The Norman DD22 is arguably one of the classic bass catching baits that has been around forever.  Norman is a staple brand in every tournament anglers arsenal and that's why we featured it in a MONSTERBASS box.  It flat out works, the hooks are sticky and when fished properly, you're likely to have a successful day of bass fishing.

If you want to receive a box of hand picked baits specific to where you live and fish each month, then use code BLOG10 and save $10 off your first box. Join Now

Video Transcript:

Speaker 1: (00:03)
Yo. Hey guys, a smallmouth crush on behalf of MONSTERBASS. I want to make a real quick video talking about a bait that I actually got my box yesterday. Pretty excited about this. This guy's been around for a very long time. Longer than I've been on this earth. It's actually better how 40 plus years now. That's the Norman DD 22 and it's a super cool crankbait that man, I got boxes of Norman DD 20 twos and I got some real special ones. I don't even take out the package. Uh, I should. This one still says designed, uh, for Rick Clunn. I mean this isn't, this is some old school, you know, this crank baits been around for awhile. Um, it probably deserves to be throwing, but I would hate to lose that. It's, it's almost like a collectors. I don't, but I've got a few still in the real old old packages, but then I have a bunch of favorites that I'll throw on regular basis to this day.

Speaker 1: (01:02)
And so I want to talk about the setup per throw in a bigger deep dive and crank bait as well as some of the different that they make as well as some of the applications. And specifically a lot of people have thrown this bait in the past for large mouth. And I'm telling you right now, small mouth bass love this bait as well. And I throw the lot up here in the Northeast, so we're going to talk all about that. So here's the bait that actually came in the box. This is the DD22, but this is a sexy shad Chrome color, which is a really good color when you have a little bit of sunlight and if sun can reflect off of that, Chrome gives off a really good flash as it's coming through the water. Now for years, this was like the original crankbait when you were ledge fishing, when you, when people first started exploring offshore and realizing there's massive schools of fish, especially on the Tennessee river and some of the other areas across the country where these fish will actually go way off shore away from the bank.

Speaker 1: (02:00)
And this was a very effective technique to catch those fish. And so it's just been forgotten because a lot of different crank baits, uh, you know, have come on the market since then and I'm sure they sell them pretty good still to this day. But in my opinion, I just don't see a lot of guys using it. And I think that can be an advantage sometimes, especially if you're fishing in a situation where the, you know, those fish get a lot of the pressure. Sometimes the original doesn't get used as much and all these newer fancy type of crank baits are up. This is, there's nothing fancy really about this, uh, this Norman DD 22 now they make three different styles and it's really a doll kind of thumping action when it's going through the water. It's nothing special for, to me to, to see it.

Speaker 1: (02:51)
There's nothing flashy about this thing, but the fish love it. I promise you that. Now, as I said earlier, I use it a lot for small mouth. Uh, but there's a lot of guys that'll be throwing these baits for large mouth as well across the country. So you want to be familiar with the three different types of, so they make the original Norman DD 22 it's going to go down to about 18 feet. And a lot of people think it'll, cause it says 20 to reach that 22 maybe on a super long cast and light lighter line, eight pound test. Perhaps you could get it down that deep, but chances are, uh, you know, 18 feet is going to be about the max and you know, you have to really make some long casts. If you have some windy conditions, you really want to get that wind to your back in order to make that super long cast.

Speaker 1: (03:40)
But they also make a DD 22 H D and what that is, that's just a little bit heavier than the original. And so that's gonna allow you to get a little bit longer casts and has a little bit different sound. It's going to get to about the same depth, but it is going to help you get that bait out further and then they also make a silent version and basically that just doesn't have any rattles. It's super quiet. The only thing that you're going to hear is the hooks, the treble hooks as they move back and forth. When you're bringing that crane bait back through the water column. Okay, so when it comes to small mouth fishing with a DD 22 I'll throw these in any, you know, clear body of water, whether it be an inland Lake or the great lakes or any of the tributaries of the river systems of the great lakes.

