Lucky Craft Vs H2O (Acadamy Store Brand)

[denjac]

A Web log by Adam Johnson

Lure Review: H2O Express crankbaits

June 22, 2009 at 07:55 PM

Have we found the "$4 Lucky Craft"?

If you’re like me no matter how much I try to avoid it when I am browsing around at one of the major tackle retailers, ultimately I find myself salivating over all the shiny Lucky Craft crankbaits. All shapes and sizes abound in the “Mercedes” of fishing lures, however one thing holds common for the lures, the $14-$18 price tag.

I know there are many of you out there who scoff at the idea of spending that much for a bass lure. But I must admit long ago I decided to take the plunge and purchased my first Lucky Craft. I’ll also admit that I have on more than one occasion nearly shed tears after breaking off or breaking the lip of one of these pricy plugs. Even though I have tried a good bit of the lucky craft line up I have found that the only lure I consistently purchase and use are the Lucky Craft RC 1.5 and 2.5’s. With their square bill and fat body they are perfect for one of my favorite techniques: crashing a crankbait.

Anyone who is familiar with this technique knows it can do some serious damage to a crankbait. So for the last two years I have been searching for the perfect alternative to my $16 crankbait woes, and my friends I believe I have finally found just the diver.

During my time as the WIU bass club’s President I tried to bring in as many guest speakers as I could round up in hopes of improving our overall skill as anglers. One of the presenters I managed to get to share some knowledge with us was David Prosser. Aside from being a Western alumni, David is also on the Pro Staff of Academy Outdoors as well as being an accomplished tournament angler. For any of you who don’t know, Academy Outdoors is a major outdoor retailer predominantly in the Southern portion of the U.S.

While at our meeting David not only shared some valuable bass fishing insight but also brought along several of the Academy Outdoors crankbaits also known as H2O Express Crankbaits. Since then I have received a variety of the H2O Express cranks and have had a chance to use several of the models. So I don’t go on to long I am going to limit the review to the CRS Model cranks. That being said there are quite a few different options of H2O Express lures ranging from top waters to deep divers. Here is the basic info on the H2O Express CRS Crankbaits.

H2O Express: H2O Express Hardbaits Home Site

Model: CRS

Weight: half-ounce

Length: 2 inch

Dive Depth: 2-5 feet

Price: $3.29-$3.99

Just as in my previous reviews I will break it into three sections: Appearance, Performance, and Concluding Thoughts.

Appearance.

Upon first opening up one of the H2O Express CRS’s I found myself getting a the feeling I was holding a lure far more pricy than its 3.99 tag. It also did have a very similar look to a Lucky Craft RC or BDS(CRS-BDS coincidence?) The cranks have a very thin lip which is a trade mark of many more pricy divers and many believe allow the cranks to reach there desired depth sooner than with a traditional bill. Another selling point to the cranks is the pair of VMC trebles dangling from there bellies which is rarely found on 4 dollar and under lures. The CRS even sports an oval split ring to tie on to which is found most commonly on high priced Japanese lures. I also noted that no tell tale signs of cheaper made products such as excess plastic on the mold, or excess paint was to be found on the CRS’s. The CRS cranks also come with internal rattles. Whether they aid in the casting distance or not, I’m not sure. But they do have a solid low pitch clacking sound not too dissimilar to the Xcaliber 1 knockers.

The color schemes offered in the H2O Express baits rival that of just about any manufacturer with quite a few colors closely matching Lucky Craft colors. The differences in the “Table Rock Shad/Lavender Shad” and “sexy chartreuse shad” colors I compared were small if at all.

A couple comparisons to a Lucky Craft RC 1.5

The color schemes are also similar. Though the American Shad I still have to tip my hat to Lucky Craft on.

But they do offer an assortment of great colors. A few more.

Performance.

To test out these new cranks I brought them to my favorite cranking lake of all time, Spring Lake in McDonough County. Because of aquatic algaecide and herbicide placed into the water on a yearly basis by the city of Macomb almost no vegetation grows in the lake making it perfect for throwing shallow cranks without worry of fouling on submerged grass. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the three separate CRS’s I tied on my 7ft medium action crankin stick all ran extremely true straight out of the box. They also didn’t seem to have any problem rolling over or side to side when burning the bait back to the boat. Of course the true test of any square billed crank I throw is its ability to come through any lay down I toss it into and I can confidently say that the CRS made it through just about any lay down or rip rap I tossed it around. The only minor flaw I noticed in the H2O Express cranks was that their paint did seem to come off rather easily. Now I know its for the most part unpreventable when running cranks through cover especially rip rap and other rocks, but I do believe the more expensive lures such as the Lucky Craft RC 1.5’s do hold their paint a little better with fewer chips.

