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The durability of the XCalibur XCS Square Lip has impressed me since the first time I used it.

This is why I go out of my way to find and purchase durable squarebills—they’re the proverbial wrecking ball of my tackle collection. It’s all about reaction strikes when I’m fishing these lures.

Whether it’s a rock, dock post, limb or an old patio chair in the water, you need to be sure to make contact with it. In my opinion, there’s absolutely no point in fishing a squarebill unless you’re going to slam it into every piece of cover you can find. Regardless of your retrieve speed, the XCS Square Lip hunts without losing its original path, which in my case, has resulted in an incredible number of bites over the years. They’re spastic little dudes and our crankbaits need to emulate their erratic behavior. I always talk about the importance of a crankbait that “hunts” and there’s a good reason for it—shad rarely swim in a straight line. I can fish it as quickly as I possibly can and remain confident that it is presenting itself in a lifelike manner.

I frequently fish it on a 7.1:1 gear ratio casting reel and I’ve yet to be able to make it spin out. When burning this crankbait, you’ll notice it darting to each side a few inches before returning to center. I can retrieve it slowly and feel it thump side-to-side with an aggressive wobbling action or burn it around inactive fish and watch my entire rod vibrate due to its unique “rolling wiggle” as I call it. This is one of the primary reasons I have such a strong affinity for this lure. There’s one problem, though—I’ve only found a few plugs that will withstand a fast retrieve speed without blowing out and losing their ability to run correctly. It’s not science by any means, but I think there’s a lot to be said about the correlation between the element of surprise and vicious reaction strikes. I fish squarebills much faster than most folks. If I need to cast a squarebill into the wind, I’ll often opt for the XCS Square Lip for this very reason. When I’m fishing open water such as stump flats, long stretches of riprap and shallow points, I’m able to use the wind to my advantage without worry of wind knots and excessive tangles. I can pitch it underneath docks, into laydowns and towards grass line irregularities without a dramatic back cast—all I have to do is snap my wrist and the lure lands exactly where it needs to go almost every time. This has helped me make much longer and more accurate casts in both short-range and long-range situations. It doesn’t helicopter during flight and it resists heavy winds quite well. This lure, however, casts like a bullet with very little effort. This causes anglers to “pull” their casts and experience an increase in irritating backlashes. Many other crankbaits this size are fairly lightweight and cumbersome to cast. I most often use the XCS 100, which is the smaller 2-inch model. Weighing 1/2-ounce, I wouldn’t necessarily consider the XCalibur XCS Square Lip Crankbait a “heavy” crankbait, but it has just the right amount of weight to allow for effortless casting into tight, hard-to-reach areas. There are certainly times when a lightweight plug is most effective, but more times than not, I like for my crankbaits to have some bulk to ‘em.