My apologies if today’s blog post today doesn’t end up helping you catch more bass, but if we accept that we don’t actually know why a fish might or might not hit a certain lure of a certain colour which swims in a certain way, then perhaps some of those subtle differences between fairly similar lures can actually make a difference to our catch rates. Damn, can you see how easily I can convince myself of all this! Why have one version of a type of lure when I could have multiple……………

15cm Slender Scoop Shad on the 6/0 weedless hook

This particular thinking this morning comes about because I took delivery of some of the largest 15cm size of the Slender Scoop Shads yesterday, and whilst I already obsess about the smaller 13cm size, I was itching to see the larger 15cm version. The Slender Scoop Shad is what I would refer to as small for its size, and this 15cm version isn’t remotely what I would call a “big lure” as such - and I like that. I can get both sizes to play pretty nice on our 6/0 Weedless Corkscrew hooks, so I rigged one of each size up on the belly-weight version of these hooks and took them for a swim. Okay, so I did try for a bass but I failed on that front, so I also used the couple of hours to play with some gear and take some photos of a few lures I need for my image library. As a comparison and because I obviously trust the thing completely, I rigged my go-to Gravity Stick Paddletail on a 6/0 belly-weight hook as well.

I understand more about lure design a lot more than I did before I started working so closely with Mads at Savage Gear, plus I am doing more work with a very switched on lad over in Greece called Markos. By no means am I a lure designer, but I do have a better understanding now of why certain aspects of a lure cause it to swim or dive or wobble or slalom and so on. I happen to find the whole lure design and thinking thing completely fascinating, but then you go to a whole different and more advanced level when you get into the head of somebody like Mads. We have done a lot of work on some lures which are coming out soon, and whilst I can’t quite talk about them yet, there was a lot of going back and forth with ideas and samples and chopping and changing to get to where I was completely happy. What initially seemed to be a pretty simple job actually ended up being perhaps more complicated than the lures on which these new ones are based - all will become clear in due course - and it really rammed home to me how subtle little changes could make all the difference.

And then I take the bigger 15cm Slender Scoop Shad for a swim yesterday afternoon and I compare it to how my beloved Gravity Stick Paddletail swims - and they look SO different in the water. Which I really like and indeed want. I am not looking for a paddletail which swims much like the Gravity Stick because I don’t need to be carrying more lures which basically do the same thing when I’ve already got my ultimate. I get the argument that all paddletails swim with a tail that kicks and so on, but if you get to see something like the amazing Fiiish Black Minnow swimming at slow speed and/or from below especially, you will see that there is far more going on than you might realise. Whether we need those differences is something only the fish know, but all paddletails are not remotely the same.

As I said at the top, I can’t tell you that one subtly different paddletail is going to produce more fish than the next on a particular day, but I have talked a bit with Mads about these differences I see between the Slender Scoop Shad and the Gravity Stick Paddletail. I could go on and on here, but the Gravity Stick was designed as a “kick” kind of paddletail lure, where the tail visibly “kicks” on the retrieve. We know this in bass fishing, and it works. There is a direct correlation between the size of the tail and the bridge from lure body to tail and salt content and so on. This is designed to promote that “kick” action where the tail kicks and the whole body of the lure kinda “kicks” as well on the retrieve (you might not want to know this stuff and I understand that completely, but my guess is that enough of you have at least a passing interest in what goes into the gear we use).

13cm Slender Scoop Shad on the 6/0 weedless hook

Now have a look at the design and angle of the tail on the Slender Scoop Shad. This was not meant to be a traditional “kick” style paddletail. Take into account here that the Slender Scoop Shad was designed primarily for zander fishing, plus I was nothing to do with it, but I happened to pick up on it and ask to see some. In the water it is noticeable how the angle and design of the tail promotes what I see as a really strong rolling/shimmer sort of action which actually reminds me a bit of the Black Minnow and how the belly is working away so hard without many anglers realising. You can feel more going on through your rod tip on the 15cm size than the 13cm Slender Scoop Shad which is pretty obvious as more volume of lure is moving through the water, but the main thing for me is how the lure action offers me something a bit different.

I haven’t played around much with bumping these lures along the bottom, but it was interesting talking to Mads about how the Slender Scoop Shad is designed to work so well on jig heads. Even from playing with them in shallow water yesterday afternoon it was apparent how at roughly the same retrieve speed on the same hooks the Slender Scoop Shad looked like it was swimming a touch deeper than my Gravity Stick Paddletail - which ties in with Mads telling me that the Slender Scoop Shad is designed to perform really well in stronger (river) currents. There are any number of paddletails out there which will catch us bass, but of course I feel best placed to talk about lures which I either had a direct hand on or I can talk directly with the designer. Anyway, I had better stop because I could go on and on here and Storm needs a walk. Sorry for getting a bit technical but fishing goes way beyond the just catching fish thing for me…………….

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It fascinates me how similar types of lures can swim so subtly differently with a few design tweaks

© Henry Gilbey 2023