The Lure(s) Of Spring

Spring is fast approaching. Time to start planting a garden, plan vacations and go shopping for all those sale items or the newest summer fashions. For the angler, shopping is especially important this time of year. My angler has his own ideas about new summer fashions. He’s been reading (yes, reading) the catalogs for months, looking to see what’s new, what’s changed, or what he just might have missed last year, and it’s time to restock the tackle boxes.

It isn’t as easy as it sounds. Let’s take plastic worms. They come in as many colors as the colored paint strips at a hardware store, and in just about as many shades. For example, in the pumpkin family, there’s pumpkinseed, green pumpkin, pumpkin pepper, pumpkin-chartreuse. And those shades vary, depending upon the manufacturer. Some are solid, some are translucent, some have two colors on them. And let’s not forget size – another case of size does matter. There’s everything from tiny 4” finesse worms, to great big huge 12” ones that could pass for small snakes.

Then there’s the ribbon tail, paddle tail, suspending, bungee, floating, and don’t forget the zipper. Nope, that’s not for his pants, it’s a worm with ridges that supposedly trap air as the worm sinks below the surface and then releases the air bubbles to make the fish think it’s alive. Now, I’ve never seen a real worm make air bubbles under water, but I’m sure someone got paid lots of money to make anglers believe it can happen. Somebody must have taught the bass, too, because tackle shops sell lots of bubbly worms every year.

Each worm shape wiggles differently (so I’ve heard), so part of the challenge is to find just the right shape to make just the right wiggle to attract that elusive fish. This means you’ve got to have at least one package of each type, and in each of the best colors and sizes, to have a fair shot at finding the right one. Never mind that most of these packages will never be opened, but they’re must haves. And don’t forget the flavor – there’s salt, garlic, crawfish, shad – certainly one of those will attract a gourmet bass.

Then there’s spinner baits with their fancy hula skirts. Gone are the days of plain rubber skirts – those could become a gooey, gluey mess after repeated use in hot weather. Nowadays skirts are silicon, come in a variety of color combinations and probably have glitter on them. Spinner baits also come in several weights and blade shapes, so your favorite angler must have his favorite blade shapes in at least 2 or 3 weights and different skirt colors.

And don’t forget the line. Now what looks like perfectly good line to you and me, must come off the real completely at the end of each season, and by the very nature of the process, can’t be put back on. So each Spring (it must be a plot), one of the first items on the list is the various types of line. We’re talking at least three sizes (called “test”), maybe a couple of colors, of the new and improved favorite, and then maybe a couple of new ones that were featured in the magazines or on fishing shows.

And we’re not talking small spools here, unless it’s a new trial line. We’re talking 1,000+ yard spools of each one. This line will be stripped and replaced on the reels two or three times over the summer as it becomes twisted, or develops memory (anglers want forgetful line) or just because my angler wants to use a different type of lure on a particular rod, and it requires a different line “test”. I guess it’s akin to wearing different black shoes when you change into a different black dress.

Gotta have new hooks, too, especially if someone has come out with a new one. Now, hooks are not all created the same. There are hooks for worms. Trailer hooks. Treble hooks. Needle point Laser point hooks. Wide-gap hooks. Live bait hooks (that tournament anglers can’t use, but they make ’em for everyone else). But no matter how they are made, they do get dull. And like everything else in the fishing world, they come in different sizes. No one size fits all here, either. Some hooks are larger than some of the lures, so you gotta match em up by size, too. (Another variation of the black shoes/black dress situation.)

This year my angler has decided to eliminate superfluous stuff, and take only the tried and true, the confidence lures. Well, maybe. I’ve heard the shopping list, seen the catalogs and the magazines. Those pesky lure manufacturers keep adding to the product line, and there’s a whole new list of “must haves” that’ll be making their way into his tackle box.

Happy shopping, everyone.

-Linda Morton

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