Yeah, that title should sound a little crazy!
How can one bait claim to be the greatest, most amazing, catches-fish-like-no-other bait ever created in history?
What is this magical piece of fishing engineering? The Alabama Rig? Some kind of crazy gimmick lure pedaled on late night TV? Can something this amazing even be legal?
All of these questions will be answered and more, just keep reading…
Introducing The Greatest Fishing Lure Ever Made
I can’t just come right out and say it, so I will give you a few hints to get your wheels turning.
First, you already have this bait in your tackle box. Second, you’ve already caught a ton of fish on this bait. Maybe you see where I am going with this bait.
The best lure ever created is the one in which you have the most confidence.
In doing some research for the article I wrote on Tom Mann, I came across several different pieces of information about him, as well as things he said over the years.
One thing he said, loosely paraphrased was, “The best lure is the one the fisherman has the most confidence in.”
This is such an important principle, Pops even has a few baits he calls his “confidence baits.” For him, those are the River2Sea Crystal Spin, and the Netbait BK. I have seen him pull bass on these two lures when no one else could catch a fish at Pike’s Place Fish Market.
He knows those baits well, and fishes them with extreme confidence.
It seems, even the bass know when someone has their mojo going!
The Best Fly Rod I Own
I own a fair few fly rods.
Several of them are very expensive, and are spectacular pieces of equipment.
When I am having a tough day on the river, I always do the same thing. I walk back to my car, and get out the first fly rod I ever bought. It’s an Orvis Clearwater, and it didn’t cost me a ton of money.
It isn’t the “best” rod I own by any standard of blue book value or fancy pants construction—but I’ve been fishing with it so long, that I know I can put flies wherever I want with that rod. I could double-haul a nymph into a hat in a hurricane with that thing! I’ve fished it so long, it’s like an extension of me.
When the fish aren’t biting, I also tie on my favorite fly—the Olive Wooly Bugger.
On one trip, a guide friend of mind and I were not doing well. I tied on the Wooly, and started pulling browns from a far bank. He said, “You shouldn’t be catching fish on that fly!”
Confidence beats a lot of odds!
What about you? What is the one bait you can grab in your box to put fish in the boat when the going gets rough? Let us know in the comments!
I don’t put a lot of stock in confidence and having to have it.. I’ll try whatever I think might work and if I think it might work that’s all the confidence I need. If it’s not working I try something else or maybe I will keep with it if I believe it should work It’s more about using the right tool for the situation.
Very few things I don’t have confidence in when I’m out fishing.
How are you Bass Pundit? Good to hear from you. I believe that what Mr. Mann was eluding to is the fact that as we progress in our knowledge of bass behavior and tendencies for a given season, we still tend to whittle down our choice of lures based on what has produced for us in the past. For instance, where I live, the bass are in a pre-spawn pattern which narrows my lure choices. I know that shallow running cranks are going to produce but I still have to choose which one as well as a color pattern. Tackle storage space for me is finite so I carry those cranks that I have the most confidence in and will choose based on the conditions I find when I’m on the water. While I would enjoy having every shallow crank, in every color, from every manufacturer, it simply isn’t practical nor would it necessarily be more productive. Like you, I make my choice, believing that it will be the right one and only change when conditions dictate a switch.
See ya’ on the water …