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.
The top balsa fish producers are very buoyant, and the ima Square Bill
matches this key trait in each and every bait produced. This allows an
angler to do what Lowen described as “twitching” a crankbait. You bang
it into cover at breakneck speed, let it float back up and then impart a
little bit of action with quick pulls of the rod tip. “It’s like
walking the dog under the water,” he explained. “Deflect, pause, twitch.
You can snug them up to the cover, let up a little bit and they’ll head
toward the surface like a bobber.”
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.
Length: 55 mm, 2.25 in
Weight: 10g, 3/8 oz
Type: Shallow Crank 0-3ft
Hooks: #6
