On the Line

Lure Allure and the Test of Time  

By Mike Conner

Who among us hasn't tried a new lure with near-miraculous results?

What do you take away from a few hours of off-the-charts fishing with said lure?

Well, I have learned that it is the "sample size" that counts in just about everything in life, and that applies to everything from public opinion to effectiveness of a fishing lure. This week, I headed to a neighborhood bass pond that I fish a couple of times a week. It's normally good for a half-dozen small to medium bass, nothing too spectacular. It's "new" manmade water, so that factors into it.

On this day, however, I left my fly rod at home, picked up a baitcasting rod but left my usual topwater plugs and jerkbaits at home. Instead, I carried along a few new soft baits, called Airheads, that my neighbor and DOA Lure company owner, Mark Nichols, gave me to test. It is a "wakebait" for lack of a better term, that motors along on the surface when retrieved "buzzbait" style. The previous day, Mark landed around 10 bass on it, and trout and snook before that. So I was confident, and knew how to fish it.

An hour before sunset, I fished a stretch of the pond and I could not keep the fish off of it! Not only did I catch a dozen fish out of 15 or more strikes, they were bigger on average than any I had caught there before. Three went over 4 pounds, and that's the biggest three I have caught there to date. Not only that, the strikes were downright explosive, so loud in fact that a man walking his dog about 50 yards away called out and asked, "What the heck was that?"

I was still getting blow-up strikes well after dark. "Man, this lure has some allure!" I thought to myself.

But could it be that the fish on that particular day were out for blood? A cold front was closing in, and just maybe they were juiced by the falling barometer? Hard to say.

It's a common thing I find. You show the fish something new, and they lose all caution. But I credit the lure with the results, and now will begin the test of time, a test that my all-time favorite lures and flies passed with flying colors.