®
Summer 2022
B
ass fishing is not immune from fads. Consider
the recent Bassmaster Classic tournament.
Even before Jason Christie hoisted the trophy overhead, anglers scrambled to place orders for lures that
dominated the news of the event. Retailers hyped “Classic
releases” and eager buyers rushed to give up their credit
card numbers before their dreams could be sold out.
You don’t have to be an early adopter to catch the next
winning bag. Sometimes going down the path less traveled
provides surprising results. In fact, some of the most
productive lures for bass become closely guarded secrets to
give those in the know a competitive advantage.
What bass angler doesn’t want to discover a secret lure
nobody else has that seemingly catches bass whenever
tossed in the water?
The problem with lures that are “sleepers” is the more
secret they are, the less they sell. And that means it doesn’t
last on the market because it isn’t profitable.
Take the Poe’s Super Cedar crankbait for example. Once
popular coast-to-coast, they have virtually disappeared
from pegboards only to be replaced with newer models that
usually don’t work as well. Previously made and distributed
by Yakima Bait company, when I asked why they were no
longer in production, Jarod Higgenbotham revealed their
sales volume no longer justified the work of hand-tuning
every lure before packaging.
Another example of a summer killer lure is a spinnerbait
I helped designed for Hildebrandt called the “Double Deep,”
which has also gone the way of the dinosaurs. This was
one of the first one-ounce spinnerbaits in production, but
unfortunately it was ahead of its time. Because it was a sleeper lure, sales didn’t justify its continued production. Now many manufacturers sell one-ounce spinnerbaits that aren’t nearly as deadly or feature the quick-change blades.
In the world of soft plastics, Yamamoto Bait Company used to produce one of my favorite big bass lures called the 8” Single Tail Grub. Basically, this was a fat Senko body with a curl tail. Because it was fat but soft, it allowed you to fish it faster and cover more water than a Senko, while producing big bass. Unfortunately, it was a “sleeper” summer lure because those in the know kept it that way. Now it is out of production.
So what sleeper summer lures are still available that you might want to wake up to?
FAT IKA
Yamamoto makes a great one that doesn’t get the accolades it deserves, the Fat Ika. Yes, it is a strange lure that resembles saltwater creatures more than freshwater, which likely explains why it doesn’t jump off the shelves.
Make no mistake when Texas-rigged and cast near bass it will produce both quantity and quality. Likely the bass in your pressured waters have not seen nor become accustomed to this morsel and inhale it eagerly.
If you fish tubes in the summer (another somewhat sleeper lure), you know how to fish the Fat Ika. Like a tube
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