W2F Blog

We finally reached the end of our 20 Most Influential Bass Fishing Lures of All Time countdown. It was a lot of fun doing this daily over the last several weeks and we thoroughly enjoyed reading your thoughts and comments on the selections.

And the winner is ... all of us. Thanks to the Nick and Cosma Creme melting some plastic on their stove in 1949 and pouring it into some molds, we all have all these great soft plastics and other soft baits to fish with for bass.

"Of all the outdoor pursuits, fishing may be the most knowledge-intensive. Every day is different. Every hour can change everything. Every species---every single fish---requires a specific set of actions and decisions designed to put forth what seems to be the simplest of requests: 'Eat this, please.'" -- T. Edward Nickens

We're not sure if Bob Carnes knew what he had immediately when he created the Arkie Jig. But we do know what he had was something incredibly special to bass fishing. Carnes was building baits in Arkansas and was looking for a way to make jigs more weedless and attractive to bass. He thought if he could make a balanced head for his bucktail jigs and add a brush guard to protect the hook he could fish his jig in more places.

He saw a TV show where they were using a jig with a fiberguard. At the time he was looking at wireguards for his jigs but the demand for the fiberguard after that TV show aired forced his hand and he had to figure out a way to mold a fiberguard into leadhead. All the while he was tweaking on the shape of the head to keep it from snagging. It started more like a banana head, then he shortened it and flattened and widened it to make keep it level and upright which was critical to avoiding snags.

Once he got the jig head design and fiberguard correct he began tying the first jigs with bucktail. But he saw the Gilmore Lure Company Spinnerbait had some sort of rubber bands hanging off of it. He wasn't sure what it was exactly or even how to get a hold of the rubber. He knew underwear had elastic in it as did women's girdles. They actually traced the girdle's rubber back to a rubber company and got them to color some rubber for them.

The rest as they say is history, but the lasting effect of some simple necessity has continued for more than 45 years. A skirted snagless jig has arguably won more national tournaments than any other lure. There for a time in the 80s, every tournament of any significance was being won on them. In the early days of the B.A.S.S. Tour there were something like five tournaments in a row won on Carnes jigs and no one told anyone. They were keeping it secret.

Bo Dowden won the Classic in 1980 on a brown and orange Arkie Jig and the boom for Carnes's snagless jig was going full steam ahead. The jig was carried in Walmart Stores in the early 70s when it was still just a regional chain. And after word spread and Walmart grew, access to his Arkie jig was much easier.

Now just about every jig manufacturer and component shop carries the Arkie style head for flipping. It was a lasting innovation that is every bit as good today as it was 45 years ago.

For this reason, the Arkie Lures Arkie Jig, is our No. 2 Most Influential Bass Fishing Lure of All Time!

I'm going flippin' crazy. I can't stand the flippin' wait. All I want to do right now is catch a flippin' bass out of a flippin' bush, preferably a flippin' 8-pounder, and naturally on tournament day if it's not too flippin' much to ask.

The flipping and pitching bug can be hard to shake in the spring time, especially if you're fortunate to live around a fishery known for big bass around shallow cover. The bass have been held up by rising and lowering water levels. Then the cold fronts have knocked the water temperatures back. So even though the lake looks primed for flipping, it's not quite right, and the anticipation is like an itch you can't scratch if you love to flip and pitch like we do.

But the long wait got us pulling our plastics to get ready for some hardcore flipping over the course of the next several weeks. We started analyzing how we flip and what baits we choose and why.

Really I keep it pretty simple. It's all about profile first and color second. Then from there its figuring out the mood of the fish and choosing a bait that fits the cover.

As far as profiles, we really stick with five bait profiles for our flipping and pitching.

1. The Jig - A Jig is a great flipping bait given you choose the right head. The Arkie head style is extremely snagproof, but we have our own favorites for flipping jigs. You want a strong hook that won't bend out on heavy line in heavy cover. You want an angle that slightly tilts the hook upward away from cover, and you want a head design that will slide through the cover.

