For veteran angler Mike McClelland, few things feel as natural as putting a crankbait in his hand and targeting rocky stretches of shoreline. Growing up and cutting his teeth on the Ozark lakes, McClelland built an entire career around understanding how bass relate to rock. With eight tour-level victories to his name, many of those wins can be traced back to a crankbait grinding its way through chunk rock, gravel, and ledges — a technique that has become synonymous with McClelland himself.
At the center of that approach is the SPRO RkCrawler, a bait that was purpose-built with one thing in mind: cranking rock efficiently and consistently. When McClelland helped design the RkCrawler, he wasn’t trying to create a generic crankbait that worked “everywhere.” Instead, the goal was to dial in a plug that excelled when it was digging bottom, colliding with hard cover, and triggering reaction bites from bass that live in those environments.
The RkCrawler features a compact profile paired with a wide, wobbling, hunting action that comes alive as soon as the bait makes contact with rock. That exaggerated wobble is critical when cranking rocky banks because it helps the bait deflect rather than wedge itself into cracks. Each time the bait ticks, bumps, or ricochets off a rock, it creates an erratic change in direction — often the exact moment when a following bass commits.
Unlike some crankbaits that only shine at a very specific retrieve speed, the RkCrawler is versatile. It can be slow-rolled to maintain bottom contact in colder water or burned slightly faster when bass are more aggressive. The bait’s design allows it to track true while still “hunting,” which gives anglers confidence to fish it aggressively in places where other crankbaits might hang up or lose effectiveness.