Concluding thoughts.

There are definitely positives and negatives to the H2O Express CRS crankbaits. The majority of the negatives however have very little to do with the plugs themselves. The obvious physical flaw as I mentioned earlier seemed to be in the paint job being susceptible to chipping. Still at under $4 a lure you can chip your way through 4 CRS crank’s before you’ve equaled the cost of one Lucky Craft The true downfall of these baits and this line of lures is the difficulty in getting a hold of them. Academy Outdoors as far as I know doesn’t even have a store in the state of Illinois and the closest as far as I know is Missouri, Kentucky, or Tennessee.

To make matters worse, they also don’t have an online store to purchase the cranks which are sold exclusively at Academy Outdoors stores and subsequently won’t be found on major online tackle giants such as Basspro.com, Tacklewarehouse.com, or Basstackledepot.com. As far as I know the only way to get a hold of these bargain secrets of the bass fishing world is to make the drive down yourself, have someone ship them to you, or purchase them on a trading post such as eBay or BassBoatCentral.com(heres a link to a guy who ships them all over for a small increase in price Thread for H2O Baits Shipped to your door). Still I would say positives far outweigh the negatives of trying to get a hold of a batch.

So the next time your traveling down south and happen to drive past an Academy Outdoors store on the interstate I would encourage you to stop in and pick up a few. At only 3.99 you can load up on quality cranks for a fraction of the cost. Or if you’re like me and simply can’t wait that long you can call up a friend or relative who lives south of the Mason-Dixon line and see if they’ll ship you up a few. I think you’ll find yourself holding a lure that is almost if not entirely as good as a Lucky Craft BDS or RC at a quarter of the cost.

O and of course, the ultimate question… Do they catch fish? I sure think so.

(0) Comments :: Permalink

[wily]

i use them...the best one i'd say is a crawdad medium diver...but i also like the RC series.

i think they are the same baits as the LC knock-offs on the jann's netcraft site...albeit with hooks.

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/crankbait-bodies/

[shockley32]

Does H2O/Academy make stick baits? How do they compare?

Thinking about ordering some through Netcraft, they look good. How hard is it to put them together?

Brad

[denjac]

Does H2O/Academy make stick baits? How do they compare?

Brad

Yes they do, nice!

[Buzz]

They do have some very good looking baits. Since I recently made a verbal commitment to fish more cranks this year, I think I'll have to get a few more.

[redbud]

I was in Joplin the other day on business and I stopped at Academy on the way out of town. Nice store, good prices...hopefully they will break ground at the Rogers location soon.Here are some pics of the H2o X lures I picked up. should provide a little better detail than their website.

[Quillback]

Does H2O/Academy make stick baits? How do they compare?

Thinking about ordering some through Netcraft, they look good. How hard is it to put them together?

Brad

I bought some Netcraft painted suspending (100 size) stickbait bodies. All you need are some #2 split rings and treble hooks of your choice, size #4 recommended. Get a good pair of split ring pliers also, BassPro has an offset, narrow nose split ring pliers that work, in my opinion, better than the traditional needle nose style, with smaller split rings. Anyway you just attach the rings, attach the hooks, and maybe put a split ring on the nose to tie your line to and you are good to go, takes about 5 minutes per bait.

What I don't know is how well these stickbaits will work vs something like a Spro McStick, but I'll give them a try this spring.

[shockley32]

Quillback,

Thanks for the info!

Brad

[Gary Lange]

Well if the weather would give me a break I would take a run to Joplin and see what this is all about. I am not going to go when we getting all this snow and rain though.

[mosouthpaw]

Well if the weather would give me a break I would take a run to Joplin and see what this is all about. I am not going to go when we getting all this snow and rain though.

gary a trip to the academy is worth the drive, the prices are hard to beat and they have great prices on outboard oil. i was paying 18.99 for the mercury premium plus a gallon. 7-8 cheaper then BPS