SIX OF THE BEST
Hard plastic lures for boat fishing.
If you are anything like me, you will have far too many bits of fishing kit, and you will use only a fraction of it. It is bass lures that mostly get my collecting juices flowing, and I cannot help but buy more and more – floaters, sinkers, deep divers, shallow runners and surface lures in more lengths and colours than you thought possible.
If you’re like most anglers, you will use only a select few of those patterns every time you venture out on to the water.
So what are my go-to lures from a boat? Which are the ones that I pull out of the box, the ones I trust... the lures that catch fish?
Here are my top six hard plastic bass lures.
CHOICES 1 & 2 LUCKYCRAFT SAMMY & FLASH MINNOW
Japanese company Luckycraft designs some of the best lures available today. Each is wonderfully crafted using quality materials – they cast like bullets and they catch.
I ask many things of my lures. They should catch, cast, and they need to last. Land a poorlymade lure on a barnacle-covered rock and it will shatter. Not so those from the Luckycraft stable, as they have proved themselves as durable as any lures I have owned.
Two of them find their way into my top six – the unbeatable Luckycraft Sammy 115mm, and the equally wonderful Luckycraft Flash Minnow 110mm. Both are right up there with the very best.
The Sammy is the top-water lure of this decade. Others have followed in its wake, but none have beaten it for castability, durability and, crucially, bass catchability. Wonderfully crafted and containing both plastic and metal ball-bearings for casting weight and fish-attracting noise, this lure excels time and time again.
If I believe there are bass to be caught on the surface, then this is the lure that comes out of the box. I like the paler shades, with the Chartreuse Shad colour a firm favourite. However, when the bass are switched on, colour matters not. Simply cast it well out and work it back in a walk-the-dog style retrieve.
The Flash Minnow is a shallow-running diver that swims at approximately 1.5 metres below the surface. It has an enticing action that has fooled more bass than I can remember. Rip it back in a fake-and-burn retrieve (a fast reel handle crank with the occasional sudden surprise stop) and it can pull bass seemingly out of nowhere.
With this lure, I have always favoured more natural prey-fish colours, but I have regular clients who swear by darker colours.
Both of these lures are readily found in UK online bass lure stores. However, these days I get mine out of America through the eBay store http://stores.ebay.com/I-Love-Hard-Bait