H2O baits

[rboat]

I was looking at academy's baits and they look pretty good for the price. Can anyone suggest any that have worked well for you?

[Jrob78]

The hard baits are great. I haven't used any of the spinnerbaits, frogs or jigs but the crankbaits are really good for the money. I've had good luck with the various sized square bills, mid depth divers, lipless baits, poppers and walking baits. I haven't used any of the deep divers. The paint jobs are good and the baits I've used run true. I do change out the hooks though.

[JWall14]

I bought about 10 because I’m a high school student and I am really impressed with the quality for $2 baits.

[HeyCoach]

Does anybody know what all of the letters mean on their crankbaits?

[Abby]

I have used their cranks for the first time last year and did well...

[Catt]

I have several friends that use H2O exclusively & 4 are successful tournament anglers.

[JLBBass]

Their cranks are great! 

[Deleted account]

2 hours ago, HeyCoach said:

Does anybody know what all of the letters mean on their crankbaits?

Yes.

[fin]

I've bought a lot of their hard baits, and the only problem I've ever had was with the Shad 03 color flaking off. Other than that color, I recommend anything.

 

1 hour ago, HeyCoach said:

Does anybody know what all of the letters mean on their crankbaits?

Excellent question. I love a good puzzle. They're all pretty obvious until they combine them:

 

S- SMALL PROFILE OR SHALLOW RUNNING
CR- CRANKBAIT
L- LIPLESS
M- MEDIUM RUNNING
TW- TOPWATER
P- POPPER
NR- NO RATTLE
D- DEEP DIVER
UL- ULTRALIGHT
W- WAKEBAIT

 

But I can’t figure out these two:

 

NCRD - A deep crankbait, but I don’t know what the N stands for.
SCSFW - This is a small wake bait, so that explains one S and the W, but I don’t know about the rest.

 

It’s always bugged me why they have two different prices for lipless crankbaits. I can’t tell what the difference is. One has the LCR designation and the other is called “Rattlin' T”, but they both have rattles.

[Bluebasser86]

I've fished about all their baits and caught fish with all of them. Best house brand of hard baits out there IMO. I really like their prop baits, the Slush Minnow and Slush Daddy. The Jerk Shad is really good too but for some reason they no longer carry them in either store by me. I bought so many of them I would thought that would have kept them stocking them by myself alone. 

[bigjean663]

Whenever I see colors I like in any of their hard baits I grab them. I’ve had good success with their cranks and I’ve got one that stays tied on as my “go to”. 

[J.Vincent]

I like their Squarebills....specifically the translucent red craw SquareBill .

[Tvm]

13 hours ago, rboat said:

I was looking at academy's baits and they look pretty good for the price. Can anyone suggest any that have worked well for you?

Cranks are good and go on sale frequently in store. 

 

Not a fan of their spinnerbaits. Swivel is sub par skirts fall apart and aren't great I do like the head style and color options tho  

 

Wahoo pro select spinnerbaits can be purchased at academy and are 3$. They're bb swivel and the umbrella style skirt really like them I bank fish so I use them a lot caught 5 over 5lbs last year with them at a local public pond. 

[Deleted account]

14 hours ago, Hank. said:

NCRD - A deep crankbait, but I don’t know what the N stands for.
SCSFW - This is a small wake bait, so that explains one S and the W, but I don’t know about the rest.

N= Never not on sale...

F=Freshwater, The second S is for Secret (as in stop talking about it)

 

They spell it out for most of them on the packing slip. I too have one of their cranks, that flat out crushes, it's the ***** one.

[Rpratt]

My fishing buddy was so excited last year when he picked up one of the H2O squarebills for 2 bucks a few weeks before our big trip we had been planning for a few months. Not only that but he had a new rod and reel and was just beside himself that he was gonna catch em.

 

Well we got to the lake and the very first cast he launched that squarebill 25 feet up into a tree. Great distance! So I really don't know how good the lures are, but they sure do catch big trees extremely well ??

[Comfortably Numb]

CRS and CRM squarebills 

[flyingmonkie]

Another vote for their square bills - best bang for the buck on the market.

[Falkus]

I'm waiting for academy to go on sale online so I can buy a bunch of them. 

[Bazoo]

I have been using their squarebills a while and they hold up well. I like the standard size as well as their 1/4oz (what they call ultralight). I have one that I’ve caught over 30 fish on, including a 3 1/4lb bass. the paints held up good and the factory hooks are still sharp.
 

[DennyB]

Their ultralight model is my go-to on days that are tough. They're good on days that aren't tough too.

[king fisher]

I have tried most of their crankbaits, and haven't found one I didn't like.  I prefer their 1.5 size square bills over all other brands in the 1.5 size. 

 

They make a small 1/4 oz medium diver called a Model M that is an absolute killer crankbait on light tackle.  I have landed many  bass, plus brown and rainbow trout on them.  I even have them in my box in Mexico.  Every once in awhile the bass down here want a smaller crankbait, and I have used them to not only kick the skunk out, but have landed some nice size bass as well.  I have a friend that lives on Lake Chapala, and the Model M is his favorite crankbait.  Because they are impossible to find in Mexico, he was willing to trade me Model M's for Jack hammers.  I like to think I didn't feel right trading baits I payed  2:99 for $15.00 baits, so I didn't make the deal, but truth be told I catch more fish on the cheap H2O crankbait than I do on Jack Hammers and I didn't want to give up my Model M's. 

 

 

[Pat Brown]

Yeah I agree their hard baits are silly good for the money.  I find them all the time and happily add them to my pond fishing tackle box.

[GreenPig]

Picked a handfull of H2O suspending Jerkbaits for bank fishing where there's little to no chance for retrieving a hung lure. They're fish catchers. 

[ChrisD46]

I have a new H20 bladed swim jig (chatter bait) style lure I bought on sale from Academy but before I could even fish it - reviews said it was terrible . Academy no longer even offers this or any other vibrating jig now . In the package it looks nice , not sure what the issues were with the H2) vibrating jig ?

[MediumMouthBass]

Academy runs sales alot throughout the year, you can get some really good deals on their brands fishing gear.

They have a $5 weight scale, its amazing. I broke mine in the kayak so ill have to get some more.

Their hooks are very budget friendly but hold up quite well, i did alot of research on them last year when they had a sale and bought several bags of them. I cant remember the amount but as an example lets say i bought 100 of their hooks for the price of 20 hooks from a name brand company.

The soft plastics are good too. I really like their flukes and finesse worms.

The crankbaits and jerkbaits are really amazing and super cheap.

I have yet to try out their rods or reels tho. But they seem very affordable.

And they also have alot of their own tackle bags and tools.

 

I cant remember if the stuff i have is H20 or H20x, i bought them right as they started to make the change.