Rick Clunn - Custom Crankbaits

	(Feb. 2009) THE MAGIC OF SQUAREBILL CRANKBAITS I was fishing at Buggs Island Lake in Virgina June of 1976 when I received my first lesson about fishing squarebill crankbaits. Actually these baits were refered to as Big "O"s or Alphabet Baits back then because most were named after the intial of the carver. These were custom hand made wooden lures that sold even back then for $20 to $50 dollars a piece. They were hot at that time on the Pro tournament circuits because of their ability to catch quality fish. Fortunately the second day of competition I drew as my fishing partner, for the day, an old gentleman named Fred Young, the originator of the Fred Young Big 'O's. Fred was over sixty at that time and allowed me to take my boat and fish my water. He even gave me two of his handcarved Big '0's to fish that day. About half way through the day, fishing was slow and out of courtesy, I tied on one of Fred's gifts. I had made about a half dozen cast when Fred politely said," Son do you want me to show you the best way to fish that bait?" I mumbled, sure.. Fred stood up for the first time that day, made a cast with his wooden bait and began to reel faster than I had ever seen anyone retreive a crankbait in my fishing career. He sat back down and said, "You can fish the bait however you choose sonny but I promise you, you will catch three times as many fish burning it versus any other retreive." I had no ideal, at the time, how many fish and how many tournament victories that one minute demonstration would produce for me during my career. That day was the beginning of my love/hate affair with hand made wooden squarebill crankbaits. Slowly but surely I began to master this unique style of crankbait fishing. I began catching some of my largest career catches on these wooden baits. Some of my biggest career wins were on these baits. My first Bass Master Classic win at Lake Guntersville, Alabama was in 1976, the same year I fished with Fred Young, can on a Bagley Honey "B", a mini version of the big squarebills. I caught 22 of my 27 bass on the Honey "B". In 1989 I qualified for the Redman All-American at Bull Shoals Lake, Arkansas on a Bagley "B-3". I went on to win the All-American that year at Lake Havasu, Arizona. I won my 4th Bass Master Classic World Championship in 1990 at the James River using the Poe RC 1 and Poe RC 3 another wooden version of these original homemade crankbaits. I won the B.A.S.S. Truman Lake event in May of 1991 on a Bagley B-3 and the RC 3. I won the B.A.S.S. 1994 Lake Livingston, Texas event using a Norman Big N (Note:This was my first successful attempt to use a hard plastic lure versus a wood lure). I also won in April of 2000 the FLW Beaver Lake, Arkansas event on a Bagley B-3. You can understand my love for wooden squarebills yet these baits had problems. Number 1 Problem: Wood is not very durable. Of all the Tournaments mentioned above I never fished the final day with a Grade A wood bait. All my grade A lures had been broken or ceased to run correctly by the final tournament day and I was forced to use poorer performing lures. Number 2 Problem: Availability of quality wood baits is limited. It is very difficult even for the best wood carvers to achieve consistency with wood crankbaits. Wood density, wood resin, and inconsitent labor make it a very en-exact science. Mass production of quality wood baits is an oxymoron! For every 6 baits purchased I might find 2 grade A wood baits, 2 grade B or C baits, and the remaining 2 would not perform at all. Even though I will always have a soft spot in my "angler's heart" for wood crankbaits I had to try to find a manufacture that could duplicate the best qualities of a wooden crankbait in a hard plastic version. This was not an original ideal. Other companies had tried and had only minimal success. I tried most of these hard plastic imitations but they just were not right. In late 2006 Lynn Reeves and Ronnie Manrose of Bass Pro Shops ask me if I would be interested in working with Luckycraft to design a Rick Clunn series of squarebill crankbaits. Even though I had been disappointed with earlier attempts, by other large manufactures I welcomed this new oppurtunity. I already had experience using some of the high quality lures produced by Luckycraft. A bonus of working to design the ultimate squarebill was being able to work with one of the true geniuses in lure design and manufacturing, Minoru Segawa. In 20 years of working with manufacturing you grew to accept that the best you could expect was that the end product would be 80% of your original conception. With Minoru I have never received anything less than perfection. He is a true artist. Not only did he achieve in the RC signature series crankbaits the best qualities of the finest custom wood baits I had ever used, he more importantly created baits that are exactly the same and last 10 times longer than the best wood baits. The Originals in the Luckycraft RC series was the RC 0.5, RC 1.5, RC 2.5, and RC 3.5 squarebills. The following is a discription of how, when, and where to fish these magical crankbaits. Equipment: As most of you know I use a 7' heavy action rod (RCL704CR) for all techniques but it is especially important when using the larger RC 2.5 and 3.5. I use a Bass Pro Shop Rick Clunn Signature 6.4 gear ratio reel. I use 12 to 20# monofilament line. The stretch of monofilament is essential to getting hung crankbaits free without changing boat position. Even though I fish these baits year round, the prime seasons are Mid-spring to mid-summer and early fall. I tend to fish the RC squarebills in early spring to mid-summer around the same type of habitat that most anglers fish spinnerbaits. I prefer off-color water especially for the RC 2.5 and RC 3.5. The larger the lure the more speed (as per Fred Young) I use. I will burn it down into shallow logs, rock, or brush forcing it to deflect off those objects. I usually pause it briefly after it deflects than I take off again. Most strikes occur after lure deflects off object. I usually use 17 to 20# line on these larger versions. Where the smaller versions my get more action, these larger versions win the tournaments. I tend to go to the RC 1.5 if the water is clearer but I fish it in a similar fashion with 12 to 14# line. If fishing is really tough or I am desperate for a limit I go to the RC 0.5. It is my "save your ass" get a limit fast choice. The one time I don't fish these baits fast is cold, muddy water. It is also one the times I use the RC rattling versions. Most the time I prefer the non-rattling versions. That was one of the best qualities of the original custom wood baits. They were silent runners. This is even more true today with