Stan Fagerstrom
07-15-2003, 03:12 PM
"A Way With A Wobbler"
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part One
Anybody who tells you he knows all about bass fishing is the same barefaced liar who'll tell you he totally understands women. In either situation it just ain't possible!
That, of course, is a male point of view. Nowhere does it apply more completely than where lures and the right way to fish them are concerned. You don't, for example, hear or read much about bass fishermen using metal wobblers in the same fashion many fish a soft jerkbait. I'm not talking about metal weedless lures like the venerable Johnson Silver Minnow. Neither do I have reference to the heavier metal wobblers some anglers bounce up from the bottom in deep water for bass in the cold weather months.
The wobblers I have in mind are those shoehorn types that are so common for steelhead fishing in the Pacific Northwest. You'll also find them widely used for pike in some parts of the country. A red and white combination is a favorite color in these lures. It took me awhile to realize just how effective the darn things could be for largemouth bass when used just right in certain waters.
http://www.ifish.net/sfredwhitewobl.jpg
A red and white wobbler like this can be a darn good bass bait on certain waters.
Much of my early bass fishing experience came on backwaters of the Columbia River in the southwest part of Washington State. I moved to that area from North Dakota when I was 12 years old and at the height of the Great Depression. It didn't take me long to discover that some of the Columbia's backwaters contained largemouth bass. Equally important was that those ponds were within bike range of where I lived.
The only two lures I had to fish with as a kid were a rainbow colored floating/diving plug called a Heddon Basser and a twin-bladed Shannon Spinner. It never occurred to me that maybe those fickle bass I forever pestered in the Columbia's log ponds and sloughs might hit metal wobblers. After all, those who knew a lot more about fishing than I did had told me repeatedly that metal wobblers were good for steelhead or pike and not much else.
http://www.ifish.net/sfredwhitewob.jpg
I've always had by far my best success using a red and white wobbler with a copper finish on its underside.
I might have continued to think along those lines if I hadn't invited a friend to accompany me to my favorite log pond one evening. This friend was as enthusiastic about steelhead and trout fishing as I was about bass. I was amused when I saw him reach into his tackle vest and pull out a box containing nothing but metal wobblers.
I made some smart aleck remark about how my log pond bass weren't as dumb as his steelhead or trout. I assured him he was wasting time throwing those wobblers. Chances are you can guess what happened. My friend caught six bass that evening, every dang one of them on a red and white wobbler. All I got was casting practice.
I made a bunch of trips to various Columbia River backwaters in the years that followed. I wound up catching as many fish on those same red and white wobblers as anything I had in my tackle box.
I find that comes as a surprise to many bass fishermen. I see disbelief in the eyes of some when I attempt to tell them just how effective these wobblers can be when properly presented in some waters. And proper presentation is without doubt a primary key in getting bass to hit these metal baits.
In my next column I'll detail the type of presentation I've found most effective with the kind of wobblers I'm talking about.
By Stan Fagerstrom
Part One
Anybody who tells you he knows all about bass fishing is the same barefaced liar who'll tell you he totally understands women. In either situation it just ain't possible!
That, of course, is a male point of view. Nowhere does it apply more completely than where lures and the right way to fish them are concerned. You don't, for example, hear or read much about bass fishermen using metal wobblers in the same fashion many fish a soft jerkbait. I'm not talking about metal weedless lures like the venerable Johnson Silver Minnow. Neither do I have reference to the heavier metal wobblers some anglers bounce up from the bottom in deep water for bass in the cold weather months.
The wobblers I have in mind are those shoehorn types that are so common for steelhead fishing in the Pacific Northwest. You'll also find them widely used for pike in some parts of the country. A red and white combination is a favorite color in these lures. It took me awhile to realize just how effective the darn things could be for largemouth bass when used just right in certain waters.
http://www.ifish.net/sfredwhitewobl.jpg
A red and white wobbler like this can be a darn good bass bait on certain waters.
Much of my early bass fishing experience came on backwaters of the Columbia River in the southwest part of Washington State. I moved to that area from North Dakota when I was 12 years old and at the height of the Great Depression. It didn't take me long to discover that some of the Columbia's backwaters contained largemouth bass. Equally important was that those ponds were within bike range of where I lived.
The only two lures I had to fish with as a kid were a rainbow colored floating/diving plug called a Heddon Basser and a twin-bladed Shannon Spinner. It never occurred to me that maybe those fickle bass I forever pestered in the Columbia's log ponds and sloughs might hit metal wobblers. After all, those who knew a lot more about fishing than I did had told me repeatedly that metal wobblers were good for steelhead or pike and not much else.
http://www.ifish.net/sfredwhitewob.jpg
I've always had by far my best success using a red and white wobbler with a copper finish on its underside.
I might have continued to think along those lines if I hadn't invited a friend to accompany me to my favorite log pond one evening. This friend was as enthusiastic about steelhead and trout fishing as I was about bass. I was amused when I saw him reach into his tackle vest and pull out a box containing nothing but metal wobblers.
I made some smart aleck remark about how my log pond bass weren't as dumb as his steelhead or trout. I assured him he was wasting time throwing those wobblers. Chances are you can guess what happened. My friend caught six bass that evening, every dang one of them on a red and white wobbler. All I got was casting practice.
I made a bunch of trips to various Columbia River backwaters in the years that followed. I wound up catching as many fish on those same red and white wobblers as anything I had in my tackle box.
I find that comes as a surprise to many bass fishermen. I see disbelief in the eyes of some when I attempt to tell them just how effective these wobblers can be when properly presented in some waters. And proper presentation is without doubt a primary key in getting bass to hit these metal baits.
In my next column I'll detail the type of presentation I've found most effective with the kind of wobblers I'm talking about.