Pride in the Glide
Posted by Pete Robbins on May 2nd 2020
On Saturday, the topwater and wake bait bite that had been red hot for three weeks at a local lake pretty much fizzled. So too had the soft swimbait bite that had provided so much fun and intrigue lately. I caught a few on moving baits, but by noon I’d pulled out the spinning rods with a Ned Rig and a Senko and resigned myself to wading through a sea of peckerheads to add to my keeper total.
As I’ve documented here repeatedly, my toe dip into the world of swimbaits, has resulted in a few successes, an unconscionable number of near-misses, and lots of retail therapy, so despite my virtual white flag surrender, I appeased myself by keeping a River2Sea S-Waver 168 on the deck. You certified big bait snobs might not think it’s big enough to qualify as a true swimbait, but to me it’s a firmly-planted step in that direction. Despite my misgivings, I just couldn’t put it away and even as my overall bite number ticked up on the soft plastics, I continued to throw it occasionally.
At 1:30pm, that obsession was rewarded as a quick twitch over a big stump produced an angry 4-pounder, my best fish of the day. Five minutes later, I cast the S-Waver into an empty boat slip and a pound and a halfer went rogue, head butted my bait, and ended up in the boat as well. Ten minutes after that, I ripped the lure down the shade line of a covered boat house and caught my third fish on it – a 3 pounder. None of them were huge, but the 4 and the 3 were my two best fish of the day.
And that was it.
While I threw the S-Waver most of the rest of the day, I was plagued again my ridiculous numbers of follows. It continues to amaze me that no matter how fast I make it change direction, bass can remain right on its tail without biting. One fish one around a pilling to find the bait on the other side – but it did not chew.
One fifteen minute window with a $19 glidebait. Just enough of a taste to turn a tough day into one I’ll always remember. At some point I’ll develop a few more tricks and they’ll collide with a more wide-open bite. I fear that this is just a gateway to a lot of scary spending and endless days staring through my polarized glasses.
