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I assume that there are plenty of people out there who, like me, have never ventured into this increasingly popular aspect of our sport. So it seemed quite a good idea to give a blow by blow account of how I made my first faltering steps into this brave new world. I will not be attempting to baffle people with clever talk – indeed, as I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t know how too. What I will do, however, is give an honest appraisal of how I fared. So in advance, I make no apologies for my lack of knowledge on the subject. In fact I hope my total lack of understanding will be what makes the articles interesting.
Please feel free to comment……The Forum is at your disposal!
Part 3 – Choosing My Lures
Once all my main items of tackle (rods, reel, braid, etc. – see previous article) had been decided upon and purchased it was time for the easy and fun bit. All I had to do now was get together a few lures – simple, eh?
Well, the first thing I did was email Eric again for some advice on what type of lures I would need and below is an extract from Eric’s mail:
“For crankbaits, get some Rapala Super Shad Raps, Creek Chub Pikies,Believers, Grandmas, Rapala Magnum 7” floating and some shallow divers such as Bomber long A minnows.
“Get some big spinnerbaits – I prefer the bucktail to the rubber skirts.Get a couple of large spoons such as the large Kuusamo Professor or the bigKilty.
If you are going to go into jerkbaiting, get some Dolphins, Pigs and Burtsas well as Bulldawgs.”
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| Zolt, Rapala Shad Rap (perch), Rapala Shad Rap (Fire tiger) |
But seriously, it was all a little disconcerting, and coupled with the fact that most lures cost £ 10 plus this was turning out to be a pretty expensive exercise. In fact it was rapidly becoming apparent that to get a good selection of lures in an attempt to cover any eventuality was going to cost me more that buying the rods and reels. I was not too happy, but I had come too far to pull out now and I was due on Blithfield Reservoir in less then 10 days. I assumed that my single ‘Shakespeare Big S’ would not be up to the job in hand so I would have to bite the bullet and start to spend again.
My investigations seemed to reveal that there were five basic types of lures, all of which could prove to be extremely effective on their day. These were:
Crankbaits
Jerkbaits
Spoons
Spinnerbaits
Soft Plastic baits
If I was to be honest with myself I was, at this stage, beginning to wonder what I had got myself involved with and was questioning the wisdom of my decision. I mean, what chance did I have when experienced lure anglers were struggling on the same water and I didn’t know a pig from a dolphin! Still, we were talking here of a place that contained huge fish and I reasoned that as long as I did the basics right and had the right tools for the job I had a chance.
I looked into each of the five types of lure, still reading as much as I could and pestering anyone I knew (and in some cases people I didn’t know) for any help they could give me. The comments I received, and what I read about the various types of lure helped me, I think, to understand what (in theory) would be the best uses of the types of lures I would be purchasing.
The following is a breakdown of what I finally bought and the intended use for each of them. At this stage I would welcome some feedback on the forum, as I’m sure I will have got a lot of this wrong.
CRANKBAITS
Creek Chub Pikie
A very popular lure. Rumour has it that this lure has caught more large pike than any other lure on the market. However, this is probably due to the fact that it’s been on the market for longer than any other lure and hence has been used more. Quite a shallow diver and so I bought a darkish ‘Pike’ pattern to use in the shallow bays should the water be clear. Tests on a field near my house showed it not to cast any real distance – and yes, I did get the local kids shouting “Caught anything mister?” Still they were pretty confused when I answered …..”Just a couple of grass carp.”
Rapala ‘Super Shad Rap’
I was reliably informed that this was a very good all-round crankbait. Its head down ‘wiggle’ (sorry I’m not too technical) also makes it a great lure for trolling. It can be worked to about 7ft on the retrieve or to depths of up to 10 -11′ when trolled. Again, this would be another lure to be used either in the shallow bays or if the pike were feeding in the surface layers. I bought two of these, a bright ‘fire tiger’ pattern for coloured water and the ‘perch’ pattern for clear conditions. After my ordeal on a school playing field tests at a local lake proved this to be a superb caster. Already this one was looking like a very good all-rounder.
Rapala Floating ‘Magnum’
This is a lure I bought principally with trolling in mind. It can get slightly deeper than the Shad Rap but its shape does not appear to lend itself to casting too well. For this reason it was provisionally earmarked as my first choice for trolling. I had tried to get hold of a deep diver such as the ‘Ernie’ produced by Muskie Mania but was unable to find one in time. It was bought in the white body/red head pattern, which seems to be quite productive – or was it because it was the only pattern in the shop at the time ?
