 The
Revival of Old Lures Continued
Jimmy Mason
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 talk this week
with some of the nation’s top pros to learn what
old lures they’re still using and why.
Jimmy Mason of Rogersville, Alabama, the American Angler's
National Champion and Angler of the Year in 2002, has
qualified for the Bassmaster Classic in 2003 –
2005 and also fishes the FLW circuit. Fishing since
he’s learned to walk, Mason has fished tournaments
since the age of 12.
 “I
like to use the old Cordell Spot with a single rattle
because it has a nose-down fall when you cast it out
and then spiraling down to the bottom,” Mason
reports. “I catch numbers of bass using this drop
bait, but I also rip it off the bottom when it hits
and let it fall back again. Too, I like to use it when
I’m fishing in a crowd of people using lipless
crankbaits. I’m a guide on Alabama’s Lake
Guntersville where during the spring and summer, a line
of boats may be all down the edge of a weed line, casting
lipless crankbaits. Somehow in the evolution of lipless
crankbaits, someone decided that if one rattle was good,
then two or more rattles would be even better. Most
lipless crankbaits have more than one rattle in them.
By using the old Cordell Spot with only one rattle,
I’m fishing a lipless crankbait that the bass
haven’t seen in awhile. I can fish down a bank
behind several other anglers and catch the bass they
haven’t caught, although I may be using a lure
that looks like the lure they have. I like to fish old
lures because they look and sound different coming through
the water and even have different wobbles than modern
lures do. When you’re fishing in a crowd, you
can use these old lures to give the bass a different
presentation than what they’ve seen in the past
and often catch bass that the crowd won’t take.
I believe that the more fishing pressure a lake has,
the more-effective old lures are. I also enjoy fishing
the Model A Bomber, a classic crankbait with one rattle
that seems to have been around forever. I particularly
like the fact that you can fish with the Model A Bomber
as soon as you take it out of the package, because it
runs true. The old Model A Bombers with the rear  screw
that held the hooks on were made out of a different
plastic than what the modern Model A Bombers are. Since
more fishermen have demanded the old Model A Bomber,
the Bomber Bait Company has reformulated the plastic
originally used and is now using it in their new lures.
“I’m convinced that fishing classic baits
no one else has gives me an advantage in the tournaments
I fish. Last year in the Bassmaster Tour event at Clark
Hill, I was fishing in a creek with five other contestants,
all of us fishing crankbaits. All during the day, they’d
go down one bank, and then I’d come in behind
them, fishing that same bank with a crawfish-colored
Model A Bomber with a single rattle. Although the bass
on those banks were seeing an awful lot of crankbaits,
I had a crankbait that none of the bass ever had seen
or heard before. I caught more bass in the creek each
day of that tournament than any of the other contestants.
I’m confident the other contestants were fishing
with the latest and greatest crankbaits, most of which
probably had multiple rattles. I believe that in that
tournament, fishing an old bait that no one else had
was a major key to my success. Too, I’ve seen
Lake Guntersville anglers pay as much as $50 for an
old Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow, probably the greatest
schooling- smallmouth
top-water lure ever made. Most people have forgotten
about this surface lure with its heavy tail weight that
allows you to make long casts and has a side-to-side,
walk-the-dog action. I have about 50 of these old lures,
but I limit myself to taking only two out at one time.
I don’t want to run out of them, and I don’t
want to use them up quickly. I’ll tell you how
much I believe in this old lure. If a smallmouth came
up, attacked my Jumpin’ Minnow, went down to the
bottom and got the lure tangled in a tree top, I’d
pull my clothes off in front of God and everyone else,
swim down the line and get that bait back. This bait
has caught more schooling smallmouth that weigh 5 pounds
or more on the Tennessee River than any other bait I
know.”
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