Top Lures for Bass
by Ken Sturdivant
Southern Fishing Schools Inc.
Get any group of bass anglers together and
ask them what their favorite bass baits are. Depending on the lakes and
areas each angler fishes, the answers are going to be as varied as the
fishing business. There are several baits every angler has or at least
once had in their tackle boxes.
Almost any tackle box is not complete
unless there are Zoom baits in the box. Several colors are very popular
but these
are the top sellers, red shad, pumpkinseed and green pumpkin. And the
baits can be worms, lizards and jigs of all sizes and shapes. Zoom also
makes
a very popular array of small finesse baits for finicky fish and spotted
bass called finesse worms. Rig up a Zoom bait and bass will bite one.
Every anglers grew up in the soft plastic age fishing with Tom Manns
Jelly worms.
A small company that started in the kitchen is now a world wide manufacturer
of all sizes and colors of the original Jelly worms. The worms are still
cooked with all kinds of scents including grape and cherry.
Any bass
angler that has ever used a floating lure or a crank bait owns Shad Raps.
The
original floating Shad Raps and still hand made and each one is individually
hand tuned before it goes in the box. The number 5 and the number 7 Shad
Raps in the top water baits, suspending baits and the crank baits comes
in lots of colors that are legends in the fishing world. Silver black
back and baby bass are favorites. A few years ago, Rapala the maker of
Shad
Raps discontinued the pearl chartreuse back baits and the up roar was
heard world wide. Now these popular colors are back in the line.
The
Rebel Pop
R was almost discontinued by the Pradco Company several years ago.
The Bass Anglers Sportsmans Society tournament trail has a renowned professional
angler fishing the trails by the name of Zell Rowland. Rowland lives
in Texas and was sanding down old Pop R's and repainting each bait
himself
and then adding high quality hooks to the old baits. Guess what, he
was winning tournaments. Secrets are hard to keep and Zell
sold his "new" colors and his ideas on these baits to Pradco. Another extremely
popular for bass fishing is the Rat L Trap. Everyone owns some Rat L Traps
and they used to make only sinking lures. Now this hard plastic lure comes
in suspending
and even floating styles. The Professional Rat L Traps are more than $6.00
each, but is they catch fish they will catch anglers.