Speaker 1: (04:25)
That's when this comes into play for me. At any time those fish are in that 12 to 18 for the water, 12 to 20 you don't necessarily have to be digging the bottom with this bait with generally with any deep diving crankbait when you're going after small mouth, you don't necessarily need to have that crank bait hitting the bottom, deflecting off the bottom. A lot of times, three to five feet above where those fish are position is going to be good enough to help you get some bites. So when it comes to color, there's a lot of them. I have, I have a lot of different colors here. I got a a Chrome chartreuse back, a couple different versions of fire type mad at fire, tiger fire tire with some glitter on it. Your standard, uh, chartreuse and blue bat citrus that got some crayfish, some main obeyed looking ones.

Speaker 1: (05:20)
Look at this thing here. I don't even know, but that's pretty cool. Then of course I got some, some dark red tomato color, if you want to call it that. That might be actually what that color is. Call. There's a lot of different colors. If I had to pick one, my confidence color for large mouth, it's going to be this, I believe it's called root beer. It's a root beer color. Uh, crane Bay. It's got little chartreuse, little green glitter, little bit of a orange on the belly, and then kind of a darker, almost like a green pumpkin back. It's a real good, uh, color that have confidence on it. It would probably be the first color I'd pick up if that was fishing for large mouth with a DD 22. Now, if I was going for small enough, I pretty much decided on these two colors.

Speaker 1: (06:08)
I'm going to use this one first. This is a truce. I don't even know if this is called. It might be a bumblebee. Um, they have some unusual color names for it, but you see a lot of shark truths here. It's got an orange belly, a darker back, probably like a fire tiger looking deal. It, you know, it looks like a perch going through the water. Of course it has that chartreuse, which is always good when you're fishing for small mouth. They love that little chartreuse on any type of crankbait that you're throwing is real important. So this one here gets my vote, but then they'll also like throw him like a sexy shad color, a really any shad color. But what's neat about the sexy shad is it has just a little bit of char truths going through it as well. So these two colors right here are going to be my main go to and I see to have more success, believe it or not, when I'm throwing the crankbait for small mouth, when it's sunny with a little bit of wind and sun, these crank baits can be deadly.

Speaker 1: (07:03)
So I actually just took this one out of the package to show you guys, but so the only modification that I would make brother, there's this, there's some complicated modifications that we won't get into. This video. Um, one is actually adding, bending the bill either slightly up or down. If you bend it up, it's going to allow that bait to dive just a little bit deeper. And if you force it down slightly, it's actually gonna rise a little bit in the water column. When you're bringing that in. And how you do that is real simple. It just takes some boiling water, um, a clamp to hold this crank bait over the boiling water and you let that steam heat up this plastic here and then you can take appliers, uh, make sure you have gloves on and you can just gently bend that bill real.

Speaker 1: (07:57)
I mean, not, not a lot of movement, just a little bit and that's sometimes can make a difference. But normally I don't, I do have a few marked a with a marker and this box, uh, where I've done that, so I know that they were on a little bit deeper, a little bit shallower. However, the only real modifications that I would do conscious of the hooks that you're using out of the package, the standard hooks that come with it, I mean, they'll work, but if you're in a tournament situation or did you do everything possible to get that fish in the boat? And sometimes for some reason with, with a lot of the crankbait manufacturers, uh, they don't put the best hooks that are out there. So they come standard with round Benz. And there's nothing wrong with Ron Benz, but I would put maybe some Gama got Sioux or you know, whatever type of brand round Ben you have confidence in, I would replace the factory hooks with those.

Speaker 1: (08:52)
I'll also throw a triple grips a on the Norman DD 22 and here you can see a triple grips on these baits as well. One is a short shank, one's a little bit longer. Um, I was just really experimenting with the difference. I tend to gravitate now towards the short shank, uh, triple grips. So something to keep in mind. If you're throwing a DD 22 for small mouth, there's going to be times when they're gonna come up and inhale that bait and a triple grip is gonna pin them really well. There's going to be other times when you're out there and you're going to get hits and you're going to lose that fish or you're going to bring the fish in and notice that it's hooked on the outside of the mouth if that's happening. And that depends on a whole lot of different things.

