Tools of the Trade
By: "The
Bass Coach" Roger Lee Brown
Question,
what are the most exciting artificial baits that have ever been used
by anglers? If you guessed "Top Water Baits" then
you are absolutely correct. Back in the 1960s when bass fishing
started to gain its popularity as being a competitive freshwater fishing
sport, as well as today, the top water baits seemed to be the most sought
after by most anglers. Just the excitement alone of seeing a fish
come up out of the water and attack a Top Water Bait always seem to get
the blood flowing and the heart pounding. During that period of
time, baits like the Hula Popper, Rapalas & Rebels (floating
stick baits), and Crazy Crawlers just to name a few were probably the
highest on the anglers list as being a must have for their tackle box. Since
that time up to today things really haven't changed with the exception
of having a multitude of "Top Water" baits to choose from. Some
of my personal favorite baits (or lures) are the Zara Spook, Chug Bug,
Rapalas and Rebels, Floating Worms, Plastic Frogs, Buzz Baits, and Torpedos.
Now, I know what
you may be thinking right about now. You're
probably thinking that this nut writing this article is trying to sell
something right? If you thought this then you are absolutely correct
again! Just keep reading and you will see that there is another "Tool
of the Trade" that hasn't been introduced into the bass fishing
industry until now. But first, let me give you some background
on this unique new "Tool" I am leading up to.
Let's take a couple of the pros and cons of using a few of the
top selling, top water baits of today and compare. The top water
baits I have used over the years (some already mentioned) either have
exposed hooks already connected to the bait (or lure), or have to be
rigged normally Texas Rigged style with a single hook. The only
problem is that you have to use one or the other in terms of getting
the best results in the areas you are fishing. For example, the
best top water baits ever used seem to be the baits that make that spitting,
gurgling, popping, top water disturbance that seem to attract the bass
to strike right? Or in the case of structured areas with lots of
grass, fall downs, floating debris, stick ups, reeds, and etc. where
the exposed hooks of the baits (or lures) would keep getting caught up
you would usually go to the floating baits like the frog, floating worm,
soft jerk baits just to name a few, but the only problem would be is
now you will lose that spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance
we could get from the baits with the exposed hooks, is there a happy
medium? I'm happy to say Yes!, there is now.
Let's go a step further with the importance of having the right
tool for the job. Much like a carpenter, he or she wouldn't
use a hammer to drive a screw into wood would they? Of course
not, they would use the right tool for the job which would be a screwdriver. The
same goes for fishing. Most anglers won't use baits (or lures)
with exposed hooks fishing in and around weedy areas because of constantly
getting their bait caught up in the weeds. I fact, I have found
that most of my former charter clients and bass fishing school students
seem to get discouraged when they can't work their favorite
(their pet bait) top water action bait while fishing vegetation areas
because of losing all that action they seem to like, sound about right? What
do we do if this happens, we go to a Texas Rigged frog, floating worm,
soft plastic stick bait, or even a soft plastic jerk bait so we can work
these baits without getting caught up on the vegetation. The only
drawback is that we lose the spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance
that the other baits produced. Is there a solution? I'm happy to
say Yes!, there is now.
Okay, here it is... After many years of going through the same
situations as mentioned, one day a lightning bolt came out of the sky
and struck me while I was fishing some vegetation and gave me a premonition,
NOT!, just kidding! This is true, one day after getting frustrated
from pulling weeds off my bait from just about every cast made into a
great spot, and knowing I really didn't want to lose that action
of the spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance which my popper
made I had a Idea. So, after I got off the water that day and headed
home I decided to stop at the dime store to look and see if I could find
something that would help remedy this problem we all have. Shortly,
after looking around the store and I found myself in the toy isle and
then it caught my eye. I saw a kids dart gun packaged with 3 extra
darts which got me to thinking, "what if I could put the suction
cup tips of the darts onto a floating worm?" What the heck,
so I bought the dart gun package with the extra three darts (by the way,
which cost much more than the dime mentioned in the name "dime
store") anyway, after I got home and opened up the package with
the dart gun and extra darts I took one of the darts and took off the
(suction cupped) tip and super glued it onto a eight inch floating worm. This
thing looked so good I couldn't wait to get back on the water to
try it out, and then it happened! After going over to a spot I
know I made my first cast right into a weed area where there was little
quarter size openings of water and the bait hit the surface. I
then lightly pulled the front of the bait over to one of these openings
and then slightly twitched my line. I looked at my bait as I twitched
my line and it spit water (just as I had hoped it would do), and at that
spitting moment a five pound 3 ounce largemouth bass came up from under
the water and exploded on the bait. Okay, was this a lucky cast? Nope,
I stayed there until it started getting dark which was about 2 hours
from my first cast and caught seven bass with none of them weighing less
than three pounds. I figured out how to get the best of the best! Spitting,
gurgling, popping, top water disturbance bait that I can rig weedless!
Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Ah Huh, Ah Huh, I did it! I finally figured out how
to get a soft plastic bait to get all the effects of the baits (or lures)
with the exposed hooks in areas where we couldn't fish them before.
Now, I got the perfect "Tool" for the job.
Since
that time, and now I have come up with four different top water baits,
two of which are the Patent Pending 4 Inch "Sprog", which
is a solid soft plastic floating frog bait that gets all of the
spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance we all seem to want,
AND, can be rigged totally weedless! The second one is the Patent
Pending 9 Inch "Spittin' Worm", which is a solid 9
inch floating worm bait that gets all of the spitting, gurgling, popping,
top water disturbance we all seem to want, AND, can be rigged totally
weedless! Both of these baits can be seen at www.lakechamplainbaitandtackle.com and
are available for purchase. And the other two are, the first being
a Patent Pending "Spitting Shad" and the Patent Pending "Spit-Tik" which
is also a solid soft plastic stick bait which both, get the same actions
as the Sprog and the Spittin' Worm.
I hope to have all
four of these baits each come in two sizes and a wide variety of colors. The "Sprog" to come in 2 and
4 inch, the "Spittin Worm" to come in 6 and 9 inch, the "Spittin' Shad" to
come in 4 and 6 inch, and the "Spit-Tik" to come in 5 and
7 inch. I can only do as much as my personal funding allows, but
I would definitely talk of some type of partnership with anybody that
may be interested with financial backing. I would love to get
all of these baits available for all of the anglers who love that top
water action, but I can only do it as time and funding allows.
If you may be interested
in my 3-day bass fishing school, a bass fishing charter on the world
famous Lake Champlain, or spark an interest with the line of Patent
Pending baits. You can email me at rlbrown@capital.net or
visit my site at www.basscoachfishing.com or
if you would like to check out the baits that are now available, you
can find them at www.lakechamplainbaitandtackle.com .
Until
next time, take care & may God bless you "Always!"
"The Bass Coach"
- Roger Lee Brown
www.basscoachfishing.com
