After watching Joe catch four keeper-sized speckled trout in front of me and everyone else on the pier, and after trying every topwater hard bait I had (and that's saying something), to say my curiosity was piqued is an understatement.
I had fished side by side with Joe all night and when the trout started hitting the suface he switched to his secret weapon stating that only the specks would hit it - not the sand trout. He had been using it earlier in the week and had taken home several keeper trout as a result.
I snuck a glance or two and could see the color and shape of this magic lure but it wasn't until we were all ready to leave that I got a good look at it. It was unremarkable except that I noticed a round lead weight between the body and the rear treble.
This must have been the ticket as it caused the lure to stand up straight when paused and to rock forward when twitched. Joe couldn't remember where he got it but it was the Confidence Bait this morning on the pier.
Tracy needed to go to town this afternoon to do some shopping so I volunteered to go with her since I wanted to see if Academy or Gander Mountain might have something close to the secret lure.
I found a similar one at Academy made by Cotton Cordell called the Crazy Shad. It was the same shape and color as the lure Joe was using but instead of a weight in the rear it had a propeller mounted fore and aft on the nose and tail. The salesman I spoke to said he had seen a lure like I described once but not at Academy. He thought it might have been at Gander Mountain but wasn't sure.
I picked up two and planned on making the necessary modifications once I got home.
Necessity is the Mother of Invention!
When we stopped at Gander Mountain I was surprised to find that they didn't have the Crazy Shad but that they had a ton of other topwater hard baits. I found their saltwater expert and discussed my situation with him. He was unfamiliar with the tail-weighted topwater and thought it must have been a homemade or modified rig.
I gave up my search and decided to dig through the bargain bin of discontinued lures while waiting for Tracy to finish looking around.
Imagine my delight when I found a Crazy Shad in the exact color and configuration Joe had been using!
Apparently, this was the original form of the lure and was discontinued (according to an Ebay shopper in the Want it Now section of EBay.
I found a supply of the originals at the Vimage Ebay Store. They are sold in lots of three and are "Smokey Joe" colored (fitting name, don't you agree?)
I have a reasonable stock for now and - yes - I did order some more off the EBay site.
How many you ask? - I'll never tell.
I may have the last supply on the planet!
1 comment:
The term crazy would seem appropriate, if I wasn't living in a house of duplicate HOT fishing lure myself, I would be in a much better to throw them at others.
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