Some sample hard lures arrived here late last week for me to continue evaluating and working out whether any changes might be needed and so on. Sometimes these sample lures are at a stage in their development where I can cast and retrieve them but they are not yet strong enough to hook a fish on - not I might add that I am finding loads of hungry bass at the moment - so I often combine a dog walk with Storm and a lure testing session. The hound loves the casting and retrieving and I need to do the casting and retrieving to work out what’s going on with the lures………….
I don’t know how much notice you take of how certain lures get out there, but I do. I need to for work purposes, but my work is my passion so it’s all rolled into one anyway. I can’t help but be interested in how well or badly certain lures or types of lures cast, and one thing I know I am guilty of on here is using that expression “when I catch it right” with regards to the flight of a lure. Whack a “simple” sort of lure like a Surf Seeker or Sandeel Pencil SW out there and unless you are doing something seriously wrong on completely the wrong rod I would suggest that it’s pretty much impossible not to cast these types of lures well. How far they go or don’t go is down to a number of different factors, but if you know lures like these then you will get where I am coming from.
But now clip on a lure like the regular size Xorus Patchinko which has a well deserved reputation both as a bass-catcher and a surface lure which can cast a hell of a long way and deal with rougher sea conditions. Let’s be honest here though - for all its distance casting prowess, do you “catch it right” every single time? Does your Patchinko fly true and straight every single time you unleash it upon an unsuspecting bass population? If your Patchinko goes out as true as an arrow every single time then I reckon we are left with three options here - you are the world’s best caster of a fishing lure, you are lying, or you can’t see or follow the lure on its flight path and you wouldn’t know how true it’s casting anyway!
So are you like me here in that you want to better understand why certain lures or types of lure cast better sometimes, and why occasionally they go out like a banana? Do you ever stop and think about things and then make adjustments until you either get that true flight or you deliberately mess a few casts up to know what the factors are which influence how it goes out? I have to do this sort of stuff because otherwise I would end up reporting back to the people who send me these sample lures with the wrong information, but as I said, I am interested in it anyway. If I can’t experiment with my casting speed and style and drop-length and so on to better understand whether a specific lure is on the right path or not then what use would I be in the development process?
And this isn’t all about distance and me obsessing about bass lures all needing to cast a country mile. For sure I prefer it when I have the option to cover more water if need be, but we often don’t need distance and we can chop and change lures to better suit conditions and ground anyway. Nope, my interest in how well or indeed badly certain lures might cast is also down to how they might cast into a headwind or deal with a strong sidewind. How about how quickly they “bite” into a rougher sea when they land? What sort of rod casting weights does a certain lure seem to work better on? And so on. I have always noticed how the heaviest and largest profile 40g Surf Seeker really gets going when you are using a longer and more powerful lure rod for example, but I can fling the lighter and smaller profile 30g Surf Seeker a frigging mile on most lure rods I would use for bass fishing. I didn’t concentrate much on physics at school but I have to assume that there are a number of influencing factors at work here.
So I have done a few of these dog walks combined with a bit of lure testing recently, and with one of the lures especially it was noticeable pretty quickly how well it casts if you get everything right. I didn’t on the first few casts I might add, but part of the job is to mix things up until I can come to some sort of conclusion. If there is one thing I notice when I am taking photos of anglers is how differently everybody casts. The weight of this particular lure means that it will suit some lure rods better than others, the length of the drop is pretty critical - too short and the lure tends to “fishtail” on the cast (to me a really short drop promotes a faster cast which means there is a great chance of a mistime, but too long a drop and other factors come into play) - and if I drop the speed of my cast to say 25% slower than I would move the (very easy to cast, as was always intended because of its saltwater sea trout fishing origins) 30g Surf Seeker, this sample lure flies true and straight and cuts through the wind really well.
I wonder how many anglers buy a lure which has a good reputation for its casting abilities but after a while they wonder what the hell the other anglers are on about? I can’t get away from how the original Patchinko is by hook or by crook about the most perfect combination of shape and weight and length and design, but even then you still have to “catch it right” to appreciate how much water this thing can cover. It doesn’t always matter when it comes to catching bass, I accept that, but I need to look beyond that when I am doing my testing and evaluation work here. I also need a decent bit of time with sample lures because you can change something about your rod and reel setup or casting style/speed and directly affect how a lure casts and thus what you might think about a certain lure. What I also need is to forget all about England’s dire Six Nations campaign and instead celebrate just how magnificent the French are at the moment. I don’t do politics, but I am very much going to celebrate being European when we go into next year’s rugby World Cup! England rugby supporters need to be clutching at any available straws at the moment. Vive La France and bloody well done………….
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