I'm trying to gain confidence in squarebills but most times it just seems I don't know what I'm doing. I have caught a few fish but I can go back with a senko and clean house.

The lake I fish 75% of the time is very fertile. The bottom is mostly covered with silt and old decaying leaves. Theres a few shallow spots that have a gravel/sand bottom. The shoreline has a few docks but theres a lotta weeds making it hard to gain confidence in the crankbaits. The lake is about 60 acres and has 1 inlet and also a river flowing through one end.

Should I just concentrate on throwing plastics or should I continue to use the squarebills and try to figure out what I'm missing?

If you're catching a lot of the leaves/debris with the square bill, you might switch to something like a spinnerbait or a chatterbait.

those are a little better at not catching all the debris, but still allow you to present a moving bait.

 

Topwater might also be an option

54 minutes ago, nighthawk25 said:

The lake I fish 75% of the time is very fertile. The bottom is mostly covered with silt and old decaying leaves.

Difficult to fish crankbaits here . I know a place just like it and the fishing is great .I use worms , spinnerbaits and buzzbaits .there . 

You can't force a bait to work in a situation it was not designed for.  Lake conditions dictate what lures to throw.  

15 minutes ago, BassNJake said:

If you're catching a lot of the leaves/debris with the square bill, you might switch to something like a spinnerbait or a chatterbait.

those are a little better at not catching all the debris, but still allow you to present a moving bait.

 

Topwater might also be an option

I tried a spinnerbait and topwater yesterday but no luck. I want to try the spinnerbait and chatterbait though.

I have found crankbaits can be annoying in lakes with tall grass and weeds, they'll snag and pull out every weed in their path. In such cases, I'll switch to a spinnerbait, chatterbait, swim jig, soft plastics etc. which all take in a lot less weeds. Topwater also may be an option if the weeds don't extend near the top of the water.

You want to find some hard cover. Also fish that squarebill fast. As in, as fast as you can reel.

 

Chatterbaits and swim jigs for weeds and grass. Allow it to get snagged a bit, and rip it out.

Now , you can use crankbaits that just dive a little bit  Manns 1 minus comes to mind  .I had luck at such a place with a tiny Bagleys Honey B .

10 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Now , you can use crankbaits that just dive a little bit  Manns 1 minus comes to mind  .I had luck at such a place with a tiny Bagleys Honey B .

So basically something that won't hit bottom? What retrieve do you use?

28 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Now, you can use crankbaits that just dive a little bit  Manns 1 minus comes to mind

I was thinking the same thing. Use a crankbait that doesn't dive as deep. Anything with trebel hooks is going to pickup weeds and leaves off the bottom if it's coming through them.

 

Buy a couple Mann's Baby 1- crankbaits, put some VMC short shank #5's on them, and go catch a bunch of fish and gain confidence. They only run about 6-10" deep.

For me this is jerk bait time and I would throw a shallow diver

36 minutes ago, nighthawk25 said:

What retrieve do you use?

Sometimes a straight retrieve , sometimes add jerks and pauses . Fast , slow .Like other lures , you   have to experiment to see how the bass are reacting .

 

You can hold the rod tip high to make lures run shallower too .

I fish alot of shallow areas with weeds, the 1 minus crank bait really comes in handy.  Or like scaleface said, using a 2-4' diver with rod tip held high will get it to swim pretty shallow.

45 minutes ago, NHBull said:

For me this is jerk bait time and I would throw a shallow diver

The waters fairly stained with 1-2' visibility but I have caught decent fish on jerkbaits when the waters a bit clearer.

59 minutes ago, fishballer06 said:

I was thinking the same thing. Use a crankbait that doesn't dive as deep. Anything with trebel hooks is going to pickup weeds and leaves off the bottom if it's coming through them.

 

Buy a couple Mann's Baby 1- crankbaits, put some VMC short shank #5's on them, and go catch a bunch of fish and gain confidence. They only run about 6-10" deep.

I have a few of those. I'll have to give them a try.

35 minutes ago, Troy1985s said:

I fish alot of shallow areas with weeds, the 1 minus crank bait really comes in handy.  Or like scaleface said, using a 2-4' diver with rod tip held high will get it to swim pretty shallow.

Since I don't own a boat, I find most places I fish a crankbait will be shallower so I use 17lb mono and that gets me 2' to 3' deep, depending how fast I fish it with a 1.5 squarebill and gives me the power to pull it through weeds as well.

@nighthawk25 I used to be same way about crankbaits vs soft plastics. I used soft baits about 95% of the time. Over the last 4-5 yrs, that has now become reversed. I'm an exclusive shallower cranker because I'm usually fishing water < 6 ft or fishing from the bank. 

 

As others have said, you gotta get the correct crankbait to match your scenario, then you'll become a believer in cranks. My best fish over the last few yrs have been on shallow cranks. For areas with grass and weeds I use the Baby 1- a lot (change the stock hooks cause they're terrible). The small BPS Egg is good too, as is the Academy brand H2O Express wakebait. 6th Sense also has a wakebait 80x Movement that has an extremely wide wobble. These all go 1 ft or less. The trick is to vary the retrieve with a burn and pause retrieve. Like 1-4 really fast handle turns, then pause. The bass will slam it on the pause. 

 

Another good cranking method for shallow grass is a 1/4 oz lipless crank. I'm a big fan of Strike King Redeye Shad but other prefer a Rattle Trap. Spool up with some stout line like 15 lb Big Game, Seaguar Invizx or even some 20-30 lb braid. Same retrieve - burn and pause it. You'll get slammed on the pause. Works great too if you occasionally get snagged in some grass. Rip it free & you'll get bites that way too.