I’m really liking this not pre-rigging soft plastics way of doing things

Apologies for the lack of posts last week, but I was spending a few days with my folks having not seen them for about eight months or so. I hope that those of you here with kids had a good half-term with the mostly glorious weather, and here’s to hoping that this slow crawl back to normality stays on course………..

You know how the more you do something a bit different it soon starts to feel completely normal? Back in January I blogged about how I was starting to go out fishing without a whole heap of pre-rigged soft plastics, and although the bass fishing around here is still on the slowish side but showing signs of coming good, I’ve had long enough now for it to feel normal with taking a selection of soft plastic lures out fishing and then screwing whichever one I want to use onto either of the two variations of 6/0 weedless hooks (belly-weight or no belly-weight) that match the Gravity Sticks I find myself using so much these days.

There was me thinking I’d probably give it a bit of a go and then go back to pre-rigging soft plastics, and in some respects I should probably be encouraging you to buy as many of the Savage Gear weedless hooks as possible when they are in stock (most of fishing tackle trade is having a bit of a supply issue due to a number of factors which I won’t bore you with) - but I am really liking putting four weedless hooks - 2 of each version - into an old chewing gum container which sits in one of the pockets on my HPA Chest Pack and then stuffing whatever Gravity Sticks I think I will need for a session into one of the long-sided washable lure boxes which are so hard to find these days.

We are obviously not talking about soft plastics here like the Fiiish Black Minnow or the about to hit the shops Savage Minnow, Savage Minnow Weedless, Savage Gear Sandeel V2 and Sandeel V2 Weedless, but if we think about lures like the Gravity Sticks and DoLives and so on, up until the other day I have been using those same four weedless hooks since I first tried this way of doing things. I snagged and lost a lure the other day on a bell-weight hook, but even so that is remarkably few weedless hooks used, and it makes the Gravity Stick kits which are back in stock feel like even better value to me than they already were. Bear in mind that I do tend to wash my hooks after use but even so the mix of heavily salted soft plastics with the different metals used in the hitchhikers and actual hooks do all combine to create a few rust spots over time - yet my original hooks are still going strong and yes I do touch up the points from time to time because sharp hooks make a lot of sense to me! I also haven’t gone over to not pre-rigging the soft plastics I fish with at night because what I take tends to be very specific and being able to change lures “blind” at night and not having to get glasses on plus turn a headlamp on makes life a little easier.

I believe that from sometime this week or next all the new Savage Gear bass fishing products we have been working on will be hitting the shops, so I am going to apologise in advance for detailing the different lures and rods and so on when this does happen. I can’t stop the unpleasantness and petty-minded jealousy on social media, but I can be really proud of the work we have done and the gear we have created. As ever, if me talking about what happens to be a fascinating and enjoyable part of my working in fishing bothers you, please don’t read it.

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