I sometimes found myself ripping my SG Seeker in because the lure felt like it had picked up weed, but there was none on there

I am finding this work I’m doing with Savage Gear fascinating on a bunch of different levels, and because I am genuinely interested in how different lures come about and what the people who created these lures intended, my getting access to the grownups at Savage Gear is great. It was the same with the time I got to spend with Matt at Fiiish because I could really get to understand so much behind his Black Minnow and Crazy Sandeel designs especially. I am a person and indeed an angler who is always itching to learn and I will always ask questions because why on earth would you not when you spend time with people who know a lot more than you about specific things? In some respects this blog is my many questions about fishing and my searching for answers…………..

I started to obsess about the Savage Gear Seeker metal lure way before I ever started doing anything with Savage Gear themselves, indeed it was my working with John Quinlan over in Ireland with this co-guiding work we do together that started switching me onto this particular lure - and yes as ever, there are countless metal lures out there but I happen to really like the Seeker way more than any others I have tried so far. I believe a client of John’s had really opened up his eyes to how versatile a metal lure the Seeker was with the bass fishing they were doing over there, and because John knows a hell of a lot I naturally asked him questions about the lure and how they were using it, and then I started buying some when I got back home to fish with myself.

Anyway, so I found myself fishing a lot in the surf the last few years with the Seeker, and I began to notice that on a few occasions I would blast it out and start winding it in, only for the lure to suddenly feel a bit heavier which I tend to think is a bit of the bastard weed reaching out and grabbing what is now a fairly big single hook that I like using on these lures in the surf. It goes without saying that weed can sometimes be a big problem when surf fishing, but I began to notice sometimes was that I would suddenly get that “heavier” feeling on the lure and go to rip it in so I could clean the hooks and get it out again when there was virtually no weed about - only for the Seeker to come to hand and there was no bloody weed on it and I’m starting to think I might be imagining those “heavier” feelings.

A few early bouncing brain mornings later and I have come to the conclusion that because the Seeker’s design lends itself to literally “biting in” like many of our hard lures do, when I am blasting it out and then start retrieving it and the lure hits a strong bit of current which I might not even know is there because of all the turbulence, that extra drag or “heavier” feeling was in fact the Seeker really gripping in through the (rip) current which of course translates to me feeling more resistance and mistaking it for weed on the hook.

And this is where my in with Savage Gear is so interesting. I believed that I had worked out what was going on and I was able to then have a chat about it with the bloke who brought it to market, Mads Grosell. For starters he’s really interested in understanding more about what in essence was originally a metal lure for saltwater based sea trout fishing (long casting and shallow swimming at faster speeds especially) that I was using to good effect in turbulent surf conditions, and then when I talked about my “thinking it was weed” problems but in fact I was sure it was mostly the Seeker gripping into a bit of current, straight away Mads said yes, it’s exactly the same with some of his sea trout fishing as well. Now this may seem incredibly obvious, but now put yourself waist deep in some very early morning surf and there are a stack of bass out there and your lure suddenly goes heavy and because you’re ingrained that heavier lure equals weed on the hooks, you rip the lure in to cast again only to find there’s no weed on the end and in fact you could have kept on fishing the thing properly.

If there isn’t much weed about on that particular session and my Seeker suddenly goes a bit heavier feeling then because I have fished with the lure a lot now and also talked a fair bit with Mads about it, I will slow it down a bit more to keep me in that bit of current for as long as possible, or I will put a spin-stop on the lure - wind in then suddenly stop, try to maintain contact with the lure as it sinks/shimmies down for a few seconds (not often easy in the wind and waves), and then start the retrieve again. It’s electric when you pick the tension of the lure up again and get nailed……………..

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