Article - Tools of the trade

Question, what are the most exciting artificial baits that have ever been used by anglers? If you guessed “Top Water Baits” then you are absolutely correct. Back in the 1960s when bass fishing started to gain its popularity as being a competitive freshwater fishing sport, as well as today, the top water baits seemed to be the most sought after by most anglers. Just the excitement alone of seeing a fish come up out of the water and attack a Top Water Bait always seem to get the blood flowing and the heart pounding. During that period of time, baits like the Hula Popper, Rapalas & Rebels (floating stick baits), and Crazy Crawlers just to name a few were probably the highest on the anglers list as being a must have for their tackle box. Since that time up to today things really haven’t changed with the exception of having a multitude of “Top Water” baits to choose from. Some of my personal favorite baits (or lures) are the Zara Spook, Chug Bug, Rapalas and Rebels, Floating Worms, Plastic Frogs, Buzz Baits, and Torpedos.

Now, I know what you may be thinking right about now. You’re probably thinking that this nut writing this article is trying to sell something right? If you thought this then you are absolutely correct again! Just keep reading and you will see that there is another “Tool of the Trade” that hasn’t been introduced into the bass fishing industry until now. But first, let me give you some background on this unique new “Tool” I am leading up to.

Let’s take a couple of the pros and cons of using a few of the top selling, top water baits of today and compare. The top water baits I have used over the years (some already mentioned) either have exposed hooks already connected to the bait (or lure), or have to be rigged normally Texas Rigged style with a single hook. The only problem is that you have to use one or the other in terms of getting the best results in the areas you are fishing. For example, the best top water baits ever used seem to be the baits that make that spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance that seem to attract the bass to strike right? Or in the case of structured areas with lots of grass, fall downs, floating debris, stick ups, reeds, and etc. where the exposed hooks of the baits (or lures) would keep getting caught up you would usually go to the floating baits like the frog, floating worm, soft jerk baits just to name a few, but the only problem would be is now you will lose that spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance we could get from the baits with the exposed hooks, is there a happy medium? I’m happy to say Yes!, there is now.

Let’s go a step further with the importance of having the right tool for the job. Much like a carpenter, he or she wouldn’t use a hammer to drive a screw into wood would they? Of course not, they would use the right tool for the job which would be a screwdriver. The same goes for fishing. Most anglers won’t use baits (or lures) with exposed hooks fishing in and around weedy areas because of constantly getting their bait caught up in the weeds. In fact, I have found that most of my former charter clients and bass fishing school students seem to get discouraged when they can’t work their favorite (their pet bait) top water action bait while fishing vegetation areas because of losing all that action they seem to like, sound about right? What do we do if this happens, we go to a Texas Rigged frog, floating worm, soft plastic stick bait, or even a soft plastic jerk bait so we can work these baits without getting caught up on the vegetation. The only drawback is that we lose the spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance that the other baits produced. Is there a solution? I’m happy to say Yes!, there is now.

Okay, here it is…. After many years of going through the same situations as mentioned, one day a lightning bolt came out of the sky and struck me while I was fishing some vegetation and gave me a premonition, NOT!, just kidding! This is true, one day after getting frustrated from pulling weeds off my bait from just about every cast made into a great spot, and knowing I really didn’t want to lose that action of the spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance which my popper made I had a Idea. So, after I got off the water that day and headed home I decided to stop at the dime store to look and see if I could find something that would help remedy this problem we all have. Shortly, after looking around the store and I found myself in the toy isle and then it caught my eye. I saw a kids dart gun packaged with 3 extra darts which got me to thinking, “what if I could put the suction cup tips of the darts onto a floating worm?” What the heck, so I bought the dart gun package with the extra three darts (by the way, which cost much more than the dime mentioned in the name “dime store”) anyway, after I got home and opened up the package with the dart gun and extra darts I took one of the darts and took off the (suction cupped) tip and super glued it onto a eight inch floating worm. This thing looked so good I couldn’t wait to get back on the water to try it out, and then it happened! After going over to a spot I know I made my first cast right into a weed area where there was little quarter size openings of water and the bait hit the surface. I then lightly pulled the front of the bait over to one of these openings and then slightly twitched my line. I looked at my bait as I twitched my line and it spit water (just as I had hoped it would do), and at that spitting moment a five pound 3 ounce largemouth bass came up from under the water and exploded on the bait. Okay, was this a lucky cast? Nope, I stayed there until it started getting dark which was about 2 hours from my first cast and caught seven bass with none of them weighing less than three pounds. I figured out how to get the best of the best! Spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance bait that I can rig weedless! Oh Yeah, Oh Yeah, Ah Huh, Ah Huh, I did it! I finally figured out how to get a soft plastic bait to get all the effects of the baits (or lures) with the exposed hooks in areas where we couldn’t fish them before.

Now, I got the perfect “Tool” for the job.

Since that time, and now I have come up with four different top water baits, two of which are the

Patent Pending 4 Inch “Sprog”, which is a solid soft plastic floating frog bait that gets all of the

spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance we all seem to want, AND, can be rigged totally weedless! The second one is the Patent Pending 9 Inch “Spittin’ Worm”, which is a solid 9 inch floating worm bait that gets all of the spitting, gurgling, popping, top water disturbance we all seem to want, AND, can be rigged totally weedless! Both of these baits can be seen at www.lakechamplainbaitandtackle.com and are available for purchase. And the other two are, the first being a Patent Pending “Spitting Shad” and the Patent Pending “Spit-Tik” which is also a solid soft plastic stick bait which both, get the same actions as the Sprog and the Spittin’ Worm.

I hope to have all four of these baits each come in two sizes and a wide variety of colors. The “Sprog” to come in 2 and 4 inch , the “Spittin Worm” to come in 6 and 9 inch , the “Spittin’ Shad” to come in 4 and 6 inch , and the “Spit-Tik” to come in 5 and 7 inch . I can only do as much as my personal funding allows, but I would definitely talk of some type of partnership with anybody that may be interested with financial backing. I would love to get all of these baits available for all of the anglers who love that top water action, but I can only do it as time and funding allows.

If you may be interested in my 3-day bass fishing school, a bass fishing charter on the world famous Lake Champlain , or spark an interest with the line of Patent Pending baits. You can email me at rlbrown@capital.net or visit my site at www.basscoachfishing.com or if you would like to check out the baits that are now available, you can find them at www.lakechamplainbaitandtackle.com . Until next time, I wish you the best and God Bless! “Always” “The Bass Coach” – Roger Lee Brown