A Bit of a Draft
Posted by Pete Robbins on Jan 8th 2020
In 2019, I caught various jungle species, Alaskan trout and salmon, and halibut that pushed the 100 pound mark. I went to Mexico three times. Nevertheless, three of my most memorable bites of the year came on my last day on the water – December 29th – on a pretty blah 3,000 acre lake near home. Furthermore, none of the three bass topped the 2-pound mark.
They might be more memorable because it was so recent. Indeed, as I approach 50 I’m having trouble remembering what I entered a room for, or what I had for lunch, but in this case I think it’s more than that. It’s because I caught them on swimbaits.
No, swimbait freaks, the bait in question wasn’t a 14-inch trout replica carved out of a Louisville Slugger, a rat imitation that cost $2,500 or a Japanese mahogany glider that I received after being on a wait list for six years and a day.
It was a 6-inch soft plastic Megabass Magdraft that I bought from Tackle Warehouse for $12.99. If that knocks me out of your club, or causes you to stop reading, so be it. It was kind of a big deal for me. Why? Because although I’ve accumulated a whole bunch of legit swimbaits, both hard and soft, I really haven’t found a way to integrate them into my day-to-day fishing. After hearing Chris Zaldain talk about the Magdraft all year, and seeing that it wasn’t the size of a mastiff puppy, it seemed like a reasonable gateway drug to further deviance.
Once I put it in the water, I was pretty confident that it would get bit at some point. It swims naturally at various speeds, you can control the depth, and it skips as well as or better than any other lure on baitcasting tackle, including (dare I say it on this site?) my beloved Senko. On a day when the bass were just slapping at my go-to spinnerbait, occasionally getting pinned on the trailer hook, the first strike on the Magdraft was so hard that it slapped me back to reality.
The second strike came when I expected it, but not from the fish I thought was going to bite. As I brought the lure past a pair of stumps, I saw a bass start to follow it. Then, out of the corner of my eye I saw a different one rocket from right to left and grab the lure. A short while later, I skipped the bait up under a boathouse and got smoked on the way out.
Again, none of these fish pushed the scale down very far. That’s ok, because while I would’ve rather had a 6- or a 7-pounder, in some ways it was even more beneficial to know that the little ones would hit it, too. That makes me more likely to throw it when I’m just looking to get bit, with a chance for a giant.
And yes, when I got home from the lake, I ordered more, including the weedless Freestyle version. This is the most excited I’ve been about a new member of my bass team in a long time.