Speaker 1: (09:39)
It could be the, uh, you know, basically the conditions. And mood of the fish. If they're just swiping at this bait, you're going to want to make sure you have a good pair of round bend hooks on that bait because triple grips when they swipe, you have a better chance of losing a fish with triple grips. If they're just swiping the bait. Now, if it's on and they're grabbing and their inhale and debate and you know the strikes are you're not losing fish, you're really going to want to put these triple grips on because that's gonna help them stay pen when they jump and go all crazy like small mouth too. So when I'm throwing that DD 22, I'm going to throw it like a medium to medium fast, uh, retrieved through the water. I want to keep this fade moving. One thing you'll find is it's not gonna get hung up as often as some other crank baits that are out there.

Speaker 1: (10:37)
Uh, it's very buoyant, so it's going to back out of the cover, uh, quite easily. I mean, you can crash us in the brush piles and digging into some ledges, things like that. And you're gonna find that you won't lose as many a crank base just because of the buoyancy and how this doesn't get, you know, hung up as often. Now if you're crashing and the rocks and shallow water, especially jacket, you know, boulders and a rip wrap, things like that. Yes, you definitely can get caught. This Bill's gonna gonna catch that. But a lot of times, again, when I'm cranking, I'm not necessarily for small mouth anyways, I'm not necessarily interested in making sure that I'm constantly digging on the bottom. So as far as the equipment, I would recommend throwing this on a bake has been set up. A seven foot would probably be the shortest rod I would would use seven and a half to eight foot, uh, S you know, cranking stick basically, uh, something that you have confidence in.

Speaker 1: (11:35)
Uh, you know, that you can throw a crank paint, you know, that that longer rod is just gonna help you, uh, make further casts as well as play that fish a little bit better. Uh, for large mouth. I do like more of a, uh, fiberglass rod when I'm deep cranking these. So something that's a little bit more forgiving. Now oftentimes I'm fishing for small mouth. However, that fiberglass rod almost SIS gives that fish. I don't know how to say it. I will put this way, I seem to lose more small mouth when I'm throwing a fiberglass. Then I would like a more just a size up, heavier ride. And I think that has to do with the way the fish bites as well as fights differently than a large mouth could just be in my all in my head. Uh, I'm sure he and I've, I've caught plenty of, of small mouth on the fiberglass rod, but if I was specifically going to say, you know what, this is the pattern.

Speaker 1: (12:36)
This is what we're doing. They're biting it. I would make sure that I have just a little bit heavier rod if I'm throwing it for small mouth. So hopefully that makes sense. Now if you're gonna use a high speed rail, like a seven to one or eight to one or nine to one, or they probably make 12 to ones nowadays, you're gonna get burnt out by it. These are not easy Bates to reel in. There's a lot of friction going on that that water is really, really, um, grabbing this bill, which allows it to do its magic. But man, you will get tired out if you're thrown at a high speed rail. So I would suggest a six, two or smaller, if you can go with a five to four gear ratio, that's just gonna allow you to have more torque to be able to pull that crankbait through the water column.

Speaker 1: (13:25)
Now keep in mind you're not going to be able to catch up and realist quickly, but it's gonna save your wrist and keep you, you know, allow you to, you'll get, you'll give up a half hour to throw it, 20 minutes on a high speed reel and you're sore. I don't care how tough you are. So a five to four, you know, six to two, something like in that range is going to help you, uh, be able to fish this more comfortably, all day long. So as far as lying, 12 pound fluorocarbon, especially for open water should be good to go. If you're fishing large muscle, heavier cover, you want to get down. Um, you know, you want, maybe you want fish on the brush piles in that 12 foot range and you don't really need to get down any deeper, but you know that, you know, it can get a little sketchy.

Speaker 1: (14:13)
We can get a fish perhaps 15 to 17. Um, but I may think for the most part, a good, uh, 12 pound fluorocarbon line. You should have too many issues with, with being able to get that fish in the boat. Well, Hey, there you go. DD 20 two's really cool occurring bait. Give 'em a try this year. Give him a try while we still got some open waters, plenty of time, the fall bites going down. There's still going to be plenty of fishing and a bite this and as always, until next time we'll see you guys on the water.