If you watch my Youtube Channel, then you already know, I absolutely love fishing a Square-Bill Crankbait. I actually caught my personal best bass a few weeks back on a Square-Bill. You can see that video here. My local waters in Northern Louisiana make for the perfect Square Bill Crankbait location with so many underwater features in the Bayous for it to bounce off of.

My go to Square-Bill Crankbait has to be the KVD 1.5 Hardknock, Gizzard Shad in color. This color pattern is especially effective in the fall and into the winter when the bass are feeding on shad.

The 5 Tips

Use the correct rod

The best rod for fishing a Square-Bill Crankbait will be a 7 ft medium action rod. The 7 ft rod is short enough for you to make precision casts but not too short. It allows you to have better hook sets as well as the fish can get the crankbait further in its mouth with less resistance.

Use the correct reel

I prefer to use a bit of a slower reel for this fishing technique. My go to has to be a 

6.3:1 gear ratio. This allows me to fish the Square-Bill slow but is also fast enough when i need to really get it down to its max depth of 3-5'.

 Bounce it off cover

This may be the most crucial of the tips. You MUST bounce this lure around in the water. This creates an erratic action and also changes the pitch of the rattles for a short burst. You have to remember that a Square-Bill Crankbait is pretty much a reaction bait. So the more erratic the action, the better it will produce.

 Change up your speed

If you are fishing in waters that does not have many underwater structures to bounce off of, you can almost recreate this action by speeding up and slowing down retrieval. You can even give it a few random jerks, similar to a jerk bait.

 Fish the bottom

You are going to want your Square-Bill Crankbait to keep contact with the bottom as much as possible. This will create a more erratic action and also cause a disturbance of the bottom which will get those massive reaction strikes from the bass. You will know you're on the bottom when you feel a grinding like sensation and a little resistance.