Often around grass a pointed nose jig pulls through better. A jig with a plaining surface on the bottom, however, will pull over wood more efficiently. Both should have good weedguards to keep the hook point away from snags. Check the angle and spread of the brush guard often as you fish, especially if you notice the jig is suddenly snagging more. Fish can sometimes bend your weedguards.

2. The Beaver - The Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver gave us flippers a new toy to play with. Before that it was often a craw bait that took this spot. And I still use a craw like a Berkley Chigger Craw or the Big Bite Yo Daddy when I want a more bulky profile like a Beaver but some more leg action on the drop. But a Beaver-style bait is a compact package that when a fish bites, you can be sure they have the hook. It's more finesse than a jig although we often add a punch skirt to this rig with an Eco Pro Tungsten weight and a straight shank Trokar flipping hook snelled onto braid or heavy fluorocarbon.

3. The Creature - Sometimes the fish are looking for a longer profile with a lot more water turbulence, this is a case where something like a Zoom Brush Hog really shines. It's long but bulky and has multiple flappers on it that really move the water. We like this bait when we're flipping around the spawn. You can flip big trees and stumps and objects where you think a bass would make a bed. It's nice because you can flip and pitch or you can just cast it to spot where you think a bass made a bed on a flat gravel bank.

4. The Lizard - When the water is a little more clear and the fish are a little skittish a lizard is a good subtle offering that you can flip and pitch in cover. It's longer profile with small appendages that give it a lifelike action when dropped in on an unsuspecting fish. We like a widegap Mustad KVD Grip Pin hook and a little lighter Eco Pro Tungsten weight to get the bait in and around cover. It's a subtle flipping presentation that can really make a difference when the bass are in a funk and not reacting to bulkier offerings.

5. The Stickbait - Finally I've found that a Yamamoto Senko with a small weight pitched around obvious targets can really pay big dividends. It has a unique spiral fall and tail whip. It can be hard to pitch around in the wind. Yet when it's flat calm and clear and the bass don't like a big bait in their strike zone, this subtle offering has bailed us out on many occassions where the fish wouldn't react to other offerings with a lot of appendages or squattier profiles.

(from left to right: Yamamoto Senko, Big Bite Baits Kriet Tail Lizard, Zoom Baby Brush Hog, Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, and a Cumberland Pro Lures HD Jig)

The Rapala Original Floater pretty much started the entire Rapala company and for a lot of folks is where their first alternative to live bait came into play. The popularity of the bait was so incredible when it first came out that many anglers guarded the baits in metal cases to keep them protected.

This bait wasn't really an agitator, but it did seem to provoke the bass into biting. Especially well for anglers in the very first Bassmaster Classic. Originally called the Aggitator, the Stan Sloan's Zorro Baits Aggravator is a spinnerbait that wasn't necessarily the first spinnerbait ever made, but it vaulted spinnerbaits into the mainstream when Bobby Murray and Roland Martin used the baits to finish first and second at Ray Scott's innaugural Bassmaster Classic.

What was there not to like about it? The name, the shape and even the sound when you shook it in your closed fist all were extremely appealing. Not to mention that plastic square case that it came in so you could get a good look at the bait.

It may not have been the first or the best ever made, but the Gene Larew Salt Craw has stood the test of time, won many professional tournaments and brought something into the forefront in manfuacturing of soft plastic fishing artificials. This long hybrid worm / craw plastic offering was destined to turn a lot of heads from day one -- both on the shelves and in the bushes.

Anglers were immediately attracted to the shape and profile. Its size made it a great jig trailer as well as a great Texas-rigged offering for flipping heavy cover. But the real innovation was the ability to cook salt into the plastic pours so that the salt was not just sprinkled onto the bait or in the bags (a process we find very annoying as anglers) but actually poured as part of the bait.

