Cold Water Cranking Weapon - River2Sea's Tactical Bassin' DD Crankbait

Total Score: 8.66 - EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD

Introduction: As the air and water temperature drops in Fall and Winter the reaction bite also cools. Fishing slower and breaking out the finesse gear is often par for the course, but River2Sea and Tactical Bassin' have created a crankbait that is designed to unlock the feeding response in elusive deep holding fish. The Tactical DD Crankbait features a unique size, sound profile, and action that combines to trigger bass whenever, and wherever, baitfish are present.

Meet the River2Sea Tactical Bassin' Deep Diving Crankbait

Impressions: River2Sea has been in the crankbait game for a long time and produced some popular baits like the Ish Monroe Biggie Square Bill, and a number of popular lipless options. The R2S Tactical DD Crankbait is the first time that the company has partnered with bass fishing experts, Matt Allen and Tim Little, from Tactical Bassin', to produce a signature bait.

The Tactical DD was designed by Matt and Tim to deliver a new approach to deep diving crankbait fishing, and approaches the technique with a tighter wobbling bait design that generates a strong rattling sound to elicit a feeding response in deeper holding, and larger, bass.

Designed to target deeper holding bass in the winter months this bait features a long slender profile and deep diving lip

This bait is a little smaller than many of the giant deep diving crankbaits on the market and measures 3 inches in length, and weighs in at 3/4 ounces. With a uniquely shaped head and long lip design the Tactical DD is designed to get down to 18 feet in depth and will float on the pause. Each bait comes armed with R2S short shank #2 treble hooks. There are a variety of patterns to select from, including some translucent and foil versions. Each bait comes with the signature R2S eye, and is also labeled "Tactical DD Crank" on the bottom of the belly for easy identification.

Unlike many other deep diving crankbaits the Tactical DD is actually pretty moderately sized, and can be fished with just about any cranking rod

Real World Tests: There was a time that the crankbait was my go-to hardbait, but over the years I've found myself more often fishing swimbaits in situations where I normally would have fished crankbaits. In many ways some hard bodied swimbaits are just oversized crankbaits when you think about it. The one situation where crankbaits still reign is when going very deep, and larger lipped deep diving cranks can be some of the most deadly lures for targeting Fall and Winter Bass. To test the River2Sea Tactical DD Crank I fished the bait from the previous Summer all the way to this Fall, experimenting with the bait in varying temperature conditions.

The Tactical DD may only weigh 3/4oz. but casts easily with an embedded weight transfer system

Operation: Bass Anglers likely know the team at Tactical Bassin' and already subscribe to the team's YouTube channel as they deliver quality fish catching advice on a wide variety of techniques and tackle. Delving into the origins of this bait Matt and Tim observed the unique behavior that bass exhibited when deep cranking and noticed how slowly anglers would need to fish a swimbait during the winter months, only to have the bass end up striking a deep diving crank fished in the same water at high speed. They realized that they were effectively able to trigger fish with a combination of sound and vibration frequency, and believed the bass were not striking the baits due to a core reaction inherent to the fish themselves.

Once the guys at Tactical Bassin' dialed in this core reaction they experimented with a variety of baits that would trigger this strike, but couldn't find a lure that specifically delivered what they were looking for. Thus the partnership with R2S to create the signature bait now known as the Tactical DD Crank.

Matt and Tim worked closely with Simon, President of R2S, to create a bait that would be effective in the winter, and contrary to many other deep divers they wanted to mimic a mid-sized baitfish versus just create another giant deep diver, as they believed this more moderate profile was the right size to trigger strikes from those deeper holding fish.

Though the lure itself is not that long the bait does feature a generous lip to aid with diving to depths up to 18 feet

The smaller size and the ability to get deep is one of the things that I found I liked best about the Tactical DD. As I started to fish this bait I found that I could fish it with lighter gear, and unlike many other deep diving crankbaits, I didn't have to fish it with straight fluorocarbon lines in an effort to achieve maximum depth. This is a crankbait that is designed to fish in all depths up to 18 feet, not just in depths between 16-18 feet.

Unlike many other oversized deep divers the Tactical DD doesn't require baitcasters with massive torque, and I was able to fish it with 7:1 and 8:1 reels quite easily