almost all other crankbaits rattling loudly down below. Another lesser known technique is early summer ledge fishing with the RC 2.5 and 3.5 squarebills. These lures will run 6 to 10' (deeper than most anglers realize) on 12 to 14# line. This technique is not used much and is deadly when worked around these early summer creek and river channels ledges in 5 to 10' (ledge tops) dropping into deeper water. Speed is really important in this warmer water. Fall is my second favorite season. I like to use these RC squarebills in the backs of creeks (preferably off-color) around shallow wood and rock. I also like to use it around docks where fish tend to suspend this time of year. This time of year the proper size to use can change from small to large depending on size of available baitfish. Again, speed is very important. Repetitive cast to a object is very important this time of year as well. Sometimes the strike will occur only after throwing 8 to 12 times to the same object. Another time I prefer rattles in the RC crankbaits is when I am trying to draw bass out of thick weedbeds. Thanks Fred for sharing your wonderful baits and knowledge on that special day long ago!!!! (March 2006) The Science Behind Orion Crankbaits Understanding angling pressure and its effects on a bass' hydrodynamic imaging capabilities will be one of the most important elements in our future fishing success. Bass Pro Shops and I have designed a new series of enhanced target imaging (ETI) rankbaits based on this understanding. The most sophisticated sensory ability of fish is not sight, smell, hearing, or touch. It is hydrodynamic imaging through the use of its auditory and lateral line system. The lateral line can be compared to echo location in whales. The ability to create very accurate mental images of objects, both stationary and moving, that can not be always detected with its other senses. "Just as the visual and auditory systems of vertebrates are used to form visual and acoustic images of the environment, it is quite likely that fish use their lateral lines to form hydrodynamic images of their aquatic environment." -- Sheryl Coombs, Professor of Hearing Sciences University of Hawaii Lateral line physiological experiments are designed to investigate the ways in which sources of water disturbance are detected by the lateral line system of fish and how flow patterns arising from these sources are represented in the peripheral and central nervous system. All lures, all crankbaits create their own distinct image. Many images are similar and could fall into a particular category. Round smooth sided crankbaits though different could fall into a category of images where rough our grooved-sided crankbaits would fall into a different category. The key word is different and more accurately, distinctly different. Most anglers have experienced how a simple lure change can transform an apparent fishing location from being completely dead to completely alive. Going from getting no strikes to catching fish on every cast is fascinating and yet mysterious, to us the angler. Most of the time we attempt to explain it through our own sensory understanding. Visually we explain it by color and acoustically we explain it by sound and on and on, never truly appreciating the potential sophistication of all the bass' senses working in unison. "As humans, it is easy for us to relate to the possible visual and acoustic images that other vertebrates might have of the terrestrial environment because we have our own perceptual experiences to draw from. Since we don't have an underwater existence, however, nor a lateral line system, it is much more difficult for us to imagine the kinds of hydrodynamic images that fish might form of their aquatic environment." -- Sheryl Coombs As an angler, to develop a more accurate understanding we must combine the theory of Science with our own objective observations and experiences. I believe within the auditory and lateral line system of the bass is a more complete answer. Initially we should understand that a bass can determine even slight differences in its environment. Combine this acute ability with increasing angler pressure and something slightly unusual will make all the difference. All intellectual speculation and rhetoric are worthless if it doesn't translate into success on the water. My experiences support the assumption of this information, that bass have a distinct ability to differentiate even the smallest differences between lures. There are countless examples in my fishing career of subtle changes that make all the difference. The most profound one occurred during my record setting win at the Bass Master Classic at Pine Bluff Arkansas in 1984. After using a wide-wobble, rattling crankbait I caught over 24# the first day and 23# the second day. I returned to the now famous ledge in Pine Bluff harbor on the final day to find the fishing a lot tougher. After making several non-productive passes on this 50-yard underwater ledge, I began to speculate that maybe I had caught most of the fish or the fish had become inactive or had left completely. Many years of tournament experience had taught me to anticipate all possible scenarios that might arise the next day of competition. One of my first thoughts was to give them a different lure, one they had not seen the first two days. I quickly change to another crankbait that had a tighter action and no rattles and within two more passes I caught over 28# off a spot I had pressured very hard the previous days. A simple lure change had transformed this ledge back into virgin water. IGFA Magazine of State and World Records recently reported that the largemouth bass might be one of the most intelligent game fish of all species. They suggest that bass can be conditioned quickly, by heavy angling pressure, to certain lures and may even be passing that information on genetically to future generations. Whether one wants to attribute intelligence to a fish, one should acknowledge that full utilization of sensory abilities enhances ones intellectual skills. Bass certainly utilize their sensory abilities much more than modern humans and must do so to survive. We are just beginning to understand that elephants, whales, and insects have a language below the range of human hearing and vision beyond our perceptual skills. To the angler this simply means, do not underestimate the bass! Our design of the ETI Orion series incorporates this knowledge of hydrodynamic imaging and other perceptual abilities of the bass. The ETI Orion design is a conscious attempt to create distinctly different crankbait not just another crankbait. We will continue to try to better understand and incorporate this information into the ETI series of lures.