Hardly anyone talks about square bill crankbaits anymore. Okay that was a joke. It's all you hear about anymore when it comes to shallow crankbaits. KVD won the Bassmaster Classic this year on one and several other major tournaments have been won on square billed crankbaits. Some folks think they were just created in the last 5-10 years but the credit actually goes to Fred Young when he started hand carving his Big O back in 1967. That's right it's 45 years old.

Mann's Jelly Worms, introduced in 1967, claim to be the most popular selling worm of all time. The influences of this popular worm from Tom Mann, however, go well beyond their own sales and are still seen in plastics today.

I have a wall of Plano Stowaways. And most are filled to the brim with tackle. I often find myself fishing on someone else's lake in someone else's boat. I got tired of trying to lug piles of Planos to every lake I fished.

In 1964 an odd shaped hunk of plastic hit the market. And it didn't make much of an immediate splash but the guys out west sure did pick up on its effectiveness. Bobby Garland had created a "tube bait" he called the Gitzit that could mimic a dying bait fish as it fell to the bottom. This spiral of death action was irresistable to bass in clear waters out west.

The Gitzit really became a household name when Guido Hibdon drew Garland in a tournament on Lake Mead. Hibdon brought the bait back to his Ozark lakes and started tearing up the tournament trail with this new shape of plastic. It was unique in that it broke away from the worm craw lizard (lifelike creature) mold and hollow body with tentacles. It was a blend of many great concepts in lure making and is what makes a tube still so effective today.

People probably have a few of these in their tackle boxes. My dad had several that turned to a gooey mess over 20 years of rubber skirts melting in the trays of his expanding two-tower tray tackle box. The fact is the Arbogast Hula Popper has had a long lasting impact on bass fishing lures.

It was the first widely market topwater popper hitting the market sometime in the 1930s. The chugging bait was made to imitate frogs around vegetation. The shape of the body, the frog coloration and of course the popping mouth were all innovative at that time, but it's another part of the lure that really made the biggest influence.

This bait is a fun pick. But it's more than just fun that got it this high on our list of Most Influential Bass Fishing Lures. The Heddon Zara Spook spawned not only a craze of topwater anglers and savage heart stopping strikes from hungry bass, but it spawned it's own swagger on the water. The "walk the dog" technique was born with the creation and perfection of this lure and it was an overnight success.

Your top five teams for the final round of the 2011 FLW College Fishing National Championship are the University of Florida, Louisiana State University in Shreveport, Christopher Newton University, Auburn University and N.C. State University.


"Look out Florida Gators; we're coming for you. Those are fighting words," said the LSUS team of Zach Caudle and Joe Landry. The team has been on good quality the first two days. They only had three fish the first day but had a limit on day two. It could be a show down tomorrow.


Texas A&M team struggled the first day but brought in three "quality keepers" on the second day of the tournament. Proof they were around some good fish, just not enough of them.


The Eastern Kentucky University team of Kyle Ramer and Jonas Ertel (right) picked up the pace on day two. Ertel and his fiance own a family candle business. He was asked on stage what scent is their best cellar, Ertel said, "country berry hotcakes!" Those bass look like they've been eating some hotcakes.

Just a quick photo essay from today's National Guard FLW College Fishing National Championship launch on Kentucky Lake this morning. Roll your mouse over the pictures to get a description.

[Click photo to enlarge]

We got with Terry Scroggins before he headed to Pickwick for practice for the upcoming Elite Series and talked to him about one of his unique tackle storage secrets. In the back of his Toyota Tundra that was packed to the hilt for many weeks on the road, there was a white 5-gallon bucket with a lid on it.

The Johnson Silver Minnow is one of the simplest lures to stand the test of time. But when it hit the scene, it was one of the first and most effective ways to tempt bass to come to the top and eat over and around heavy vegetation. In fact we'd argue today's modern frogs, toads and other scum rat type lures are derivatives of the Johnson Silver Minnow.