Four Lures for Spongeworthy Situations

I recently bought 17 of a single model of spinnerbait from LandBigFish, which was the only place I could find the discontinued item in that particular color pattern. I waited for their Memorial Day sale to get the 20% off, which I realized at the time was a bit risky. What if some other obsessive out there swooped in and bought them before I could? Fortunately, it all worked out.

Yes, I know that the spinnerbait is discontinued because I directly asked a friend who works for the company. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is because my ongoing internet and eBay searches may still turn up a few more. I want to be sure that when I’m 85 I can still tie on a fresh one at the start of a fishing day.

Most tackle junkies and tournament anglers have a select set of lures that they save for special opportunities – models or particular baits that just seem to get bit more than others for no apparent reason. I don’t fish tournaments anymore, and when I did it wasn’t for big money, so I’m not one of those guys who says “I don’t break out that unicorn DD22 unless there’s a hundred thousand on the line.” Nevertheless, I still have lures that don’t get used unless it’s an important situation, and they never get loaned out. Yes, except for the few collectibles on my shelf, my lures are meant to be fished but not all of them get playing time during less-meaningful games.

Here are four that get treated with kid gloves until needed:

Phenix Vibrator Jig

After Bryan Thrift popularized the RAD Lures Chatterbait nationwide in 2006, but before Z-Man started enforcing their patent, just about every tackle company under the sun came out with their own version of the vibrating jig. Sometimes they just copied they original directly. Other times they made tweaks. The Phenix Vibrator (no, not that kind of vibrator), from California, was one of the few to use really premium components. I was fortunate in those early years to have a connection whereby I could acquire them at a very substantial discount, and I bought quite a few but today wish I had bought more. Once Z-Man got involved, Phenix had to change their design. I recognize that the original Phenix was not perfect – for example, the hook wouldn’t stand up to an epic day of catching giants on El Salto – but I developed a lot of confidence in it. Today, I primarily use the Delta Lures Thunder Jig, the Evergreen Jack Hammer and the Custom Chatterbait, in that order, but I save the 15 or 20 Phenix Vibes I have left for special occasions, when I know I need a bite.

Mann’s One Minus

Shortly after I started fishing the tidal Potomac in 1995, Dan Morehead won a B.A.S.S. event on the river primarily with the Baby One Minus, a stubby little crankbait that dives no deeper than a foot, which allows you to fish it over submerged grass on in super-shallow cover. Over the past 25-years-plus, I don’t think that there’s been a day that I’ve launched the boat on the Potomac and not had one tied on, either on the deck or in the rod locker. For years Lemon Shad was my go-to color, but over the past decade shad patterns have typically been better for me. Somewhere along the lines Mann’s changed the type of plastic they use in this lure and the new ones are nowhere near as productive. They don’t dive as “deep” and they don’t have the same wobble. I almost never tie one of the new ones on, and with a limited number of the older ones in my stash I worry, because eventually they’ll develop holes or come apart at the seam and take on water. For now, I just keep on replacing the trebles and split rings on the old timers.

WEC E1

About a decade ago, I worked on a non-moneymaking media project (I guess that’s kind of redundant in the fishing world) with friend and square bill guru Kevin Short, who was one of the handful of “authorized dealers” for Zoom/WEC crankbaits made by Ed Chambers. Short won hundreds of thousands of dollars on the WEC E1 over the years, and as a thank you for the help he gifted me eight of them. I’m not sure what makes them better than the competition, but everyone who’s really a student of the balsa game tells me that they blow everything else away. Ed Chambers passed away since then and if you look online you’ll see that these command a pretty penny. Will I sell them? No, so don’t ask. I’m just waiting for the right treetop into which I should chuck that chartreuse black back beauty.

Roman Made Negotiator Swimbait

Even among the garage cult builders of limited batch big baits the Roman Made models hold a special level of esteem. Talk to the pros who are into gliders, and they may not say it in public but most will admit privately that the RM is the shit, the one everyone else tries to live up to. Back when that first became known stateside, they were retailing for $150….if you could get one. Now Tackle Warehouse has the lure in one color for $259.99. I am fortunate to have a well-connected and very generous friend who gave me one as a “thank you.” I want to throw it. I know I need to try it. I know I’m not technically out anything if I lose it. Still, even though I’ve purchased some lures with three-figure price tags in recent months, there’s something about this mythical beast that has me fearful to tie it on.

There will come a time and a place for all of these lures. I just hope that I’m neither too cautious nor too cavalier, and that when they’re eventually gone I can be satisfied that they (like Navin Johnson) lived up to their special purpose.