New DEEP DIVER CRANKBAITS added to the store

Weight: 1/2 oz (without hooks)
Body Length: 2-3/4 inches (excluding lip)
Total Length: 4 inches (including lip)
Type: Hard Plastic. Deep Diver. Floating. Rattling.
Diving Depth: 8 to 12 feet (casting). Up to 18 foot range (trolling).

Note: These lure bodies come WITHOUT hooks or split rings.

Many anglers tend to have extra treble hooks and split rings. And many anglers prefer their own certain hook model to replace whatever hooks come stock on a lure anyway. That's why I offer you these crankbaits without any hooks or split rings. You'll need to provide your own treble hooks (two) and split rings (three) for this lure. Most anglers prefer to put #4 trebles on this size crankbait.

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CONSTRUCTION

I've found these deep divers work swell all season in any degree water, winter, spring summer or fall. I've used them almost exclusively for two years now. Before discovering these, I used many other crankbait brands on the market, including very expensive imports. I've proven to myself that these Deep Divers are at least as good as any I have ever used, regardless of price. I constantly fish with many top anglers using many other top brands of deep divers. So I can confirm the crankbaits for sale here are second to none.

If this crankbait look like one of your favorites, or looks the same as crankbaits you in catalogs, online and in tackle shops, it is because this same model crankbait is sold under several different labels and brand names.

These crankbaits are made in America in the same factory that models, molds and paints a number of different hard plastic bait brands sold by US tackle vendors.

With the #4 hooks I recommend (sold separately), the hooks are not able to marry each other. The front hook is not able to catch on the diving lip. The diving lips are integrated parts of the bodies. So the lips cannot loosen or break off. These are common faults of other crankbait brands - poor quality factory hooks that need to be replaced right out of the box, hooks that marry each other or catch on the diving lip, loose or broken lips - but these crankbaits do not have any of these faults.

It will impress you how little tuning these crankbaits need right out of the box. Most other crankbait brands, even the expensive imports, tend to require more preparatory work to tune them to get them to swim properly. However, the Deep Divers here come off the factory floor without needing as much tuning as other brands. They are made more precisely, the assembly, welding and finishing, than many other cranks out there.

Durability. Here's a photo of three different colors of this Deep Diver. All have been fished hard. Each has landed from 50 to 150 bass apiece, and exhibit a nominal normal amount of wear and tear:

The top crankbait in the photo has caught at least fifty bass so far. The bottom crankbait has caught about 100 bass. The middle one, easily over one hundred fifty bass (the difference in numbers caught is due to time used.) So they not only fish swell out of the package, but they withstand the test of time. The investment (excluding hooks) is about two cents a bass - and still going!

Note the belly hook track is caused since most trebles angle one point into the body. Every side-to-side wobble of a crankbait rubs the hooks in a swinging circle against the sides of all crankbaits. This tracking is "normal" and happens as the front belly hook rubs in a semicircular arc against the sides of all brands of crankbaits. I made the photo to intentionally show you the worst side. The unseen side is not hardly tracked as badly. Point is, these finishes last long. Even a needle sharp treble can hardly wear at it. If you use the recommended VMC In-Line trebles on the belly, this relatively new hook is one of the only trebles that does NOT angle a point into the bait. On the VMC In-Line's, the hook points scrape the belly far less than any other hook. So the VMC In-Line treble hook used on the belly of your crankbaits will help reduce or eliminate that hook track mark.

You can also see how the tail treble wears on the top of each bait. That's also from the hook swinging, and from fish rubbing the hook points against the lure. Most all brands of crankbaits develop similar wear and tear. It's more or less "normal". The ability of this Deep Diver to land and withstand 50 to 150 bass equals one great bait.

Rattles. The hollow internal chambers have ball bearings that rattle noisily on the retrieve. The sound can best be described as a chatter, and it can be heard rattling under water when the crankbait is still a good distance away from a boat.

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HOW TO USE

• Use Them More Often. Most of all, 9 out of 10 anglers do not use deep diver crankbaits enough. If I do well in tournament competition or just fun fishing, I have no qualms to tell others I caught all my fish on crankbaits. Almost anyone will assume I meant a 2 to 5 foot shallow-running crankbait. Even on deep bodies of water, most anglers tend to throw shallow-running crankbaits.
   
