One For The Lure Anglers Amongst You

If, like me, you buy more lures than you could ever use sufficiently to find out whether they can actually catch fish, then you will no doubt, like me, have a few lures that seemed like a good idea when you bought them but now languish at the very bottom of your lure bucket. Some of those lures may never have been in the water, some on the other hand may well have had an outing or two, not caught a fish and been dismissed as a failure. Most if not all of those lures will have been purchased on the basis of conversations with fellow anglers, articles in the fishing magazines, You Tube videos and/or plain and simple marketing by the manufacturers as being the latest “must-have” fish catcher that you couldn’t possibly do without. Some of those lures may well have achieved a reputation based upon the successes of others that elevates the lure to an almost mystical status, but despite that they just do not work for you and inevitably reside in the bottom of that bucket.

I own one of these near mystical lures. It is not a new lure, in fact it is one of the lures that I have owned longest. So long that I can’t remember how or where I came by the lure. It is a lure that has been made famous over the years by many well known lure anglers and in their hands has caught many spectacular fish. Read any article about lure fishing and variants of this lure will undoubtedly feature in the “must-have” list.

It is the definitive jerk bait……………The Buster Jerk.

As I said I can’t remember how I came by my Buster Jerk and I certainly can’t remember why I chose the colour that I did ( perhaps it was the only one the shop had?) but at the time it must have been something that I just couldn’t do without and it was, for a while, one of my favourite lures. The action on the lure is fascinating, it hangs in the water when stationary absolutely perfectly, settling only very slowly, the slightest twitch of the rod or turn of the handle and the glide is perfect, it feels and looks like a fish catcher in every respect and in the hands of others that is exactly what it is. But mine just doesn’t and hasn’t caught me a fish and hence the bottom of the bucket.

A recent clear-out of the aforementioned bucket exposed said BJ to the daylight for the first time in a long time and I was reminded of my earlier efforts with the lure to catch a fish and given that there could be absolutely no failure on the part of the angler in question that had contributed to the lack of fish then there had to be something wrong with the lure. In short order it had to be the colour of the lure that was to blame I convinced myself. What to do about that was the next question and a trip to Wilko and a quick review of the spray paint cans on offer was enough to convince me that what I needed was somebody who knew what they were doing.

Step forward SENPAC founder member Mark Houghton of MH Custom Lures who very kindly agreed to do a conversion job on my lure. I provided a very detailed design brief for Mark, “roach pattern mate” seemed to do the job and despite being incredibly busy trying to keep his head above water satisfying an ever growing order list for his immense catalogue of lure patterns my BJ was headed for a make-over.

I think the transformation speaks for itself, and pictures are worth many words or something like that, so………………………………………..

BUSTER BEFORE

BUSTER AFTER

The only problem now of course, is that if I fail to catch with it, then I’ve run out of things to blame!

For lure fishing porn go to………………….mhcustomlures.blogspot.co.uk

SPANISH SPECTACULAR

   

     
        The above picture tells it all. The shades, the tan, and a River Ebro Catfish weighing in at 183 lbs. This was the biggest of the bunch in a staggering haul of over 1,700 lbs caught by two members of SENPAC Steve Sandiford and Dave Gardner during a week's Spanish fishing break. Dave also managed a 25lb Carp on the trip.

I guess for many a trip of this nature would only be a dream but for Steve and Dave it became a reality. A truly stunning week's fishing and I gather that plans are already being made for a return visit. Fishing under cooler conditions the other members of the region have been out and about on some of our smaller waters. Fishing started slowly due to the weather conditions but recently the catches have improved significantly. Good catches of Rudd, Skimmer Bream, Tench, Roach and Carp have all been reported.
                   

             

                           

                       

       
The region now looks forward to the Summer matches that will take place over the next three months.