As spring approaches, Henry Gilbey explains why building confidence in fishing lures with little or no underwater ‘action’ could help your bass season start with a bang
If it’s any help, I know exactly what it’s like: that feeling of uncertainty, that lack of confidence. If you can’t feel your lure doing something meaningful underwater then how on earth are the bass going to find it? I dread to think about how many bass lures I bought before I twigged onto something that I believe is really important: less can often be so much more in bass fishing. Less action on your lure can often result in more fish. ‘Come on Henry. What on earth are you on about?”
I hear you say. ‘Surely the lure which does the most wiggling, jiggling and thumping is always going to be the best catcher. Isn’t it?’ Truthfully, I’m not so sure at all.
I think we need to come at this from a “where are you in your bass fishing journey” angle. If you are way down the road and you’ve been lure fishing for bass for years then I am guessing you are already perfectly comfortable with the whole ‘less is often more’ thing. However, if you are newer to bass fishing and you come from bait fishing where fresh bait and strong scents give you nearly all the confidence you need, it is completely understandable how you feel much better if your lure is doing a lot. When I first started getting into bass fishing and I came across the family of lures which I could call ultra-shallow diving hard lures, it was all about how much movement I was feeling from the actual lure. I caught plenty of bass fishing with many of these incredible hard lures, such as the IMA Komomo SF-125 and the Tackle House Feed Shallow, but there were also times I didn’t catch when I really thought I should.
I spent ages scouring tackle shops and websites looking for shallow-diving hard lures with more and more exaggerated movements, but for the life of me I don’t recall catching more bass. If I think about this family of hard lures I would turn to now, there is still the IMA Komomo SF-125, the rather subtle IMA iBorn 98F, and without a doubt the even subtler and lovely Savage Gear Gravity Shallow 10cm and 11.5cm. I really like how these lures cover a lot of ground, swim nice and shallow, plus they have what I think is more than enough movement when you straight-retrieve them.
NO-ACTION
It is the great big world of soft plastics which got me thinking more about the lures which in some circles might be called “no action”. Any lure has some sort of action, but I believe there are times when the fish are wary – clear water or bright skies, for instance – and something which is moving away like mad can actually spook the life out of potentially interested bass. The biggest problem here is us though. When you are getting into bass fishing and it st
