Although “Mr. Ken” Franklin agrees the newer crankbaits look good and catch a lot of crappie, he’s a member of the original “Bomb Squad” and prefers to pull plugs made by the Bomber Bait Company.
C.S. Turbeville and Ike Walker, two North Texas fisherman, founded Bomber out of their garage in 1946, and their Bombercrankbait wouldn’t snag, even when dropped deep into the water.
Early Bombers were metal and wood, although the company also experimented with plastic in the late 1940s. Other models followed, like the smaller Bomberette, the oddly-shaped \Waterdog and the ever-popular Jerk.
More models appeared in the 1960s under the guidance of angler Floyd Mabry.
“I’d order $500 worth of plugs at a time through the years, and one time back in the early ’80s I bought $3,000 worth of them at one time,” Franklin said. “That was just before they quit making the original Dive Bombers.”
Franklin said his original Bombers will dive 12 to 14 feet deep. He trolls them at 1.8 to 1.9 miles per hour with exactly 100 feet of line out, which is a lot easier now than it was back in the day.
“Back then, we didn’t have GPS and fancy sonar,” Franklin said. “We’d just have to guess at the depths by watching the rod tips to see if they were dragging bottom.”
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