• Docks, Tires, Bridges. This Deep Diver runs 8 to 12 feet deep, and will bring bass up off the bottom in 20 feet of water. Many fish that suspend under man-made structure, like floating marina docks or marina breakwater tire reefs, the majority of these fish suspend about ten or twelve feet deep. They're not always up high near the floating structure. Most guys think a crankbait that runs 4 or 5 or 6 feet deep - barely beneath the floating part of the structure should be perfect, but they won't get the attention from the vast majority of deeper suspended fish that won't come up that high to hit a shallow-diving crankbait. A shallow or medium diver will not get deep enough around deep man-made structure.
   
• Even in Shallow Water. Even when there's shallow water with an irregular or rugged bottom, such as shallow reefs or humps or points with only 5 or 6 feet of water on top (and deeper water nearby), this Deep Diver can work better than a shallow-runner. Reason is, this Deep Diver will crash into more of the irregular high spots on bottom. When that happens, just slow down, let it float up a bit, then start and stop it stuttering across the high spot. As soon as it stops tapping bottom, meaning it cleared the high spot, expect a ferocious hit.
   
• Skip a Turn. There are times you should retrieve this crankbait slowly, moderately or fast. This Deep Diver can be worked as slowly or quickly as possible, exhibiting great action and stability at any speed. Let the fish decide what speed they prefer on any given day. Whatever speed you use, an occasional pause, a sudden faster rod sweep or just skipping a turn while reeling are all high percentage strike triggers (as is bumping into anything). To skip a turn is easily done. Whatever pace you are reeling at, count each turn you make of the reel handle, and stop reeling to skip one turn. You may want to skip a turn every 6 or 12 turns of the reel handle, for example. Just count, skip, count, skip, count skip... and expect strikes to come on the skip.
   
• Try Trolling. Many bass anglers don't troll crankbaits. This deep diver is perfect to troll, and will get down about 18 feet or so at the most, depending on trolling speed, the distance rod tip is kept above water, and fishing line diameter. This Deep Diver is extremely stable, will not roll or spin out. The higher speeds and consistent deep level of trolling triggers many strikes that are just not always possible to get while casting. First of all, you can't cast one of these to get down to 18 feet, and even during a cast, the crankbait only achieves its maximum depth (about twelve feet) for a very small fraction of the time. Most of the time (at the beginning and end of a cast), a crankbait is not at its maximum depth. With trolling, a crankbait is ALWAYS at the maximum depth. Again, the max with this Deep Diver is about 18 feet by having the rod tip close to the water. Raising the rod tip will raise the diving level.
   
  I troll either with the electric trolling motor or with the big engine at low speed (800 rpms) trimmed up. The length of line is about the same as a long cast. With a fish finder running, it's a great way to cover large expanses of open water - or to prefish for a tournament (if trolling's permitted during practice). When you find productive spots, return to cast the spots out with crankbaits (or Carolina rig, jigs, dropshot, etc) on actual competition days. These types of spots may be points, ledges, gravel bars, humps, saddles, ditches or many other definable types of structure. Trolling lets you find these spots (and verify fish are on them) faster than casting.
   
  However, many fish caught while trolling will seem to be hanging out in the middle of nowhere. These fish you really can't come back to target, since they're like finding a one-time needle in a haystack. It's only made possible due to the faster speeds and long stretches or "runs" that can be trolled, sometimes for a mile or more. Often, there's no way you can catch these "needle in the haystack" fish while casting. They may be suspended in open water or hanging on little patches of rough bottom on an otherwise featureless expanse. These little patches may harbor barely enough crawdads or other critters to keep a bass there just long enough until it gets a meal (or your crankbait comes by). Otherwise, what these bass may be doing out there, I have no idea. They are out there however, and really only catchable while trolling. The bottom where they're caught often looks featureless and there may not be any bait schools or anything that show up on the graph. But trolling these featureless expanses can be productive whereas casting will not.
   
