Squarebill Crankbaits

The beauty of the Ima Square Bill is it's really three or four baits in one. While some other square bills are good burned, others are at their best when they're waked or twitched. Some do well deflecting off cover while others are best in open water. The ima Square Bill can match each attribute and talent, with no weakness. My favorite is to mix it ALL up on a single retrieve, going "from twitching to waking, to reeling it down to three feet to burning it." It's not just a jack-of-all-trades – it's a master of each one, too.

This lure is truly BASSMASTER Elite Angler's Bill Lowen's baby, a tool he's dreamed about for decades finally come to life. After countless back and forth conversations with IMA's engineers in Japan and mulitple refinements and prototypes, he's convinced that no other square bill can match his Square Bill. It has a stubby, rounded body that produces an earth-shaking wobble, bold eyes, a lexan lip and two sticky-sharp #6 Owner hooks that'll nab even the short strikers, although most bass absolutely choke this bait down.

This bait fits the "river rat," ultra-shallow fishing style. It runs a bit shallower than some other crankbaits of this genre, diving perhaps three feet on 12 lb. line and two feet on 15 lb. test. If you want to burn it over grass or in the shallowest water possible, upsize to 20 mono and it'll still maintain its hunting action. Rod lengths from 6` 9″ to 7′ are recommended; coupled with a 6.3:1 or 6.4:1 gear ratio reel. That allows anglers to slow it down and maintain power when dealing with a big fish, but they can still burn the bait when a faster retrieve is required.