Hey, Yur Kickin' Mud!

If I ever hollered that to my tournament partner, I have a pretty good idea what his response to me would be. It'd likely be something along these lines: "No s**t! How 'bout ya tellin' me somethin' I don't know!"

For openers, I've been fishin' the North Landing far too long to even consider making that statement to a fellow fisherman, certainly not one who also has spent a lot of time there himself. There simply are darn few places you can fish in our "little pond" where you won't kick at least a little mud from time to time.

Dirt-shallow water often sends many anglers diggin' in their tackleboxes for soft plastics and topwaters, which we all know will get the job done. Some also will pick up a shallow-running crankbait. However, I doubt very many will opt for a crankbait like the Mann's Baby 1-Minus, which, as advertised in the name, runs a maximum of 12 inches.

These baits don't look like much, and there definitely are flashier and sexier-looking crankbaits on the store shelves, but these little rascals flat-out will catch fish...and have been doing so for a lot of years now.

I imagine all of us have used a lot of shallow crankbaits over the years that had a serious problem with durability. Given that you're supposed to slam these kinds of lures into all types of cover in order to provoke reaction strikes, why use one that splits, cracks or breaks in half after only a few weeks of abuse?

With a Mann's Baby 1-Minus, you can bang 'em on rocks, dock posts, stumps, and laydowns, and just as they used to say in the old Timex watch commercials, "They'll take a lickin' but keep on tickin." The lure has a one-piece molded body and lip, so bill separation never is anything you need to worry about. Regardless of how many errant casts you make (Boy! Does that ever apply to me!), or how often you crank the thick stuff, the bill stays in place without any special precautions.

The paint on these crankbaits also is very durable...a major selling point for a lot of potential buyers. After a few months, you may notice a little hook rash on the side of the body, but it's seldom bad enough to alter the color quality or appearance of the lure. When you bang around in shallow cover, you won't have to worry much about rock chips, slips or anything similar.

While you can high-stick normal square-bills when fishing super-shallow water, smart Baby 1-Minus anglers try to avoid that technique when possible. Why? Because if you're out of position and forced to set the hook upward, instead of to the side, you'll be driving the top of the body (the part with no hooks) into the hard roof of the bass' mouth and risking pulling the bait away from them.

This crankbait provides two awesome options in shallow water. If you utilize a slow retrieve speed, you'll notice it bulging right beneath the surface. When it's early morning, and the bass are aggressive and "feeding up," this is an awesome way to whack a quick limit. This same presentation also is great when fishing over submerged vegetation.

If you keep your rod tip further down and retrieve the Baby 1-Minus at a moderate speed, it dives about one-foot deep, give or take a few inches, depending on your line type and size. When fished like this, it has a surprisingly tight wobble. That statement sounds contradictory, but it just means while there's not a wide side-to-side swimming action, the body of the lure rolls on its side throughout the retrieve. In short, whether you're fishing for aggressive bass or finicky post-frontal fish, the unique action of this crankbait will produce bites.

Shaking a Baby 1-Minus in your hand produces the same kind of sound as shaking a maraca. It has a bunch of internal beads that produce an authentic rattling sound, instead of a thump or knock. It was designed to sound like this for a reason.

Most of the time, bass inhabit insanely shallow water, even when it becomes heavily stained or muddied. The heaviest stain often will be located close to the shoreline due to precipitation runoff, so that's where you can find the bass. This time of year, bass want warmer water, which makes this situation a common occurrence.

When the bass are in this shallow, muddy water, they need a little help finding your lures. They can't see very well, so extra sound and water displacement can be necessary. The Baby 1-Minus accomplishes this goal with its loud rattles and aggressive rolling action.

Shallow-water anglers can come to think of this bait as a must-have. How can you go wrong on a bait that, as one angler described it, "is built like a tank, operates effectively in skinny water, and has rattles that are great weapons in dirty water"? Those are some hard-to-beat qualities.