When Oklahoman Edwin Evers needs to put bass in the boat in one of the many high-pressure bass tournaments he fishes, including the recent Bassmaster Elite Series, he goes “hunting” with his favorite balsa wood crankbait — the Bomber Model B. The accomplished pro from Talala, which is northeast of Tulsa, said he relies on the big-bodied, highly buoyant and fat balsa wood crankbait to come through the same kind of cover that spinnerbaits travel, which gives him an edge.
“I like to throw it in a lot of places people like to throw spinnerbaits. It gives the fish a different look,” Evers said, taking a moment the day after Labor Day to talk about the artificial lure while on the water prefishing for the Professional Anglers Association Tournament Series event at Lake Tawakoni. which is east of Dallas.
“I think it’s a great balsa crankbait. I’m throwing them today,” Evers said, “It really hunts coming through the water. This bait hunts side-to-side,” Evers said, then explained that “hunting” means it is hunting for center.
“That’s what we call it. That’s what we want,” he said about Bomber’s 2 1/2-inch long, 1/2-ounce Balsa Model B.
Lawrence Taylor, public relations manager for PRADCO Outdoor Brands, said there are many reasons the balsa wood crankbait is popular among pros and weekenders alike. Foremost among them is a new, highly advanced Tru-Track polycarbonate frame system that complements the balsa wood construction of the Bomber Model B. The Tru-Track skeleton frame does more than give it rock-solid strength, Taylor said.
The one-piece skeletal frame goes from the nose to the tail through the body of the crankbait, includes the diving lip and contains the solid hook hangers in the nose, belly and tail. That system eliminates hook hanger failure, he said, a common problem with traditional balsa wood crankbaits. Plus, he pointed out, since the lip is part of the Tru-Track skeleton, it can never be out of line or break loose.
So what does that mean to an angler? For one thing, he doesn’t have to use light tackle to avoid pulling hook hangers out. The angler can use heavy tackle, a decided advantage to getting those 3- to 5-pound bass out of the structure and into the boat.
Taylor said the Tru-Track system is inserted into a slit in the body of the balsa wood crankbait. After that process, a wood filler and sealer is applied that bonds the artificial lure together and makes it water tight, which is a key because it prevents moisture from getting into the wood, a development that renders a balsa wood crankbait useless.
“It works real well. It’s all connected. You don’t have to worry about any screws pulling out,” Evers said.
Each Bomber Model B is armed with two TX3 XCalibur treble hooks. Evers and other successful balsa wood crankbait anglers like to replace the front hook with a red treble hook.
Some of the Bomber Model Bs that are mirror images of each other inexplicably dive deeper than the others. Evers said he tests each one out of the box in a swimming pool to find out which ones dive deeper and which ones have a more erratic side-to-side wobble, that “hunting” action he talked about earlier.
The 35-year-old Evers said the difference between a crankbait that dives 3 feet while others dive 2 feet is huge. When he’s finished testing each one, he gives it a rating of 1 to 3, and marks that number on the belly near the lip and adds a “plus” mark for models that have the hunting action he loves.
Of the 18 or so Bomber Model Bs he had in his tacklebox at the time, the one with a 3+++ would be a starter because it dives deeper and struts its stuff with an enticing wobble.
When he wants the balsa wood crankbait to go deeper on the retrieve, Evers attaches a 1/8-ounce bell sinker to the split ring on the front of the crank bait. It doesn’t alter the crankbait’s action while increasing the artificial lures weight for casting purposes.
The paint job on each model is exquisite, Evers said, and very, very tough to stand up to the hard knocks of every-day fishing.
“They’ve got really good color schemes, all the colors you want,” he said.
One of the Bomber Model Bs he had tied on at the moment was a “fire tiger.”
“I’ve been catching some fish on it here,” he confided. “It’s a great late summer, fall bait. I really like to throw it in the fall when the fish start feeding on shad.”
Sometimes he’ll take a chartreuse marker and run a streak of chartreuse along the side of a shad-colored or white Bomber Model B, he said, or paint the entire side chartreuse.
There’s a good reason he prefers to throw that particular balsa wood crankbait. He started using them when they were put on the market four years ago.
“I like the balsa crankbait because it really bounces through cover well. It deflects off wood, off rocks. It works real well,” he said, noting he likes to throw it on 17- to 20-pound flourocarbon line on a medium-heavy fiberglass fishing rod.
When he wants to burn a Bomber Model B along a log, he’ll throw it while winding a fishing reel with a high-speed retrieve.
For more information on the Bomber Model B crankbaits and other Bomber products, call
479-782-8971.
