BIG LURES – BIG BASS?
Why sometimes the best option is to go large or go home
Why the option can be to go large.
Don’t be afraid to go big – that’s my motto. When it comes to bass fishing, both with livebaits or lures, I quite often break from tradition and go for the biggest bait or lure I can lay my hands on. Years of trial and error have proven to me that more often than not ‘giving it large’ can really pay dividends.
I first discovered the importance of big lures about 20 years ago when I was doing a bit of pike fishing on the River Nene. I’d spent days using the standard 5in hard lures with minimal success, then one day out of pure frustration I stuck on a 10in Rapala and began catching consistently. They weren’t huge pike either, maybe up to 20lb, with a lot of jack pike that were barely a few inches bigger than the monstrous lure.
That experience proved to me that predatory fish think nothing of trying to eat something that’s the same size as they are, and I soon brought that theory into my bass fishing.
MATCH THE HATCH
How many times have we been told to ‘match the hatch’ when it comes to lure selection? For the most part, using something that resembles what the bass are actually feeding on will catch you plenty of fish. But just think outside the box for a minute – put yourself in the position of a 10lb bass.
I love eating biscuits, and can happily munch my way through an entire packet in one sitting. However, if I’m ploughing into a packet of
Rich Tea and then someone offers me big bar of chocolate, you know exactly what I’m going to do, don’t you?
I’m convinced that bass are of the same mindset. Imagine that the bass are feeding heavily on tiny whitebait or sand smelt, then all of a sudden a big juicy mackerel comes into view. No big bass is going to refuse that taste sensation.
Just recently, on a bass lure fishing trip off the south coast, I proved my point yet again. The bass were obviously feeding on small fry, and the fishing was extremely hard, even though we were catching the occasional fish and we could see the bass on the sounder.
About halfway through the session I decided to break out my old faithful Daiwa D-Swim Shads, 5½in of pure white brilliance, mounted on a large 100g jig-head. Within minutes of dropping it down, I was stuck into a 6lb-plus bass. We’d only been catching small fish to around 3lb all day, and that change of lure worked wonders.
I would say it was a lucky drift, but it has happened to me on more occasions that I can actually remember.
HEAVY METAL
Of course, it’s not just a good tactic to use big lures when searching out big bass in terms of the actual size of the lure, you have to consider the weight too.
For many years I have used lighter lures up to 40g on a fixed lead system, whereby I’ve had to use a further 2-3oz on a lead clip to get the lure down when fishing deep-water sandbanks on big tides. Not anymore though. These days I prefer to use a single, heavy lure, and in my box of goodies I have numerous leadheads ranging from 65g to 150g specifically for this purpose.
There are a few custom leadhead makers out there, who you can find on Facebook with a little bit of digging, but for the most part I use the Savage Gear Sandeel heads, which are available in a huge range of hook sizes, weights and styles in packs of two.
It’s such a game changer using a single lure as opposed to a lead and trace arrangement. You have direct contact to the lure and fish once you’re hooked up, without additional lead weight flying about a few feet up your line. That alone is a completely different sensation too.
HOW LONG?
In my box of deep-water lure tricks I have a selection of large lures, ranging from 5½in bodies all the way up to the 9in Fiiish Crazy Sandeels. These lures have all caught me big bass over the years, and more often than not they have brought me an extra bite or two when the fishing has been really slow and hard.
I really don’t think there is a limit to how big you can go with a lure, as long as the hook is in a prominent position so that you can actually hook an attacking bass.
I have caught no end of 1lb 8oz schoolies on 12in mackerel livebaits, so I would imagine that a 12in lure would also produce results. I fish these lures directly to my leader via a small Breakaway Mini Link clip. If you don’t like using leaders then you can connect the lure directly to your brain mainline if you wish.
IN THE ZONE
Another huge plus-point when using large, heavy lures for bass is that you can keep your lure fishing vertically for longer, and you can work it far more efficiently within 10ft of the seabed – where the bass are often going to be hunting.
I have two methods of attack when fishing these big lures. The first is to drop down and feel the lure hit the seabed, then simply raise and lower my rod tip to bounce the lure along the bottom. Underwater, this gives the appearance of a fish shooting 6ft up in the water out of the sand, then heading straight back down to the bottom again, rather like a sandeel would do.
This tactic can be deadly, but when that method isn’t producing, I simply switch to the drop-and-retrieve approach – dropping the lure to the seabed and slowly retrieving for 10 or so turns of the reel handle, then dropping it back down and repeating the process. I think this approach gives the lure more action and the bass more time to home in on it before the lure hits the seabed again.
The amount of time you get hit on the drop is uncanny. I think the bass follow your lure up and grab it as it begins to swim back down. ■