• A Note on Color. Color does indeed matter. It is a critical decision you must make since you can only tie on one color at a time. You CAN tie on the right color - or the wrong color. With that being said, many days it does not much matter to me what color crankbait I use. I spend much of my actual fishing time committed to research and test lure colors. This means that most days, I cannot use my "favorite" colors nor what I feel fish may want. Many days, I must test new colors regardless of my or the fishes' favorites. What I find is, as long as a deep-diving crankbait is fished in the above ways, color often does not matter terribly. In other words, I can get most any color to work most any day, often several, There certainly are some days I may feel one or another color was preferred. But even when that happens, I will intentionally use 6 very different color crankbaits. Despite what I may have at first felt was a color preference, I tend to discover that fish often hit 6 varying colors equally. Above all, bass are opportunistic feeders; like billy goats, bass will eat almost anything. Bass will often hit many color crankbaits you pull past them. The inherent swimming action, the depth and the strike triggers (as explained above) are probably more important than color.
   
  
  Have fun with color. Many different colors may work on any given day.

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HOW TO RIG

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Rigging Kit (sold separately)

For your convenience, I sell exactly what you need to best rig one deep diver crankbait in a separate kit.

The separate Rigging Kit includes:

• One each #6 X-Strong Stainless Steel Split Ring (for nose)
• Two each #4 X-Strong Stainless Steel Split Rings (for hooks)
• One each #4 VMC Red In-Line Cone-Cut Treble (for belly)
• One each #4 VMC Black Nickel X-Strong X-Short Cone-Cut Treble (for tail)

All ready to rig, and comes a convenient, labeled plastic clamshell (not included, sold separately)

For those who wish to buy crankbait rigging components in larger packs, I also offer:

• 50 packs of #6 X-Strong Stainless Steel Split Ring (for nose)
• 50 packs of #4 X-Strong Stainless Steel Split Rings (for hooks)
• 10 packs of  #4 VMC Red In-Line Cone-Cut Treble (for belly)
• 10 packs of #4 VMC Black Nickel X-Strong X-Short Cone-Cut Treble (for tail)

All the above components are sold separately.

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Note: These lure bodies come WITHOUT hooks or split rings as shown below:

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Red Eye Bass ~ No Hooks

A subtle-looking "finesse" crankbait color that blends in with many underwater environments. A fine color for clear water. Imitates baby bass, small crappie and panfish for example.

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Clear Green Craw ~ No Hooks

A stupendous crawdad-imitating color, especially when it digs its diving bill like a shovel through the sand or dirt. I like to find a sandy bottom that's shallower than the maximum depth this crankbait would otherwise dive to, and just let it dig, dig, dig in the sand until a bass darts out and plucks it out of the sand. There is not much of what you can call free-swimming action with this tactic. Most of the time, the crankbait bill is shoveling in the sand. A good percentage of the time, the crankbait is scuttling over the bottom its side. Bass don't mind this side-scuttling motion in the least. I often switch to an orange/copper feather-dressed tail treble to complete the crayfish illusion when using this tactic.

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Herring ~ No Hooks

For thirty years, I have favored this classic style of hard-to-find "antique" herring color pattern. Nowadays, herring have bee stocked in large impoundments crisscrossing the country. However, this seldom-seen herring color originated in the northeast Atlantic coastal states where herring are native and make spawning runs up freshwater rivers. This classic herring pattern has a light blue back, a light pink side stripe, a creamy white belly, with no red chin splash.

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ White Pearl ~ No Hooks

White pearl works swell in all water clarities from super clear to dark and muddy. We often hear dark colors in dark water, but white pearl crankbaits are an exception to that. Ask any angler what color to use for night bassing, and the answer's black. Most anglers don't know that white pearl crankbaits are as productive at night as during the day, and under any dim light conditions at dusk and dawn, white pearl produces.

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Clear Threadfin Hologram ~ No Hooks

Transparent paint and see-through scale effect over a clear plastic body

Hologram Foil Finish. Refracts or separates sunlight (or any ambient light) into the full spectrum of many individual colors. The colors being refracted constantly change and flash as the lure moves through the water. The holographic colors reflect the present water and light conditions and also provide the illusion of an excited baitfish that is "flushing" and emitting color signals.

1/2 oz Deep Diver ~ Pale Perch ~ No Hooks

A pale touch of yellow belly color, a pale orange chin splash and an overall golden sheen makes this bait as beautiful as it is deadly. Imitative of yellow perch but in more muted and subtle tones than most other brightly-colored yellow perch patterns.