Bass Lures I Need to Start Throwing Again
Like anything else, fishing lures go in and out of style. Depending on weather patterns, media coverage and personal whims, certain baits become popular and are the summarily forgotten. I’m as guilty of this “shiny object” fallacy as anyone else. I can only fish one bait at a time, and as I increasingly have more options that means certain players get put on the bench for no good reason. Here are a handful that I used to fish frequently, that I still own in abundance, yet for some reason don’t get a lot of my love. I hereby resolve to work them back into the rotation.
When I first heard about these flattened ringworms crushing monster limits on the California Delta and Clear Lake, I figured that if I could be the first to get some around home I’d likewise dominate the competition, so I ordered some in the legendary “Witches Tit” color. Alas, I did not set the world on fire, but a zipper-style worm – the Berkley Pulse worm in junebug or blue fleck – later became one of my tidewater staples. I still have lots of them and there’s no reason why they shouldn’t still work.
Before I started tournament fishing the 4-inch Slug-Go was my go-to in the pond behind my grandmother’s house, and when I started as a non-boater I just about always had one tied on. Not only did it come through cover exceptionally well, but it could be fished fast or slow and skipped a country mile under overhanging cover on spinning tackle. Eventually I switched to a Super Fluke, and now I rarely throw either, despite knowing how deadly they can be.
This is where it all began – the lure that produced my first artificial-caught bass. The balsa construction makes them tough to cast, but that’s also an advantage – they land lightly and have a subtle action. Even when I got “more serious” I used to fish this and the Bang-O-Lure during and after the spawn. They worked especially well on fry-guarders. Now, however, I doubt I have one in the boat.
I was surprised to find that this one is still made — for some reason I was convinced it had been discontinued for well over a decade. It’s a small walk-the-dog topwater that replicates a small shad better than anything. I first saw one on the line of Chad Brauer when I prefished with him for an FLW tournament at Lake Minnetonka in June of 1997. After that it caught fish just about everywhere they’d chew a topwater – until for some dumb reason I stopped throwing it.
Of course, there are also some lures that I never really stopped throwing, but need to throw even more.
Foremost among these is the Zoom Centipede. I used to Carolina Rig it, fish it on a Slider Head, and also a light Texas Rig. It skips like a banshee and attracts more than just small fish. I used one to catch my sole Virginia citation, an 8-pounder from Lizard Creek on Lake Gaston circa March of 2001.
Along those same lines, years ago veteran bass pro Randy Dearman introduced me to the Bass Pro Shops Stud Fry, a similarly stubby piece of plastic with little nubs on it. I subsequently beat several partners with it out of the back of the boat, including one at Rayburn who then had a whole bunch overnighted to him before his tournament. Today the closest facsimile is the Smash Tech Bubble Fry.
There are also some that I never really threw, but own and need to examine.
There’s the Sebile Magic Swimmer, which for a brief snapshot in history was one of the hardest-to-acquire production baits around. It was particularly popular on the blueback herring lakes of the southeast. I understand that it still has a following among striper freaks. I bought a few, but I’m not sure that I ever fished them, let alone caught anything.
Another hard bait that I need to dredge up is the old Arbogast Mudbug. It produced my first legit 5-pound largemouth as a pre-teen. All I had at the time was a medium-action spinning rod and I remember that bringing the darn thing back to the boat felt like fighting a fish the whole way. If nothing else, I need to try it for old time’s sake.
