Stan Fagerstrom
06-14-2003, 06:49 AM
Tom Seward is a guy who can build crankbaits to resemble darn near anything that swims. I have reason to know whereof I speak.
Do much bass fishing down Mexico way and you're a cinch to hear a good bit about a fish called the tilapia. So what's a tilapia? Let's just call it the Mexican version of an American bluegill. They run a bit larger than our bluegill, but then you'd expect panfish to do that with the long growing season they have in the warm water down there south of the border. As you're likely aware, Mexican largemouth also often grow larger than those in many parts of the United States.
So what's Tom Seward have to do with tilapia? Tom, you see, happens to be a nationally known lure designer. Tom's a friend and whenever I run into him at an outdoor show somewhere I try to find time to visit with him. You can learn from a man who builds baits and Tom's been at it for years.
I've been on bass fishing trips into Mexico several times in the past few years. When I saw Tom a couple of years ago, I told him about one of my trips. He had a few questions about my experience. One of his questions was about what baitfish those Mexican bass were feeding on. I told him the tilapia so common in Mexican waters had to be one of their primary forage fish.
"What color is a tilapia? Tom asked. "Maybe I can come up with a crankbait of the same color that would work well for you down there."
The next trip into Mexico I managed to get a photo of one of the Mexican baitfish and sent it along to Tom. Tom currently designs lures for Worden's Lures. If you know your bass baits, you also know that one of his most recent creations is a fish-catching crankbait called the Timber Tiger. This dandy little lure has attracted the attention of bass anglers all over the place. Not long after I sent him the photo, Tom sent me a couple of Timber Tigers in a finish that looked very much like a young tilapia. The lures were beautifully done in the shades of the green and blue so typical of the Mexican baitfish.
If you read the literature that accompanies the Timber Tiger lures Seward designs, and I urge you to do so because it's an excellent opportunity to learn, you'll find that depth control is a key factor in these crankbaits. The lures are now available in six different models. They range from the shallow diving DC-1 to the deep diving DC-16. That DC in front of the number stands for "depth control."
http://www.ifish.net/sftclose.jpg
That's a Timber Tiger DC-13 pinned to the mug of this nice largemouth. Having a lure that gets down where the fish are holding is a key to consistent success with a crankbait.
It doesn't matter if you have a freight car full of baits if you can't get them wiggle through the area where fish are feeding. That's why Seward, he's an accomplished artist along with being a lure designer, puts so much emphasis on depth control where his lures are concerned.
I took those new tilapia shaded Timber Tiger crankbaits along the next time I headed south of the border. The first place I threw them was at Mexico's Lake Aguamilpa. Fish any lake for the first time and it's tough to know what bait is likely to be productive. But I knew the lake had plenty of tilapia and that's what I opened with. It turned out to be a good choice. Though I was fishing from the back of the boat and my companion up front had first crack at 'em, I began catching one fish after another on the crankbait Seward had created. I wound up giving one of the two tilapia-colored lures I had to my fishing partner. As soon as I did he also began getting hits.
Seward gave me some other baits to try when I headed back into Mexico the next time. My destination was El Salto Lake. The lures weren't as successful there, nor were any other crankbaits, because the fish were holed up in dense submerged timber. The only way to get a bait down to them successfully was to thread a jig or plastic worm down through the branches.
But that, friends, isn't the end of the story.
When I returned home from the trip to El Salto I moved some of the lures from my travelling tackle container to the box use I use for fishing on my home lakes here on the Oregon Coast. I had a hunch some of those tilapia-colored baits just might work hereabouts.
http://www.ifish.net/sftigtil].jpg
The bass in Mexico liked my Timber Tiger lures, but so do the largemouth much closer to home. The one I'm holding here came out of Tenmile Lake on the Oregon Coast.
It pleases the bejabbers out of me to say they do. The one I've found most effective so far is the tilapia colored Timber Tiger DC-13. Not long ago I spent three days fishing Tenmile Lake here on the Oregon Coast. The second afternoon I caught a half dozen fish late in the day on one of my tilapia colored lures along the outside edge of a weedline. The fish were holding from 10 to 13 feet down. This, I thought to myself, is where I'm going to start tomorrow morning and this is the bait I'll throw at 'em.
I was on the lake before daylight the following day. I eased my boat up to the shoreline where I'd found fish the previous day. The second cast a 2-pounder nailed my DC-13 Tiger. I released that scrapper and proceeded to catch four more fish on successive casts. By 7:30 a.m. I had 14 bass in the boat---every last one of the on Tom Seward's tilapia colored DC-13 Timber Tiger.
http://www.ifish.net/sfsttiger.jpg
My friend Steve Battaglia nailed this Mexican largemouth and a bunch of others on his Worden's tilapia colored DC-13 crankbait.
I don't know if Worden's will eventually add a lure color called the tilapia to its extensive line of lure colors. They already have a half dozen or so that are close to the shade of the special baits Seward made for me. Check a new Worden's lure catalog, your sporting goods dealer will have one if you don't, and you'll find they are the lure numbers 269, 225, 233, 207,224 and 261.
Whether or not they do market one called the tilapia, you can bet I'm going to take good care of the ones I have. And they're not going to be put back into that travelling tackle box of mine unless I'm headed out of town. They might learn to speak Spanish somewhere down the line, but right now they're doing a dang good job of bamboozling the gringo bass right here close to home!
