I don’t understand square bills lately

[Scoot19]

I have been bass fishing for a decent amount of time now and fish a lot of different ways but recently square bills have been an absolute nightmare. They have been one of my best bass lures but no matter what I do they seem to get caught in rocks so bad that I can’t ever Unsnag them. I have never had this issue until recently and it’s wasting so much money and I feel helpless.

[scaleface]

I dont understand either but it has to be something you are doing .

[813basstard]

29 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I dont understand either but it has to be something you are doing .

^

Thats it. That’s the title of the Bio

[FishTank]

Rocks are square bill magnets.  Lure retriever is the ticket. 

[LrgmouthShad]

Just thought maybe that if you switched to a thinner line or fluoro from braid or mono recently that it could be causing your squarebills to dive deeper and wedge themselves more in the rocks

 

idk honestly

[WRB]

Wrong lure to choose.

Tom

[jimmyjoe]

   Like @WRB said, squarebills are the wrong lure to use in rocks. Of course, I have to go ahead and do it anyway.  ? ? ?

   Have you changed to a rod that is either slower action or has a softer tip? A few years ago, I did, and I hung up to beat the band. It seems the "kick-out" of a squarebill needs a fairly stiff-tipped rod to actuate it in rocks. I went back to a fast action with a stiffer tip and I've been OK since. Not that I don't lose one occasionally, but lots better than I had been doing. 

   Also ..... use a line that is not extremely stretchy. Lines that are less stretchy let you feel the initial "thunk" of the contact, and allow you to back off before you wedge that sucker in so tight that a crowbar couldn't get it out.    

   Just a theoretical hint.   ? ? ?           jj

[papajoe222]

Welcome to BR

If it has become a problem that never existed before AND none of your gear has changed, then it's something you are doing that you never used to do. I'm guessing the water level has dropped and you haven't adjusted your retrieve.

Bouncing a square bill off rocks is a lot like ticking the tops of the weeds with a lipless crank. If your retrieve speed isn't just right, you either end up fishing above them, or digging your bait into them.  If your square bill plows into a rock and deflects as your reeling fast, the bait won't have a chance to right itself and will hit the next rock with something other than its bill.

[Bluebasser86]

I haven't understood squarebills for about 10 years now. It's like they just stopped eating them for me one day and aside from the winter months, it's a rare day there's even a crankbait tied on one of my rods. 

[BrianMDTX]

9 hours ago, papajoe222 said:

Bouncing a square bill off rocks is a lot like ticking the tops of the weeds with a lipless crank. If your retrieve speed isn't just right, you either end up fishing above them, or digging your bait into them.

I agree it’s likely the retrieve speed. I adjust my speed depending on water depth and how close to the surface the weeds, etc. are at the time. 

 

I will add my success with squrebills lately has plummeted. 

[FishTank]

9 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I haven't understood squarebills for about 10 years now. It's like they just stopped eating them for me one day and aside from the winter months, it's a rare day there's even a crankbait tied on one of my rods. 

It's getting that way for me as well.  All of a sudden (the past few years), they stopped bitting square bills at pretty much every lake I fish, especially the bigger fish.  I still use them on occasion because I'm stubborn but the bite just hasn't been the there.

[Bankc]

Round bills for rocks.  Square bill for wood.

 

Also, you have to be careful with the retrieve of crankbaits and it helps to use a stretchy line.  The idea being that once you hit a rock, you let off for split second, allowing the lure to float up, and then retrieve it over the rock.  The stretchy line buys you a bit of reaction time.  But you have to have quick reflexes and a rod that's sensitive enough to give you the feedback you need to tell you when you've hit a rock.  I particularly like balsa round bills, as they float really well and will get up over rocks quickly.  If you're digging in too hard, try a shallower crankbait, or retrieve it at a slower speed.  If you just try to burn then through, you're gonna get wedged.  

[Cgolf]

I shore fish a rocky river often with square bills and find that rod angle can play a huge difference. Fishing with the rod tip high I lose a lot less baits. I think the high rod tip raises the angle of the bill slightly so it doesn't dig as hard and must also give it a better angle to deflect off the rocks. That said I have a huge stash of bandit 100s bought on sale knowing I am going to lose one every so often.

[Scoot19]

I have recently updated my crank set up to a g looms crank rod, a diawa sv tw 103 that is 6.3, and I use 12lb sunline crank fluoro.

[Scoot19]

19 minutes ago, cgolf said:

I shore fish a rocky river often with square bills and find that rod angle can play a huge difference. Fishing with the rod tip high I lose a lot less baits. I think the high rod tip raises the angle of the bill slightly so it doesn't dig as hard and must also give it a better angle to deflect off the rocks. That said I have a huge stash of bandit 100s bought on sale knowing I am going to lose one every so often.

That’s a good point that I never thought about. When I think about it I often point my rod rip down when I crank which could be causing it to wedge itself a lot easier.

[BayouSlide]

I use a higher rod tip to decrease the amount of dive so the SB runs a little higher in the water column when I'm concerned about hanging up.

 

Something to consider.

[scaleface]

I love them in rip rap . Yes they get snagged but thats how I know I'm doing it right .

[Sphynx]

I fish them in rip rap and rocks all the time, and they produce for me very consistently too, as others have pointed out, in order to do it perfectly you need to be able to just tick the bill off the tops of the rocks, which means you need to know your depth, and you need to know how deep your squarebill dives on a given line type/diameter, if you use a braid to mono leader set up you'll lose some depth, the thicker the line, the shallower it will dive, your rod tip angle can massively influence the depth too, if I fish from shore I make sure that as I get closer to the bank I start raising up my rod tip to account for the shallower water. It can get a bit fiddly tinkering with them, but in my experience in the fall where I fish, there was no other lure that came even close to being as productive for both size and numbers for me, so it was worth the hassle to me to sort out the details of my favorite spots

[scaleface]

50 minutes ago, Sphynx said:

but in my experience in the fall where I fish, there was no other lure that came even close to being as productive for both size and numbers for me

Yeah boy! My go to crank then is not a square bill but a Bomber Model A .