HARD LURES: VERY SHALLOW DIVING MINNOWS
Arguably the most important category of hard lures for UK and Irish bass fishing, what I call the ultra or very shallow diving minnows. Hard lures designed to swim really shallow and help you fish lots of those shallow rock marks especially. Brands such as IMA, Tackle House, Savage Gear etc.
IMA iBORN 98f Shallow
This little IMA iBORN 98f Shallow lure (98mm, 13g) casts really for its size, and on a medium speed retrieve it comes to life just under the surface with a very intense little slalom/wiggle sort of action. This is a very shallow-swimming lure and therefore doesn’t really like choppy conditions.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or Lurefishingforbass.co.uk
IMA Komomo SF-125
The IMA Komomo SF-125 (125mm, 16g, 0-30cms swimming depth) runs with a loose, wiggling/side to side action that really turns fish on. I just don't go bass fishing without at least one SF-125 in my lure box. I wrote a blog post about this lure - see here.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or Lurefishingforbass.co.uk
Savage Gear Gravity Shallow 10cm and 11.5cm
Very long-casting, very shallow-swimming, some stunning colours, a very tight action, these Savage Gear Gravity Shallow lures are so me! Available in a 10cm/14g and 11.5cm/20g size, the lad who created these lures started with thinking about his beloved Gravity Pencil because of what it can do for him. We ended up with these ultra-shallow divers and we rather like them.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or FishingMegastore.com
Tackle House Feed Shallow 128
Awesome ultra-shallow diving minnow that casts ok but not great, which doesn’t always matter at all. The Tackle House Feed Shallow 128 (128mm, 13.5g) works well when retrieved at a fast or medium pace. This one has caught lots of big bass for lots of anglers over the last few years and it has quite rightly become a bit of a classic. I don’t like the hooks on these lures so I change them.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or FishingMegastore.com
IMA Komomo II
A long casting, ultra-shallow diving lure from IMA, one of the best lure companies out there. A lure like this needs calm conditions to work best, for it really does swim so shallow that too much chop on the water will kill it stone dead. This IMA Komomo II (110mm, 15g) is a killer in calm, settled conditions over shallow, rough ground especially.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or Lurefishingforbass.co.uk
IMA Komomo SF-110
The IMA Komomo lures do it for me in a big way, and this smaller IMA Komomo SF-110 (110mm, 12g, 0-50cm swimming depth) is a stunner. Casts well, swims lovely and shallow, and the action is sublime.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Lurefishingforbass.co.uk or Ebay
IMA iBorn 118F Shallow
Wow, wow, wow! A very shallow diving lure which as far as I can tell is casting easily as far as the long-casting IMA Hound 125F Glide, and crumbs am I excited about this new IMA iBorn 118F (118mm, 19g). I like having a few hard lures that swim nice and shallow, and I really like them if they also cast really well, so yes, I am rather excited to see how this new stunner from IMA is going to work out for my bass fishing.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or Lurefishingforbass.co.uk
IMA Komomo II 90
The IMA Komomo II 90 (90mm, 12g) is not just a smaller version of the slightly larger Komomo II that I presumed it might just be. No way. This is a whole lure all by itself if that makes sense. Small it might be, but it casts incredibly well, and what really surprised me from the off was how well the 90 “bites in” to the sea – and especially in rougher conditions when I would not have used the original Komomo II.
Affiliate links (my sincere thanks if you choose to buy via these): Veals Mail Order or Lurefishingforbass.co.uk or Ebay