Looking to add a few square bills to the rest of the stuff I don't use. Shallow diving up to five feet. What's your favorite brand(s) and colors for clear and stained water? TIA

Xcite Baits XB-1

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I like the regular old strike king square bill powder blue / chartreuse and the red craw version.

Same. I also use Tennessee Shad a good bit. Especially in cleaner water. Main thing with any of the Strike King baits is never make a cast when it matters with a factory hook. Their hooks are horrible. That's not exclusive to Strike King though. That seems like most baits these days.

I was gonna add that changing the hooks is a great idea, but I figured that was common knowledge.
Owner Stingers or Mustad Triple Grips will make a difference.

Strike King 1.5 and 2.5 are good .

Academy 1.5 are very good and half the price as others .

Lots of good square bills out there and I have found some really cheap ones that catch really good.

Never can go wrong with a Rick Clunn 1.5 if you can find them. Maybe Luck E Strike ?

The question is silent or rattles or knockers ? I throw all 3 but 2 are easy to find.

Red/Orange are good stain water colors or bream patterns and Chart/Black back .

Clear water , White, Chart/Shad or Chart Sexy Shad and Citrus Shad

I'm telling you, you can waste a bunch of money on costlier brands but you'll be hard pressed to beat the Academy H2O square bills for the price. Even the hooks are good on them. Landed my PB 12-3 with no problem on the Ghost Shad color (no longer produced for their square bills ) My newest favorite color of theirs is the red ear sunfish although I don't think it looks anything like a sunfish. I use it in lakes with lots of tilapia like Coleto & Fayette.



That said, H2O doesn't have an offering in black which is still my favorite crankbait color hands down. Never threw black much except for on topwaters at night and jigs until I got one as an Xmas present once and threw it on a slow day when nothing was working and ended up destroying the bass that day.

I had good success with the Strike King 1.5 hard knock when it first came out. I have caught almost nothing on it since. Is there certain situations or conditions that you like the knock / rattle square bills better than the silent? Or is it just kind of a trial and error deal? I still catch way more on the silent, but it may very well just be a confidence deal with me.

Like many have already said, I like and use the Academy H2O most. I have caught tons of fish on them.

Others I use and like:

• Strike King 1.5 & 2.5
• Xcite XB-1
• 6th Sense Crush 50
• Bandit 100
• Spro Little John (not quite square flat side but fish it the same in colder)
• Berlkey Frittside 5 (flat side same as above)

Go to colors Shad, White, Black/Chartreuse, Red Craw in winter too

I don’t throw them a lot. But Xcite and SK 1.5 are hard to beat.

Another vote for Academy H2O squarebills. Sometimes “you get what you pay for” but for many, many years now these have been an exception to the rule! Good as ANY others (for me).

ive got a red xcalibur bait that I keep going back to. It's a killer later in the winter, into early spring.

Megabass S Crank and Knuckle LD. For a smaller frogive the Super Z-1

Strike King 1.5 green gizzard shad with Mustad triple grips is my favorite.

SK 2.5 in Chili Red

All I have is Strike King and H20 Academy brand crankbaits. The H20 ones were on sale recently for like $2. I stocked up! They still might be, so give it a look.

I caught my PB (10.5lbs) in summer 2023 on an H20 shallow diver. The only problem I sometimes have with them is the hooks bending. They've never bent on a fish, but if you get it hung in a solid stump or rocks and yank hard enough, they're bend. No big deal though, just replace the hooks with ones of your choosing.

like the black

6th sense 50X is a really great SB.

Anyone like that KVD 8.0?

Here’s one I haven’t seen posted yet. Bill Lewis ATV 1.5. Great hooks, colors and gets through cover extremely well.

Caught my PB on this exact bait. #12.38

I think I'll just order up a couple of them. Maybe it will get me a DD too.

Honestly, the Academy H20 squarebill is my go to. Part of fishing squarebills is losing them so the cost helps. But they run great, have a great knocking sound and the hardware on them is solid. I have other pricier baits I throw depending on the situation, but I throw the H20 the most.

On the right lakes in the summer and fall it is a killer

Lucky Craft 1.5 and 2.5 cannot be beat and at $6.99/bait I can’t see using anything else. Recently had luck with the Gizzard Shad color.

I still have a bunch of old bandit 100’s that work just fine.

I really like the Berkley square bills

Strike King 1.5’s in Red or Sexy Shad. Probably my two favorite lures right now. My HS team guys use the Academy and Bass Pro squarebills and have really good success with those too.

Love the H2O’s but not fond of the new H2OX, they changed something and dont have the colors like they used to. Don’t catch them on the new one like I did the old ones. The rattles are louder in the new ones the old ones were more subtle. Maybe it’s just me.

Me too. Most of the new Berkley stuff is really good.

If you're looking for a "bigger" square bill, the Lucky Craft SKT Mag 110 is a good one.

Here is one next to a 10XD

Those and Bill Lewis ATV are my favorite. Both are a little fragile. The Lucky craft steel ball breaks loose and are no longer silent and the ATV bills break pretty easily.