I have no idea if there is any kind of definitive answer here by the way, but once again it’s the way my brain works and I can’t help but pick up on things and think about them. I saw a comment from an angler the other day where he said that when he needs to add some weight to his soft plastics (which are rigged on weedless hooks), he prefers what he believes is a slightly more natural swimming movement with a cheburashka weight on the front of his soft plastic as opposed to a bit of weight somewhere on the shank of the weedless hook (belly-weight).
We might well be clutching at straws here, but please forgive me when March is being such a cruel mistress and doing her level best to prevent me having even a sniff of a chance at my first ever March bass. It’s called cabin fever and I guess that most of you know all about it. New rod for the coming bass season when you don’t really need one? Cabin fever. Respooling a couple of spinning reels when the braid is still perfectly good? Cabin fever. Potentially overthinking fishing stuff when what you are already doing has worked pretty well? Cabin fever. Come on, you know what I am talking about here!
Savage Gear Balls Clip On Weight at the front of the lure
Anyway, so when I need to add a bit of weight to something like a Gravity Stick Paddletail or Pulsetail I will generally turn to a belly-weighted weedless hook. If I think I need to add more weight than the 6/0 3g or 4/0 2g weedless hooks we did for the two sizes of Gravity Stick then I will tend to turn to those Berkley Fusion19 Weight Swimbait Hooks. I can also add one of the SG Balls Clip On Weights to the front of a weedless hook, and whilst I have very little experience with those cheb weights which you can see below, I guess the same sort of thing is being achieved. I don’t see those Balls Clip On Weights affecting the action of my lures, and I have caught bass when using them so I know they work - but unless I am trying to make a really heavy Gravity Stick Paddletail especially, I tend to turn to them more for bumping various lures along the bottom on a weedless hook.
And to be perfectly honest I have never really thought about the fact that there could be a bit of difference between swimming a soft plastic on a belly-weighted weedless hook and a Balls Clip On/cheb weight at the front with NO belly-weight on the weedless hook. Any thoughts on this or should I disappear into the dark recesses of my brain and come back out to pasture in April when I start to feel more confident? I carry a few different weedless hooks with me when I go out bass fishing so it’s not as if I don’t have the options, but I do like how the Balls Clip On Weights are so easy to use - clip on, clip off. It is also very noticeable when you clip one of the heavier ones how well the lures really punch into a headwind especially. It’s as if the weight at the front sort of takes over from the weight of the lure during the cast. You can probably guess that I woke up far too early this morning with a case of bouncing brain!
Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.