surf rat trick) that swim almost identically to the 1 minus.

[Munkin]

The Mann's Baby 1- works best for me overall and makes my top 10 crankbait list. Besides the Bandit Footloose the two shallow baits I have had luck with are the Team Daiwa Scouter Crank and the Jackall Zero Footer.

 

Allen

[OkobojiEagle]

Storm SubWart and original Spence Scout, both out of production for several years...

 

 

oe

[ghost]

BPS The Egg, shallow runner. A bit heavier and casts good. Good color choices too. Cheap and does go on sale from time to time. It does do a rapala scatter rap, looks like a fleeing baitfish.

[smalljaw67]

Mann's Baby 1 minus and the Baby X are two shallow water killers for me. I use the 1 minus when most of my square bills dive too deep and will grind. The Baby X is the same body as the baby 1 minus only it has a square bill and dives to 2', maybe 2.5' on 8lb line but I normally don't use it with that light of line. I don't use the full size 1 minus, instead I like the Mann's Waker Elite, it only dives 3" but is the same body size as the 1 minus with the difference being it only weighs 3/8oz so it has a higher float. You can burn it and it won't go any deeper, in my opinion it is the best crankbait style wake bait ever made.

[Dypsis]

4 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Storm SubWart and original Spence Scout, both out of production for several years...

 

 

oe

Do you know what the difference between the Scout with 2 line ties vs 1 - year of production?

[wdp]

5 hours ago, ghost said:

BPS The Egg, shallow runner. I bit heavier and casts good. Good color choices too. Chrep and does go on sale from time to time. It does do a rapala scatter rap, looks like a fleeing baitfish.

+1 on The Egg. Started fishing it over a year ago & find myself tying it on more often, even before a Baby 1- at times. 

[crypt]

it's always been my go to bait............nothing better.

[Bluebasser86]

18 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Storm SubWart and original Spence Scout, both out of production for several years...

 

 

oe

That SubWart was a fish catching machine. Too bad they won't bring that one back.

[Spankey]

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

That SubWart was a fish catching machine. Too bad they won't bring that one back.

I use to fish that SubWart on the river a lot back some time ago. Got hooked on the Bandits. Should have bought more of them back in the day, I still have the initial handful I bought. They should bring it back. 

[Outdoor Zack]

On 4/7/2017 at 6:18 PM, wdp said:

+1 on The Egg. Started fishing it over a year ago & find myself tying it on more often, even before a Baby 1- at times. 

 

How do they compare in size? Is the egg much bigger? 

[ghost]

The egg is Bigger and heavier, like 7/16oz. Casts better than minus 1, it's a 1/4oz. But both do the same thing, hooks tangle up from time to time. Both have short length bodies. I run VMC wide gap, short shank size 4 hooks on the Egg and size 4 front and size 6 in back for minus 1.

[wdp]

7 hours ago, Outdoor Zack said:

 

How do they compare in size? Is the egg much bigger? 

Looks like ghost already answered. But there are 2 diff sizes of The Egg. The smaller one is about the same size as the baby 1 minus, but it is a little heavier so it casts a little better. 

 

The large sized Egg is about the same as the full sized Mann's 1 minus. I mostly use the smaller Egg. Big thing is they're a little cheaper than the Mann's baits. Good colors too. 

[Bankbeater]

The baby 1 minus is probably my most productive crankbait.  I have 4 or 5 Subwarts that I use as a last resort, and several of the smaller BPS eggs. I hardly ever use the eggs anymore, but it sounds like I should use them more.