When it comes to bass lures, there’s really not much new under the sun, just new ways of packaging and promoting them.
I was reminded of this at a recent fishing tackle show where 2011’s crop of lures made their debuts. I’d seen most of them before, albeit with less glitzy paint jobs and hardware.
That’s not to say that some of the latest, greatest lures don’t perform as advertised. Beyond the short-lived gimmicks and junk, a few new lures will gain a toehold in the market and, given a boost by tournament pros who win cash with them, will stick around a while.
Still, there are relatively few lures that live beyond a generation or two, and most of these – the Hula Popper, Jitterbug, Lucky 13, etc. – aren’t likely to be found in the tackle boxes of touring pros. What immortalizes them is the uniqueness of their designs and the fact that even Joe Lunchbucket can catch bass with them – perhaps not enough to win a tournament, but enough to satisfy the casual fisherman spending a weekend afternoon at a local farm pond.
During the last 40 years or so, there have been a handful of lures introduced to the fishing public that have outlived their allotted 15 minutes of fame and deserve enshrinement. My picks:
Big O: Fred Young’s hand-carved balsa crankbait spawned so many knockoffs that it’s hard to keep up with them all. Interestingly, the plastic version offered by Cotton Cordell never caught on that well, and companies such as Bagley, Bill Norman, Rebel and Rapala all but had the market cornered within a decade after the lure was introduced in 1967.
Slug-Go: Before Senko, before Fluke, there was the Slug-Go. Herb Reed’s imaginative soft-plastic shad set off a stampede of copycats. As if the Slug-Go wasn’t enough, Lunker City later introduced the Fin-S Fish, which is wildly popular among the soft jerkbait set.
Sassy Shad: Nowadays there are swimbaits that mimic every type of baitfish, but Mister Twister got it right when it introduced this shad imitator back in the late 70s. The success of the Sassy Shad paved the wave for all the waggle-tail swimmers that came after.
ChatterBait: A wobbling jig that churns out loads of vibration for fishing in rough or colored water – why didn’t somebody think of it sooner? Though the ChatterBait is constructed of components that have been around about as long as fishing lures have, nobody put them together quite the way Z-Man did.
Mann’s Jelly Worm: Crème introduced the first plastic worms, but Tom Mann got fishermen excited about them when he offered scented versions with flavors such as blueberry and strawberry. The taste wasn’t intended to attract fish, but was intended to help reduce human scent and that was good enough for fishermen. The Jelly Worm set the stage for Fish Formula scents and Berkley PowerBaits, among a host of others.
Gitzit: A California fisherman named Bobby Garland set off the tubebait craze when he and his buddies started winning tournaments with this lure. It just goes to show how pro anglers set the trends in the fishing industry.
Lunker Lure: Though this was the first buzzbait (introduced in 1976) to have the blade mounted above the body and skirt, it’s not the first lure of the type. Anglers in Florida used in-line buzzbaitsfor “jiggerpoling,” and Reelfoot Lake fishermen had the Go Devil to tempt bass from around the cypress trees. And remember the Floyd’s Buzzer?
There are probably other unique lures introduced lately that deserve mention and immortality. Can you think of any?