Zolt
This was a terrific looking thing, which I bought mail order. It is quite new to the country and has been imported from Finland. It looks nothing like a fish, is weighted and as such sinks when on a slack line enabling it to be ‘counted down’ and worked in the deepest of water. Again I took it down to my local lake to test its action and it looked fantastic. Rolling and flashing it looked like an injured fish and it seemed to work equally well at any rate of retrieve. I bought the vivid pink/white/magenta version (Rainbow Trout) and I really fancied this one to produce.
JERKBAITS
The first thing I noticed about these apart from their huge size was the their tremendous names. I’m sure people are thinking of new names for jerkbaits before they even design them. Anyway here goes for details of my meagre selection.
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| Muskie Mania ‘Burt’ (Fire belly), Thin Lizzy (Brown, Trout), Cobbs Countdown |
A short double-tapered bait of circular cross-section. It has a ‘mouth’ on its underside which seems to trap and displace water making little gurgling sounds which I assume is meant to attract predators. It is a floating bait and doesn’t seem to drop much below a couple of feet deep. I thought this may be useful if there was a ‘hatch’ and all the trout were in the surface layers. I had this vision of a huge 30lb+ pike smashing into a surface lure which was imitating an injured or surface feeding trout….well, I can dream can’t I ?
Muskie Mania ‘Burt’
I really liked the look of this one. A lot slimmer than most Jerkbaits which should, in theory make hooking up easier on a take. A slow twitching retrieve has the bait rolling from one side to another. I bought two of these, a weighted version in ‘fire belly’ and a floating version in ‘fire tiger’. The weighted version also contained an internal rattle as an extra stimulus. Unfortunately the weighted version despite being advertised as a sinker, in fact floated. I rectified this by adding a strip of self adhesive swimfeeder lead to its front underside. This didn’t seem to affect its action and it allowed me to critically balance the lure so I could determine its rate of sink and fish it accurately at my required depth.
Thin Lizzy
No, this wasn’t an ex-girlfriend but another style of jerkbait. It is based on a ‘dolphin’ type pattern. This has flat sides, rounded edges and a large head tapering off rapidly towards its tail area. This was the smallest of the jerkbaits that I bought at around 6″ long. At first it seemed to have a very poor action on the retrieve but I eventually mastered it. Fast or jerky, retrieves were next to useless. The bait coming in like a lump of wood (yes, I know it IS a lump of wood!) but a slow, short retrieve gave it a lovely rolling side to side action that looked for all the world like an injured fish, the spotted. ‘Brown Trout’ was the pattern that caught my eye on this little baby and perhaps as it was the smallest of my jerkbaits I earmarked this one as my ‘most likely to succeed’.
Cobbs Countdown
Another one I purchased through mail order, but unlike the ‘Zolt’ as soon as I opened this one I wished I hadn’t. It is a huge lump of wood, it looks like someone has cut 12″ off the end of a broom, painted it orange and attached a couple of trebles. On a positive side it has a superb finish but it is just so large I have my doubts. Because of the length and diameter of the thing I worried about getting a secure hookhold and even then I could envisage a big fish using the large lure to lever the hooks out. That said, it does have quite a nice slow action when worked in the water and perhaps I’m worrying unduly……..the jury’s out on this one.
SPOONS
These are perhaps some of the oldest forms of lure around and they still appear to be quite effective today. I figured that for what they cost (approximately £ 5 each) it was worth having a couple in my box. The ones I had heard of were famous old names like ‘Big Kilty’ and ‘Kuusamo Professor’ that conjured up images of the old time piker’s casting spoons after the leviathans of Ireland’s Western Loughs and in the Highlands of Scotland.
Looking around the local shops the only large spoons I could find were in the ‘Toothy Critter’ range from Masterline. Upon examination the trebles on these seemed very small in comparison to the size of spoon and I concluded (probably incorrectly) that if they had got this wrong they may have got the action wrong as well. Logic told me to go for one of the old favourites.
Kuusamo Professor
The advert in the mail order catalogue described these as “a proven big fish catcher on trout reservoirs”. Well what more did I need to hear?
Ten pounds of my hard earned was on its way to Mr Fickling and in the post was two of the above. I purchased the largest size, which was eight inches long, and I also got a perch/silver pattern for clear water and intended to use the copper/silver pattern should the water be coloured. Upon examination I must say I didn’t like the second ‘double’ hook halfway up the lure. It seemed to me that a fish hooked on this would be able to use the full length of the spoon to lever the hooks free so I removed this hook prior to using it
Right, that’s a half-decent collection of lures that resemble fish. Well, at least look a little like something that swims. The next two categories of lure (Rubbers and Spinnerbaits) have to be seen to be believed. And all I can say is the first person to use them must have took a lot of stick !
That is, I suppose, until he started catching……
Lured into Lure Fishing – Part 4 – Choosing my lures (continued)
