The Frittside. The Squarebull. The Dredger. Those are just a few of the successful crankbaits designed and sold over the years by Berkley. This year at ICAST, Berkley will be adding to their line of crankbaits by introducing the Money Badger, a series of crankbaits that cover the medium depth range that will surely put money in your pockets during tournament season.
Balsa style crankbaits have long been a favorite bait for many anglers for their ability to move through cover, and with the life-like action they produce. The Money Badger is built with patented FlashDisc technology that delivers balsa-like action and also improves tracking stability. The three larger versions of the Money Badger have a balanced weighting and tungsten weight transfer system which makes it super easy to cast with a baitcaster or trolling behind the boat for the species of your choice.
This was one of the aspects that most impressed me about this bait. I was able to make really long casts with the bait and still be plenty accurate, even with the smallest version of the bait.
When I took it out on the water, conditions were not ideal for a crankbait bite, but I was impressed with how easily the Money Badger moved through the wooded cover present in my particular fishery. I tested it at a slow retrieve and a medium retrieve and I only hung the bait up once. These baits will also work great around rock and hard structure.
This is due to the unique bill design on the Money Badger, which is wide and round in the front and then tapers off as it connects with the body. Both the body and the bill feel durable, so you won’t have to worry about breaking it on the first rock you bounce it off on an errant cast.
To top it all off, the bait comes ready to go with Berkley Fusion19 hooks that are really sharp. I was particularly impressed with the 6.25 size that dives down to 11 feet, which casted great and ran well with different types of retrieves. I could feel each piece of cover I ran it through and only got hung up once.
I am most excited to use the Money Badger in the late winter and early spring for largemouth. It will be the perfect crankbait presentation for when the bass are moving up, can be found in the mid-depth transitions zones and when they are located on shallow to medium depth points.
With the particular design, I could definitely see these crankbaits succeeding in Northern fisheries for big smallmouth bass.
The Money Badger will come in many different colors including Ghost Green Craw, Vanilla Chartreuse and comes in five different sizes. Grab the one that best fits your conditions and go to work.
