Mexican Mouseketeers

During last January’s visit to El Salto I experimented a bit with SPRO’s Size 50 BBZ-1 Rat. I consider it a big bait, 10 inches in total length and 2.5 ounces, but in the swimbait world it’s hardly a rodent of unusual size. Some of the west coast hand-carved rats are substantially longer and weigh up to twice as much. The SPRO produced fish up to about 6 pounds for me, along with some that weren’t much bigger than the bait itself. It looks absolutely sexy and tantalizing waking across the surface.

On this November’s trip, the topwater bite was not quite as good as it had been in January. We enjoyed good surface action several days, but many times the fish either ignored our offerings or jumped over them. One morning while fishing with Jennifer Combs, I caught a fish a bit over 6 on a Whopper Plopper while she had about 10 fruitless blowups on her walking bait. On a single cast, what I presume was the same fish exploded on her lure three times but never connected.

Toward the latter half of the trip I started experimenting with the SPRO Rat once again, but in this case not the #50 but rather the slightly smaller #40, which is 7 inches in total length (the body is 4 inches and the rest of the length is made up of the segmented tail) and weighs 1 ounce. The first night that I threw it I substantially outfished Hanna, who was alternating between our normal one-two punch of a Whopper Plopper and a Rio Rico – and this was despite the fact that she got first crack at every target. In fact, several times she made multiple casts down a key alley without eliciting a strike and then the first shot at the rat produced a massive explosion.

I’m not really sure why it worked when other presentations did not. Perhaps it was Plopper/Rico fatigue. Surely at this point the fish at El Salto have seen those two lures on many occasions. Somehow I don’t think that’s it, though. I suspect it has more to do with the retrieve. Between the Plopper, which is obnoxious and works best at a moderate and steady retrieve, and the popper, which works best with occasional pauses, the Rat plows a nice middle ground. It’s moving, but not too fast, and it’s easy to catch. The bass have to react, but not immediately.

The hookups were consistently good and I don’t believe that I lost a fish that was hooked on the rat, not surprisingly since it comes with quality Gamakatsu trebles. At the “right” retrieve speed the lure makes a nails-across-the-chalkboard knocking sound and by adjusting your rod angle you can change the waking action. My only complaint about its performance was occasionally the front treble grabbed onto the waking lip, resulting in a wasted cast, but that happened infrequently. At about $22 for this rat (and $26 for the size 50) it’s not a bargain bin find, but it’s still far cheaper than the three-figure custom jobs. I fished the Brown and Grey Ghost Patterns, although I’m not sure the paint jobs mattered much since both have white bellies. Next, I plan to invest in the black Ninja version.

Because the Size 50 is so large and heavy, you cannot fish it on “regular” bass tackle. I threw it on a 7’8” heavy-action Kistler Rod with 50-pound braid, although I suppose that 20- or 25-pound mono would work well, too. With the 40, you can throw it on just about any medium-heavy rod you own. I utilized a 6.2:1 gear ratio baitcasting reel, slow enough to prevent me from overworking the lure, but fast enough to allow me to catch up with a hooked fish surging toward the boat. I used both 20-pound copolymer and 30-pound braid and the lure worked equally well on both, although I’d be tempted to go with the latter in the case of heavy vegetation like I find at home on the Potomac.

It’s another tool you can add to the Mexican bass quiver. It definitely won’t replace the staples, but it can supplement them, and shows that even when you think you have the bite dialed in a little bit of experimentation can pay off. I don’t know if the Size 50 will consistently produce bigger bites than the 40, but so far I’ve topped out around 6 ½ pounds on both, with dreams of bigger mousetrapped bass to come.