Just wondering what ya'll thought was the best shallow crank for fishing laydowns and such. I saw Kevin Short working a WEC E1 and was pretty impressed, but they cost $20 plus $8 shipping and handling. Is this lure worth the money or are there other cranks that do just as well.

You could thoe almost any cankbait with a square lip, they're pretty good for that or throw something with a longer lip. Or even some of the ne lipless cranks do pretty well too. It would be a good idea to have one of those lure retrievers just in case. They'll save you a lot of money any way.

Lure Retriever

it's definitely paid for itself

Im becomming fond of the cranks from Bandit, they deflect well and have good action

try some balsa B's

For $3.79 you can't beat the H2O Express squarebills from Academy. Great value in a plastic bait, but they rattle. The Lucky Craft plastic squarebills are silent. For balsa baits you'll pay a lot more. There are a bunch of handmade balsa baits out there that are excellent choices. The Zoom (WEC) baits are just one choice. Expect to pay $14-$25 for these baits. Old Bagleys are also great baits. The new ones don't have the special mojo. We have a link on our site, in the blog, to a couple of articles written by the maker of Black Market squarebills (from Missouri) that have a lot of info on this style of baits.

Steve
www.amistadtackle.com

I agree that any square bill will do the trick, but you find some better than others. Some are worth the extra $$$. But make sure you have one of these 44. Mag Lure Retriever if not your wallet will hurt everytime you get hung-up.

this can be handy as well...

The square bill is your buddy. I have seen that show many times and its all about timing as to when to stop the bait and for how long.

If you get hung up that shallow go in and get it. Lay on your belly, hanging out of the boat.

I haven't had enough time to play around with them, but what makes a square bill so much better in wood than a rattle trap? They both kind of roll on their sides when they deflect right, both come through the wood pretty decent. I like both, the square bill is starting to become one of my go to baits in shallow water, just curious if there are cases where one is better. Sorry for the partial hijack.

the lip is the deflector. traps love wood...

Thanks for the info. I have tried some of the baits mentioned here with fairly good deflecting success. That WEC that Short was throwing seemed to come thru everything ( TV editing? ). I've also been looking at the Brian's Bees baits and those looked killer. I dont mind spending the extra $$ as long as they are worth it. Shallow cranks are usually alot easier to get back when hung. I need a good retriever, I'll check out ya'lls recomondations.

Youll spend too much time hung up with traps in the wood -try an R.C. 1.5 shallow runner itll go through wood like 4-wheel drive!

Like you ever throw 1.5's.

I been known to throw them from time to time -I think I may been one the first ones to throw em around here and used to catch fish on em back in the good old days.