New line of crankbaits from Berkley called the Dredger series were designed with the help of legendary crankbait master David Fritts. This line is made to dive to depth quicker in a smaller footprint and stay in that depth zone longer. They also feature custom paint jobs that were a year long process to master in a mass production environment. Here are some of my experiences this summer with this new line of crankbaits.
The Berkley Dredger crankbaits have a good narrow profile that seems to help with their swim pattern. I caught fish on a 15-foot ledge really well earlier this year with the 17.5. And caught fish on a 20-foot ledge with the 20.5. Both were on 10-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon. The baits get down to their said depths on a very long cast with the lighter line. And they are compact compared to deep diving bass fishing crankbaits of equal depths.
The Berkley Dredger has a weight in the lip to help the smaller size bass fishing crankbait get to the bottom quick and stay at depth longer. The hard plastic deep diver has a knocker. The hardware on this crankbait is solid. Solid split rings. Decent hooks. A durable paint job. This particular crankbait caught a bunch of bass and still looked pretty good. The lips are pretty durable. They get scuffed like any good crankbait that grinds bottom a lot. But I was more impressed that the baits didn’t scar up badly with teeth rash and such.
The new paint jobs on the Berkley line of new hard baits including the Dredgers have a whole new custom line of paint jobs to go with them. I really like the Big Money, Homer and Chameleon Pearl colors in this line up. The baits are very good looking and have a custom feel to them even though they are very affordable mass-produced, deep-diving crankbaits at $8.99.
I had some really good days this summer on the Dredger crankbaits. A lot of times when the schools are large and competitive, you get weird bites and hook ups as multiple fish will roll and flash on crankbaits. So I like to wind a crankbait really hard and fast and hope that it grabs them hard when they do flash on the bait. Even when the Dredger was not in their mouth, they were hooked really well. I think that probably has to do with its orientation when it’s swimming coupled with its narrow and smaller overall profile.
I had a couple days in early ledge fishing season where they really chewed on a deep diving crankbait. Those are the days you get to cycle through all the new baits and see what the fish really prefer from spot to spot and hour to hour. Sometimes you could use the Dredger as a clean-up bait. Where after they quit biting a certain crankbait or a color, you could pick up the Dredger and get a few more fish. But I also found, especially with the little 17.5 Dredger, I would get bites in quick succession off a spot when I first pulled in and got the school biting.
You can find these crankbaits at the following online retailers:
