Lure hoarder?

Are you a lure collector? Has the online shopping bug bitten and your lure collection grown into new lure boxes after new lure boxes? It’s a compelling game and why not, it’s fun and can be very beneficial. After all you may just buy the perfect bass lure, the one that never fails, the one that will become ‘the one’ forever.

The likelihood is though that you will always have your favourites and those will simply be the ones that catch. The trick I believe is to boil your lure collection down to a proven few bass catchers and only ever take those out bassing. It is very easy to carry too many lures on a shore side outing and I suggest that this will have a seriously negative impact upon your lure fishing. For a start too many lures are clumber some and just more stuff to carry. These days if you are lure casting from the shore you really need your kit attached to you somewhere as movement along the ground whilst fishing is essential. Take a look at some of the belts, bum packs, belly packs and back packs that are designed for the job. This doesn’t apply to me aboard my wonderful bass lure casting boat 3 Fishes as I can pretty much carry what I like but you are unlikely to have the space and flexibility that a 9m Cat brings.

More importantly though too many lures equals too much choice and too much choice in turn weakens’ focus. The mantra of, ‘I’ll give this one a go now’, is all wrong when lure casting for bass. A small, well chosen, selection of lures will bring many more results. So what do you need? Well here follows my honest, no holds barred and no secrets; top tips for a strong lure selection to take on any general outing.

Two surface sliders and one small surface popper. The sliders should be of similar type but differing sizes. One at around 100mm and the other at 120mm, (yes size matters). To be specific I would look at the Luckycraft Sammy as my go to slider and a small Storm Chug Bug as my popper. Only fish the chug bug if you are facing one of either of these two scenarios when you reach the water:  1. The sea is too rough to fish a slider on the surface; or 2. You have found bass on the feed! Surface lures have two clear colour options. In the daylight think bright; whites, chartreuse or silvers and in the dark think black.

Next you will need three shallow running divers that run back at three varying depths; strong options here are the IMA Komono for just below the surface work, the Luckycraft Flash Minnow to get you 1m down and the Rapala Xrap as your deeper water selection. These lures are all proven bass catchers and will work any ground that you may find in front of you. As for colour think natural (silvers, browns, greens and blues). 

And finally I would suggest a pack of softies. For me the breadwinner, season after season has been the Slug Go 7.5 inch. Its casts, is incredible in the water and catches. What more reasons could you possibly need! That is it; that is your session lures in a nutshell, or more specifically in a nice small lure box that fits tidy onto you somewhere. Take anymore and they are just more to carry and more to distract you.

Keep in mind though that this small selection does need to be radically altered if the environmental conditions you are facing are not ideal or if it is dark. In the dark, think dark colours. In dirty water think either hot bright colours or dark colours (the jury is out on which works best) although for me, I favour shiny silvers in cloudy or dirty water.

The final point I’d make on lure collections is, if you aren’t using it, sell it. Lures that sit in boxes that you pick up and look at but never leave home should be sold. They take your energy and focus and fill you with indecision. Sell them and buy ones that you will take bassing, after all that is what they are made for; fishing.