HENRY GILBEY’S BEST ULTRA-SHALLOW DIVING HARD LURES
Picking five ultra-shallow diving hard lures for bass fishing is a matter of personal taste, but I can’t imagine any shore-based lure angler in the UK or Ireland without at least a few of these choices in their tackle boxes.
In the past, some lures cast so badly and dived so comparatively deep that I imagine there were areas of shallow rough ground that could not be properly fished – the available lures didn’t enable the angler to do so. Not anymore.
Bass, of course, are often more than willing to hit lures that swim very close to or even on the surface, and these magnificent fish also like to frequent areas such as shallow reefs that will gobble up any lures that swim too deep. For that reason, we are going to delve into the world of what I call ultra-shallow diving hard lures.
Bear in mind, as regards my photographs, that on a hard lure of less than, say, 150mm long, I remove the middle treble hook because it is complete overkill, for me. Sometimes, I will replace the rear treble with a specialist lure fishing single hook and, for the most part, my lures seem to swim really well. There are a few that don’t seem to like single hooks on the rear.
Whatever hard or soft lures I use, every single hook is either already barbless, or else I have crushed the barb. I like to release my bass, and I can see no need for a barb.
TURBULENCE
Think about the conditions in which we might use these lures. On the one hand, the simple fact that they swim so shallow makes them deadly, but on the other it makes them tricky to get away with when the conditions are really bouncing.
A lure that is designed to swim very shallow will be far more affected by roughwater turbulence. Go down deeper with a different lure and you will find more stability in the water.
Note how these lures are designed – they have either what I call a cut-face because there is no bib that is secured to the lure, so the bib, as such, is part of the lure (the IMA Komomo SF-125, for example), or else they have a specialist bib that is different to your more conventional minnow-style hard lure (such as the IMA iBorn 98F).