Squarebill

The square lip is not about depth so much as about deflection. When the flat face hits a stump or a rock it kicks the whole bait violently sideways, which both keeps the hooks off the obstacle and triggers strikes from fish that were ignoring a straight retrieve.

That makes it the shallow-cover crankbait. Laydowns, riprap banks, dock pilings, stump flats: places where a rounder-billed bait would hang up on every cast. Fish it deliberately into things rather than around them.

Squarebills are usually short and fat, which gives them a wide thumping wobble suited to warmer, dirtier water where fish are hunting by feel as much as by sight.

The classic mistake is fishing one on braid or a stiff rod. Both are wrong for a treble-hook bait bouncing off wood: you want monofilament or fluorocarbon and a moderate action blank that keeps the hooks pinned when a fish head-shakes at your feet.