Is there an all-time, all-perfect fishing lure that works magic?
Of course not, silly. OK, garden worms, maybe.
In the category of artificial lures, we anglers have been testing hooked inventions now for a few hundred years and we're still looking.
But some lures -- while not perfect -- tend to be among the most reliable time after time. So what's on your short list? And why? Send me a note at ron@mnbound.com.
Meanwhile, when it came time last weekend to open Minnesota's bass season, I had enough tackle along to fill a wheelbarrow. Bass are wonderful in that way. They'll inhale so many creations of plastic or wood in so many colors and shapes, no angler in his or her right mind would want to be missing the lure of the day. So you bring everything.
What lures did I reach for first? Here are three of my favorites:
White spinnerbait: quarter-ounce, single or tandem blade. Season after season, largemouth bass on opening day have told me they like spinnerbaits. White also is the color of choice for the spinnerbait skirt, especially in early season with clear water, such as Thunder Lake was the other day. Like magic, the white spinnerbait invited strike after strike of bass lurking in old bulrush beds, including a hefty 6-pound northern pike. In dingy or dark water, different colored skirts, such as chartreuse or black, might be a better choice, but for now, white is right.
Rapala: It's the largest-selling fishing lure in the world for a reason. The original floating model can be fished in so many ways -- surface, subsurface or trolled deep with added weights. Last weekend on Thunder Lake, near Remer, Minn., I switched objectives and lures, deciding to fish for smallmouth with a Rapala DT-8, a crankbait designed to dive to 8 feet. A few casts later, the lure momentarily smacked into something, and that something began to pull back. Oh, my. She was a beauty, a 20-inch smallmouth that was convinced the crayfish-colored DT-8 was edible. Magic.
Jig worm: Simple but effective. An ordinary lead-head jig, say one-sixteenth to three-eights of an ounce, tipped with a plastic worm or tube worm or twister tail or pork or any live bait. The jig might be weedless or skirted, doesn't matter. This combination will entice any gamefish in Minnesota waters at literally any depth.
In search of bass on a weedline, the jig worm is a magic act.
Ron Schara • ron@mnbound.com
outdoors
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