Five Lures That Made 2024 One of My Best Fishing Years Yet
I claim not to be a tackle junkie. However, the longer I continue to fish, the more I realize how much specific baits can make a difference. I’m truly catching on to why we have a garage full of baits.
This past year I had some great success with a wide variety of lures. As I’ve looked back on 2024, I’ve realized that I should have listened from the start when it came to the following five baits. They truly opened my eyes:
Megabass I Wing 135
I don’t have an iPhone, iPad, iMac, iTunes, and I don’t send my blogs to iCloud but what I do have is a Megabass I Wing 135.
It rarely rains when we are at Lake El Salto, but on this year’s June trip we woke up to a downpour on our last day. I put on my rain jacket, boated out to our first spot in the rain and I thought we were doomed. I hate being cold and I don’t like being wet -- what was this session going to bring us?
Fortunately, Pete brought this bait just for me to throw in those conditions. I was worried that we only had one. It was new and it was raining. What if I lost it doing something foolish? Not to worry, it floats.
That otherwise-dreary morning session turned out to be one of the best topwater bites I can remember. Those bass loved that I Wing 135 – or maybe they hated it, because they absolutely crushed it. It flies through the air like a bird, hits the water and sometimes before I could even get the wings to flap the fish annihilated it.
My first Bacca Burrito from 2023 is at the bottom of Lake El Salto as of 2023. I wanted to throw it so bad, I put it on the wrong rod, with the wrong line and after a few casts, and a few hook ups I stupidly snapped my cast and it was like slow motion seeing the burrito fly through the air, hit the water and say goodbye.
I knew it catches fish, so I purchased a few in different colors, brought them back to Anglers Inn, put them on the right rod with the right line and caught the snot out of the bass.
I retrieved it with medium speed through the baitfish activity and I consistently hooked up with bigger than average fish.
I threw two different colors and the best part was the soft plastic held up for the entire trip, through six days of fishing and hundreds of casts.
I went fishing with Pete near home and I was determined to use anything but a Senko. You know where this story is going.
Pete was catching fish after fish after fish, and I was not catching anything. I was stubborn so I continued to change up baits, casting out, not catching. Meanwhile Pete dangled the Senko, attached to another bass, in my face. I wasn’t going home without catching a bass.
How was he catching them? Wacky rigged, my worst nightmare, I typically don’t hook up when I rig it that way.
And so you know the end of the story, right?
YEP, you do. After hours on the water, I tied on a wacky rigged Senko. About three casts later, I threw under a dock, and on the way down the 4-pounder -- big for the lake we were on -- bit, I didn’t screw up the hookset. As I landed it, I got what I deserved: Pete said “I told ya so!”
We both caught a bunch more fish that day. That darn Senko is the deal. Don’t ever doubt it.
This September I was schooled by Dave Mansue in the Ozarks. He told me the glide bait bite was on and that’s what I was throwing for the day. I hadn’t really thrown glide baits but I am always willing to learn more new tactics in order to catch more and BIGGER bass.
There was so much to learn: How to “launch” the lure, move the rod, cadence of the reel, and so on, all to make the bait do its sweeping s-curve movement.
I had a blast, watching it work its way back to the boat. I was so excited you would have thought I caught something on each cast. Truth be told, I didn’t catch anything but did have a follow (near miss) from a big one before we had to wrap up and go back to the dock.
I am determined to get one (maybe two) to add to my tackle spot in the garage and take it with me the next time I go fishing, when it’s warm again.
Pete and I went to Texas and didn’t bass fish, WHAT? Pete and I went to Texas and fished with Jennifer and Keith Combs and didn’t bass fish, SERIOUSLY? That’s right, we had a blast fishing for crappie. We didn’t have to wake up at the crack of dawn. We used Forward Facing Sonar (FFS) and minimal tackle. We kept our fish and brought them home to filet.
I’ve now caught crappie in Texas and Missouri with a slightly different approach each time, but using effectively the same baits — little minnows with a jighead.
I’m hoping that Pete will find us some local crappie waters because little fish in big numbers are just fun.