Do much bass fishing down Mexico way and you're a cinch to hear a good bit about a fish called the tilapia. So what's a tilapia? Let's just call it the Mexican version of an American bluegill. They run a bit larger than our bluegill, but then you'd expect panfish to do that with the long growing season they have in the warm water down there south of the border. As you're likely aware, Mexican largemouth also often grow larger than those in many parts of the United States.
So what's Tom Seward have to do with tilapia? Tom, you see, happens to be a nationally known lure designer. Tom's a friend and whenever I run into him at an outdoor show somewhere I try to find time to visit with him. You can learn from a man who builds baits and Tom's been at it for years.
I've been on bass fishing trips into Mexico several times in the past few years. When I saw Tom a couple of years ago, I told him about one of my trips. He had a few questions about my experience. One of his questions was about what baitfish those Mexican bass were feeding on. I told him the tilapia so common in Mexican waters had to be one of their primary forage fish.
"What color is a tilapia? Tom asked. "Maybe I can come up with a crankbait of the same color that would work well for you down there."
The next trip into Mexico I managed to get a photo of one of the Mexican baitfish and sent it along to Tom. Tom currently designs lures for Worden's Lures. If you know your bass baits, you also know that one of his most recent creations is a fish-catching crankbait called the Timber Tiger. This dandy little lure has attracted the attention of bass anglers all over the place. Not long after I sent him the photo, Tom sent me a couple of Timber Tigers in a finish that looked very much like a young tilapia. The lures were beautifully done in the shades of the green and blue so typical of the Mexican baitfish.
If you read the literature that accompanies the Timber Tiger lures Seward designs, and I urge you to do so because it's an excellent opportunity to learn, you'll find that depth control is a key factor in these crankbaits. The lures are now available in six different models. They range from the shallow diving DC-1 to the deep diving DC-16. That DC in front of the number stands for "depth control."
http://www.ifish.net/sftclose.jpg
That's a Timber Tiger DC-13 pinned to the mug of this nice largemouth. Having a lure that gets down where the fish are holding is a key to consistent success with a crankbait.
It doesn't matter if you have a freight car full of baits if you can't get them wiggle through the area where fish are feeding. That's why Seward, he's an accomplished artist along with being a lure designer, puts so much emphasis on depth control where his lures are concerned.
I took those new tilapia shaded Timber Tiger crankbaits along the next time I headed south of the border. The first place I threw them was at Mexico's Lake Aguamilpa. Fish any lake for the first time and it's tough to know what bait is likely to be productive. But I knew the lake had plenty of tilapia and that's what I opened with. It turned out to be a good choice. Though I was fishing from the back of the boat and my companion up front had first crack at 'em, I began catching one fish after another on the crankbait Seward had created. I wound up giving one of the two tilapia-colored lures I had to my fishing partner. As soon as I did he also began getting hits.
Seward gave me some other baits to try when I headed back into Mexico the next time. My destination was El Salto Lake. The lures weren't as successful there, nor were any other crankbaits, because the fish were holed up in dense submerged timber. The only way to get a bait down to them successfully was to thread a jig or plastic worm down through the branches.
But that, friends, isn't the end of the story.
When I returned home from the trip to El Salto I moved some of the lures from my travelling tackle container to the box use I use for fishing on my home lakes here on the Oregon Coast. I had a hunch some of those tilapia-colored baits just might work hereabouts.
http://www.ifish.net/sftigtil].jpg
The bass in Mexico liked my Timber Tiger lures, but so do the largemouth much closer to home. The one I'm holding here came out of Tenmile Lake on the Oregon Coast.
It pleases the bejabbers out of me to say they do. The one I've found most effective so far is the tilapia colored Timber Tiger DC-13. Not long ago I spent three days fishing Tenmile Lake here on the Oregon Coast. The second afternoon I caught a half dozen fish late in the day on one of my tilapia colored lures along the outside edge of a weedline. The fish were holding from 10 to 13 feet down. This, I thought to myself, is where I'm going to start tomorrow morning and this is the bait I'll throw at 'em.
I was on the lake before daylight the following day. I eased my boat up to the shoreline where I'd found fish the previous day. The second cast a 2-pounder nailed my DC-13 Tiger. I released that scrapper and proceeded to catch four more fish on successive casts. By 7:30 a.m. I had 14 bass in the boat---every last one of the on Tom Seward's tilapia colored DC-13 Timber Tiger.
http://www.ifish.net/sfsttiger.jpg
My friend Steve Battaglia nailed this Mexican largemouth and a bunch of others on his Worden's tilapia colored DC-13 crankbait.
I don't know if Worden's will eventually add a lure color called the tilapia to its extensive line of lure colors. They already have a half dozen or so that are close to the shade of the special baits Seward made for me. Check a new Worden's lure catalog, your sporting goods dealer will have one if you don't, and you'll find they are the lure numbers 269, 225, 233, 207,224 and 261.
Whether or not they do market one called the tilapia, you can bet I'm going to take good care of the ones I have. And they're not going to be put back into that travelling tackle box of mine unless I'm headed out of town. They might learn to speak Spanish somewhere down the line, but right now they're doing a dang good job of bamboozling the gringo bass right here close to home!