My new buzz - getting feedback and catch reports from some anglers who are using these new lures I am so involved with

I have no idea how these new Savage Gear Gravity Sticks and indeed Surf Seekers (more to come) might or might not sell when they hit the shops and websites soon, and I guess that if these lures fall flat on their faces then my worth to Savage Gear plummets somewhat, but it’s something I have no control over and I can’t be worrying about that side of things. Nope, what is really getting me going recently is receiving feedback and catch reports from a few anglers who have been out fishing with these lures. I cannot tell you what a buzz it is to know that a few people have gone out fishing with bass lures that I have had such an active hand in, and whilst me catching on “my” lures gets me almost screaming with joy, other anglers catching on them is some buzz………………..

Some fishing tackle companies take feedback on board better than others, and I think fishing tackle is a kind of organic thing that grows over time if it’s any good. You can obviously take what I do on this blog any way you choose, but I am always entirely open about who I am working with. My remit with a company like Savage Gear was that damn right I want to be involved from the ground up with thinking about and having a strong input into bass fishing tackle, but that I am always going to fish with gear from other companies as well because I haven’t yet found the one tackle company which makes every single thing I can use for my own fishing. None of the grownups have ever asked me to send Savage Gear products out to any anglers, but if there is one thing that has always fascinated me, it’s how other anglers fish, and with lure fishing, how they might fish with the same lures I do but perhaps in different ways and so on.

If there is one thing in fishing I can’t abide it’s experts, and all that the term “fishing expert” implies. I think social media in fishing terms can be brilliant a lot of the time, but I also recognise how unpleasant some anglers and indeed regular people can be online. I don’t understand why, but I get that it happens. I don’t have any time for fishing snobbery, I think jealousy is arguably the ugliest human trait, we all have to start somewhere and why the hell not ask a few questions without fear of ridicule, and all this “only big bass are worth catching” crap does nothing but hold our fine sport back in my opinion. Most of us want to learn and get better at fishing and I love talking about and sharing fishing related information. As I said, Savage Gear never asked me to, but I took it upon myself to try and get a few of these new lures to anglers I either know or correspond with or keep a bit of an eye on because I like the friendly and interested and indeed interesting way they come across online.

Me catching bass on the different generations of sample lures and now the finished products has been incredibly exciting, and recently I have managed to get hold of some more finished lures. There isn’t much point me having stacks of the same lures here (he says while a big box of DoLive Sticks is sniggering away behind me as I write this) when I would far rather a few other anglers get to try them out and then hopefully feedback to me with how they get on, what they like or dislike, how they are using the different lures, etc. It’s my new buzz if you like. Another way to get my brain bouncing away early in the morning - regular anglers like me who are taking these new lures out fishing, hopefully catching fish on them, and then kindly getting back to me with reports and photos and ideas and so on. As ever you can only catch on what you have on the end, but to speak and correspond with other anglers who have caught real fish on lures which didn’t even exist a year or so ago and which I have been so heavily involved with? Floats my boat in a big way.

I asked a lad whose posts and positive comments and photos I really like on Facebook whether he would mind me sending him a few Gravity Sticks because I was so interested to see if they would work for him in the ways in which his posts suggest that he likes to fish for bass. To get such a swift report back from this guy to say that he nailed a bass on the exact lure in the exact colour that I hoped he might try first made my day like you would not believe. I asked another guy I correspond with if he would mind me sending him some of the new, larger profile 30g, 35g, and 40g Surf Seekers that now come rigged with a proper #3 saltwater treble hook and there’s also a #3/0 single hook in the packet as well. This lad is not using Seekers in the surf I might add, but to get a catch report back almost straight away was another day made this week. A very good angler and UK based bass guide I happen to know and respect the hell out of came back to me with a report of bass at night on the white Gravity Stick Pulsetail which ties in with everything I have come to know about this specific lure - another day made.

I got a call from a mate the other morning to tell me about a late night into first light session when one of the Gravity Stick soft plastics I had given him caught a couple of nice bass when another angler struggled on different lures. Was there a difference? It can never be proven and it doesn’t really matter, but it was great to hear about. Another mate lost what might have been his best bass so far this year when he got done in a great big mass of bladderwrack when fishing with a Pulsetail. The lad I do the guiding work with over in Ireland has been hammering bass on a bunch of Gravity Sticks and indeed Sandeel Pencils that I made sure he got because he’s such a nice bloke and with the world gone mad he is getting the chance to fish himself this year. And so on. Have we reinvented the wheel with these new lures? No, and I am not trying to claim otherwise, but we have made some interesting lures and a system that works together and very importantly leaves us open to further development with this Gravity Stick “family” especially. I know they catch fish and I can’t wait to see how anglers end up using them. We have come at this from a UK and Irish bass fishing point of view, and we have also done certain things which the trade will understand but anglers might not. The DoLive Stick in my opinion is a perfect lure and there’s no point trying to mess with it, but if you take what it can do I would argue that there is plenty of room for other lures and components which are then designed to work together. I don’t speak for Savage Gear and I am my own person, but it’s so inspiring to be so heavily involved in projects like this. When other anglers catch fish on those lures? If you have read this far then you know how excited I feel about all this………..