"James" wrote in message
. ..
I have not done any fishing in several years. This past month I decided to
take fishing back up again. So I was searching around on the web to see if
there was anything new about fishing that I was not aware of. I came
across a fishing tactic called "dead-sticking a jerkbait". I found this on
the Bass Pro Shops' web sight. If you click on Fishing Library and then go
to the article titled, "A Great Way to Catch Pre-Spawn Bass" it will tell
you all about it. You start with a suspending minnow lure about 4 ½ to 5
inches long. You cast the lure then crank it down to the depth you want to
fish it. Then you stop cranking the lure and do absolutely nothing. Just
let the lure stay suspended. The article says to leave it for as long as 2
minutes or more. The Bass is supposed to hit it while it is suspended. If
you read the article they make it sound as though you are going to just
clean up on the Bass doing this.

So I went out and bought about $45.00 of suspending minnow lures of
different sizes and colors. I made sure that every lure had the word
"Suspending" on the package. I bought 6 Rapala and 3 Storm lures. A
suspending lure is suppose to be neutral buoyant. It should not sink and
it should not float. Until I read this article I had never heard of a
suspending lure.

These new lures looked real pretty in my tackle box. Last night I decided
to put one of them in a bucket of water to see what it would do. Every
one of the Rapala lures floated. I could hold it on the bottom of the
bucket but as soon as I took my finger off it would pop to the top like a
cork. Every one of the Storm Lures would sink like rock.

So this evening I put my boat in the river to see what these "Suspending
Lures" would do in the real world. I used the same set up they used in
the article. A 7' light rod with 8 lb monofilament line. In the real
world the lures did the same thing they did in the bucket. The Rapala
lures float and the Storm Lures sink. The article said to let the lure
set motionless for 2 minutes. That Rapala lure will be floating on the
surface in about 15 seconds if you stop cranking the reel.

I believe that sometimes fishing articles are written for no other purpose
that to sucker you into spending money. They hooked me and reeled me
right in to the turn of $45.00. The lures are pretty though. James




They'll probably still catch fish. I've had great results with the Rapalas
over the past couple of years. I've been using the ones with the really long
lips for diving. Last year, in the St Lawrence River, I was able to see that
they ran down about 4 feet on a medium-fast retrieve, and stayed there for
at least a minute. A jerk of the rod tip drove them down a little further. I
hammered about a half dozen smallmouth that way, just letting the lures sit
for a bit.

There's a product called Suspend-Dots or something like that - dots of lead
about the size of the bits that are produced by a paper punch. You stick
them on lures, right on the bottom center line, to fine-tune their
suspending capability. Worth a try.