 The
Revival of Old Lures
Zell Rowland
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bass wise-up to lures the more
frequently they see them. When anglers buy old lures
and fish them, they quickly discover that the old lures
are catching as many, if not more, bass than they did
when they were new. The reason is that these older lures
are ones that the bass haven’t seen before. Anglers
fishing these old lures have new confidence in the old
ones that win big-money tournaments. We’ll talk
this week with some of the nation’s top pros to
learn what old lures they’re still using and why.
 Zell
Rowland of Montgomery, Texas, who has fished bass tournaments
since the age of 13, has won over $1 million in tournament
bass fishing, including five Bassmaster events. For
more than 20 years, he’s fished the Pop-R and
knows that lure never will go out of style.
“I started fishing the Rebel Pop-R right after
anglers started winning tournaments using it. Other
chugger baits, may look like the Pop-R, but they won’t
sound like it because of the shape of the Pop-R’s
body and the concave shape of its mouth. The Pop-R spits
and sounds like a shad flipping the surface of the water.
I’ve come out with a new bait for Excalibur that
only  spits
and doesn’t chug, but I still carry the Pop-R
with me and use it often. I’ve even got an old
Heddon Zara Spook that has three treble hooks instead
of two. I fish with the older baits because often they
catch more bass than the new ones. Many of the old lures
have three hooks instead of two hooks, like the old
Smithwick Rogue. You don’t have to be bright to
understand that three hooks will catch more bass than
two hooks will. I also have some of the old Bomber Mud
Bugs. Old lures were made out of different materials
– often lead – from the new lures that are
often made with tungsten. The old lures produce a different
sound than the new lures do. Some companies, like PRADCO,
are even  returning
to the original plastic formulations that were used
on some of the original old baits to make the lures
sound and act like the old baits. Some of the old baits
that were around before I was born and just after I
was born still will be producing bass for fishermen
long after I’m gone. We’re even seeing fishermen
going to the Internet and buying old baits off eBay
but not as collector’s items. They’re buying
those old baits to fish with them. I’ve seen some
fishermen pay as much as $40 for an old lure, take it
out fishing on the weekend and watch that old bait catch
bass.”
Tomorrow: Greg Hackney
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