For all that we obsess about the weather in this country, the forecasters seem to be united on this potentially being the worst storm for three decades. I woke up at 4.30am and out the back of the house I’d have called it fairly windy, but as I am typing this a few hours later the wind is really starting to shift around here, to the point that I will not be walking Storm around any trees for the time being, and especially knowing how many trees come down around here when the wind gets particularly bad. Please stay safe out there and don’t do anything you don’t need to do which could then put other people at risk. I did have half a plan to go and test some new metals on the beach to see how they cast in a strong headwind, but I thought better of it!

Now for the actual blog post, but please don’t read any further if my working with Savage Gear bothers you. What you do for a living is none of my business and it doesn’t bother me, but with what I do and talk about here I feel that I should continue to make you aware of my affiliations and so on. As an aside, I have had very little to do with any of these new lures save for the odd suggestion during the development stage, but I know how well made these lures are, and I really like the fact that they are not too expensive. I might work with Savage Gear but when lures hit the market and then go out of stock I have to wait for them just like anybody else. I have recently been alerted to the fact that a lot of the lures I like to fish with have come back into stock, have a look here for my go-to bass fishing lures.

Er, not the sea conditions we would be seeing out on the coast today!

Savage Gear Slap Walker surface lures - I talk fairly regularly to a lad called Markos in Greece who developed these new surface lures principally for the southern European market (check out his YouTube channel here, he catches some serious fish!), and early on in the process he sent me some samples of what are now the three different sizes of Slap Walker lures. Straight away I said they looked interesting for our bass fishing but I could do with them casting a bit better into a breeze, so to Markos’s credit he listened to my suggestions and came back with some new samples which were now casting seriously well.

The Slap Walker 12.5cm/20g in the Golfball colour

The Slap Walker in the three different sizes/weights and some stunning colours - 10cm/10g (not seeing this one in the UK yet), 12.5cm/20g (£8.99) and 13.5cm/26g (£9.99) - and were designed for topwater fishing in the more southern parts of Europe in generally calm to mildly choppy conditions. They settle face-up if you let them sit still, and when you walk them across the top they have this fairly aggressive sort of walk/spit action which you can exaggerate with more speed or fish more subtly with a slower retrieve. When targeting fish like leerfish and mahi mahi, anglers will often really speed things up so the lure is literally skipping across the surface, and the Slap Walker is designed to work like this as well. And no, this lure was never meant to fish like the Patchinko with its unique rough water abilities. I have tried the Slap Walker in much rougher sea conditions, and whilst the 13.5cm/26g size can hack some healthy chop, they weren’t designed for very choppy seas with how the lure sits face-up and fishes quite “bouncily” if that makes sense. When it’s rough and I want to fish a surface lure I will turn to the Patchinko - note how it sits and “grips” a rougher sea - because it’s so capable when things get really bouncy, but it strikes me that a lot of bass anglers fish a lot of calm to mildly choppy conditions with surface lures for our bass. As I often do myself.

The Slap Walker 13.5cm/26 in the Ghost Brown colour

The baby 10cm/10g Slap Walker is almost shocking how well it casts for a small surface lure, and it’s so easy to work. I personally think that the 12.5cm/20g Slap Walker is a kind of sweet spot with how you can send it a mile if need be, and it’s my size of bass lure I guess. Catch the 13.5cm/26g Slap Walker right and I reckon it’s casting as far as the equivalent size Patchinko. It’s one of those lures which benefits from a smooth casting style at say 75% power. I had some good fishing on the Slap Walker on a few occasions last year when I received the final samples and got them out on the water.

The Cast Hacker Fast Sinking 9.5cm/26g in the Mackerel Ayu colour

Savage Gear Cast Hacker (Fast Sinking, £7.99) - Markos over in Greece has developed the extensive Cast Hacker family of lures along these lines: “Small but mighty, the Cast Hacker is made for serious saltwater game fishing. This tough and solid Thru Wired hard lure has been designed with a ‘small and compact’ philosophy – small enough to fool predators, but strong enough to deal with any challenge. With outstanding castability, you’ll be punching this lure up to 120 metres with ease (the bigger sizes, with a suitably powerful rod!) – from the shore it can cover huge distances and search from the bottom to the surface, while in offshore fishing it can be cast into the feeding frenzy fish from great distance. The FS models have a vivid falling action that’s able to trigger strikes even from lazy fish and can be used with slower twitches – they also have amazing skipping action if they are retrieved fast with the rod high. The XS models have a very fast ‘dead fish’ fall, even longer casting ability and can be used with more aggressive twitching, even in severe weather conditions for active fish. The XS can reach deep spots fast, no matter how strong the current.This tungsten-tuned lure also features an internal rattle and is sure to become a must-have lure for inshore and offshore anglers alike”.

The Cast Hacker Fast Sinking 9.5cm/26g in the Sayoris colour

As I said, Markos and I talk fairly regularly, and early on in the process he showed me the 9.5cm Cast Hacker over video call and asked my opinion on the potential for the lure in our market. My first thought was surf fishing and he duly sent me over a few samples to play around with. The 9.5cm/26g Cast Hacker Fast Sinking flies on the right rod, and on a straight retrieve it swims with a lovely sort of subtle slalom action. I am aware of some of the Spanish north coast bass anglers especially raving about similar lures for their own bass fishing, and this Cast Hacker has got a really intense shimmer on the drop. It’s obviously going to work outside of surf fishing, but that is where I have played with it the most - this lure loves spin-stops! Markos designed it to be worked hard with a twitching kind of action if you want to, indeed the heavier 32g Cast Hacker Extra Sinking has essentially no action on a straight retrieve and it’s meant to be fished pretty aggressively. My go-to so far from this range then is the 9.5cm/26g Cast Hacker Fast Sinking. The treble hooks are a somewhat heavier gauge than we would tend to use for our bass fishing, but bear in mind the fish they are designed for and the depths at which some of these fish can be caught. By all means change over for lighter gauge trebles if you want to, but I’m fine with them.

Savage Gear Gravity Popper 11cm/25g (£9.99) - I can’t pretend that I use a regular popper very much for my own bass fishing because WTD surface lures really took over for me a long time ago, but this new Savage Gear Gravity Popper 11cm/25g casts well, and with not much effort you can create a lot of “popping” surface disturbance. I sometimes think back to when the Storm Chug Bug (popper) was about the only surface lure I really knew about, and I caught pretty well on it, so should I look to fish with poppers a bit more for bass? Do many of you here turn to poppers over WTD lures when you go bass fishing? You all have a good weekend, see you next week, roll on spring………….

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A bunch of new bass fishing lures hitting the shops, please stay safe out there

© Henry Gilbey 2023