I am an absolute creature of habit. I learned to fish on Yamamoto Senkos in Green Pumpkin. The same bait my Uncle still fishes. When times are tough and you are hurting for a bite, that’s what you throw. I’ve caught more bass than I can count on those lures and have many fond memories throwing them, but sadly, the times they are a changing.
You see, bass aren’t very different from we anglers in certain situations. You will only put your hand on a stove so many times before you associate it with a negative result and therefore begin to avoid it. Large bass have the same mentality about lures. Yes, you may get a ‘reaction strike’ from any sized fish on any given day, but for the most part, large fish don’t get large being stupid. They get conditioned to these lures and associate certain styles with a negative outcome and avoid them, just like a grown man who wouldn’t press his hand on a hot skillet because he knows it will burn. That’s where BioSpawn Lure Company and their new line of lures truely shine. They are the most innovative lures on the market, and I can only speak on behalf of the baits I’ve fished (the Exosticks), but they resemble nothing that these larger bass have been conditioned to avoid. They have worked week in and week out for me when you couldn’t buy a bite with a standard Senko. I fish them wacky, weighted wacky with a Nasty Fishing Tackle weighted wacky hook, or my personal favorite, Texas rigged with a 1/16 ounce bullet and a 3/0 offset shank worm hook.
The funny part about these lures is that some of the largest fish I have caught thus far were caught when I was doing absolutely nothing. It wasn’t hit on the fall or on a twitch, I would cast the lure, get an email, read and reply, and realize that my lure was 20 yards to the left or right. That’s what Bioscent does. It’s a fish attractant inside these lures that draw fish in from a great distance, and to attest to its effectiveness, these lures were doing nothing but laying motionless on rocks in 20 feet of water and still drew strikes time and time again.
I suppose the purpose of this post was to not only share something with all of you that has made a huge impression on me as of late, but to also encourage you all to not be too hesitant to try new things. Many of us are so set in our ways that our opinions, though not always accurate, are the things we live by. Maybe we caught one 8lb. bass on a sexy shad crankbait in the 2nd week of August 9 years ago and haven’t caught a fish on it since, but that is still the bait we’ll be throwing in the second week of August this year. Older baits may have withstood the test of time, but with todays technology, and the pride and craftsmanship that anglers just like you and I are putting in to these new lures like the Exostick, Plasma Tails, and Vile Craws, the revolution of our industry is in full swing.
People are catching larger fish, bigger bags, and higher numbers than ever before, and it’s not a coincidence, nor is it happening on baits that have been around for 25 years. It’s happening on state-of-the-art, feature packed super-baits. Don’t get left in the past!