Crankinstein

haha yea its definitely a strange looking bait, it took me a long time to actually buy one myself because I was skeptical about the shape and its little pricey. I think that strange shape helps give it that aggressive wobble that traditional cranks don't have. The Roumba has a wobble plus a roll action that exposes the entire side of the bait to any fish looking up at it plus any twitch of the rod or change in reel speed(slow to fast) can cause the bait to pop the surface almost like a popper would. I think the bait shares a lot of qualities of traditional topwater baits in a crankbait package, a unique bait for sure and one any serious wake bait or shallow crank fisherman should have. I agree with you on the bomber and the manns minus 1 for anyone getting into wake baits because their so much more affordable but I highly recommend the Roumba for anyone really getting into it. Its just a really fun bait to fish and its gets hammered consistently.

I would say either clear, baby bass, or one of the shad schemes and probably the non rattling version for clear water.

Check out the IMA roumba its an awesome wake bait and they've got all the classic colors. I'd recommend the same ones mentioned above, sexy shad, fire tiger, black/chartreuse. Rattling and non rattling are both proven fish catchers.

X2 on this. A great technique for making it easier to cast weightless flukes and other weightless baits. Makes it easier to switch out leaders too. A Palomar knot or an improved clinch knot is just easier for me to tie than one of the line to line knots. I use a large barrel swivel most of the time.

Nice!! The pop x is one of my go to baits for hybrids and stripers. The one two punch for me is the pop x and spro little john Md. That bfs looks awesome, how do you like that ktf spool? How does it compare to the stock bfs spool? I'm ready to get into the shallow spool game, I have a alphas finesse custom on its way from Japan right now.

Its hard to find but the ABT X2 mini is the smallest body to depth crank I've seen. It's a 12 ft diver and the body is smaller than the average square bill. Think its either 2 or 2.2 inches on the body if I'm not mistaken. Another good one is the Luck E Strike Freak Jr. Its even smaller than the ABT but I think its depth is more like 8-10ft. Be sure to get the Jr though of you go that route because the regular Freak is a pretty big bait. DT 10 and DT 14 are always good too and I like the colors better than the previous two, theres just more to choose from.

Heres my top three. Roboworm bento minnow Shad shape worm

Appreciate the feedback guys, a lot of good info to think about here.

I have some hedgehog air ceramics on another reel that I might move over to this one. I don't have a ML casting rod yet so I'll have to start with the 6'10 M but I'll probably be in the market for one before too long. Any suggestions on those? I don't see too many ML casting rods pop up these days, in the US market at least.

Anyone have one of these? If so how do you like it and what do you use it for? What rod and line do you pair with it? I just ordered one last night and I'm thinking about using it weightless plastics, small crankbaits, and generally downsized baits. Right now I'm thinking about putting it on my 13 *** 6'10 M and using 10 - 15lb power pro or some light FC 8-10lb depending on situation. I've heard a lot about the Alphas and its variants here, looks like a great reel.

I just got a 13 *** ML 6,10 rod for dropshotting. I had been using a BPS extreme 6,8 ML that I've had for 5 years and decided to upgrade when I starting dropshotting a lot more. The *** ML is very sensitive and has worked great so far. I too am a huge fan of their casting rods and I decided to check out if their spinning rods were just as good. The *** blanks are just incredible all around blanks and you really can't go wrong picking up any rod from the line up. I can feel a fish looking at my bait now, highly recommended.

Couldn't agree more and this is one of the biggest reasons I frequent the forums here.

Chrome olive

Great looking crank! I will be ordering a few of these very soon along with some of those mata dredge jigs

I've been fishing the megabass pop x and pop max and the fish have been slamming it. As mentioned above the bass down south have been after the topwater bite for a while now. I'd also add that this has already been the best year for topwater I've ever had with several trips with 30+ fish on just topwater baits. Grab your favorite lure and hang on!

I'm just jealous your Dicks sporting goods has megabass stuff

Some great tips in here and I completely agree with the Megabass Pop X being an excellent popper. White python is my go to color with it. As far as chugs vs pops these tips are dead on. Pops are easiest with a higher rod angle and short flicks of the rod where chugs are better with either a side or slightly downward sweeping of the rod at a moderate or slower movement. And don't forget the most classic move of all with the popper which is the old fashioned just let it sit neutral move. I have so many strikes on my popper after popping it once and letting it sit or just letting it sit right on a target area.

I completely forgot about perch but that too. Thank you alee 17 with the assist

Its actually a really good color and a lot of people like it including myself. The bright color allows it to be seen much better in murky water. As far as imitating another fish I would say its most like a blue gill or a baby bass. They essentially took colors from those species like green and yellow and made them much brighter. Sometimes a lure doesn't need to look exactly like a forage species to be productive. General rule of thumb is go with natural colors when the water is clear and bright colors when its murky.

Pop max and pop x are my favorite megabass lures. Love seeing some of those crazy colors, they look cool and they catch fish.

Pretty interesting article, I'll have to check those out.

The new lures are always my favorite at icast. Spro has some cool stuff coming out. Their new BBZ rat wake bait won best in show and they also have a large little john coming out. My favorite from them is probably going to be the rock crawler crankbait they revealed which is essentially a Spro wiggle wart. Lucky Craft has a jitterbug type bait with a glow in the dark insert that looks interesting. Zman has a topwater shad popper made out of their plastic that looks nice. Megabass has a swimbait that has magnets that hold the hooks up against the bait, no word on price on that one but given the nature of large swimbaits shouldn't scare anyone away if it happens to be high. Savage gear has several new hard and soft baits that all look good. This year has one of the best selections of new baits IMO. The bait monkey is gonna have some real fun when all these baits hit the shelves.

I really like the XB1 and I would say its a very good alternative to a bait like a LC 1.5 DRS at half the price. It has classic square bill size and action plus the one knocker type rattle. I've caught some good fish on it this year. The weight transfer system also makes it cast really far.

I've had two go to lures this year. Spro little john md in chrome olive and Megabass pop X in white python.

Havent had any issues with mine. I use the little john MD quite a bit.