One-Lure Bass Fishing--Ever Tried It?

While still in the Navy and assigned to duty in Washington, D.C., I fished with a couple different clubs, one of which had a member who was a dedicated spinnerbait man. He always fished as a backseater, always fished a spinnerbait, and always wore out his frontseater in the course of any given tournament. He constantly urged the frontseater, regardless of who it was, to speed up their casts and retrieves.

I also participated in some one-lure tournaments, in which everyone named their lure of choice at sign-in and had to stay with it all day long, regardless of the outcome.

Then, back in the '70s, I spent one full year fishing the Charlie Brewer slider system (with 6 lb.-test mono), followed by a year in the mid-'80s or mid-'90s, when I fished nothing but spinnerbaits.

So, I've had my fair share of experience with fishing only one lure. A quick check around the Internet revealed that others also have sampled this kind of fishing.

A Florida fella had to leave the working world because of health concerns. One side benefit that developed as a result of his situation was that he could fish as often as he liked, as long as it was from the bank. On a lark, he decided to start fishing with just topwater baits.

"I would rather fish for bass with topwaters and not catch anything, rather than catch them on something else," he said. He went on to explain that he had been having good luck recently with two old favorites: the Storm Chug Bug and the Heddon Super Spook Jr.

This fella indicated he was beginning to wonder if his newfound success with topwaters might be a result of developing a determination and confidence level in topwaters or something else.

Turns out this Floridian heard from another guy who likewise was fishing solely spinnerbaits...the Chug Bug and Super Spook Jr., in addition to a Torpedo and Spro Pop Frog, and also doing well. Like the Floridian, too, he would rather catch one on topwater than 10 on soft plastic.

"Everyone likes the audio and visual parts of a good topwater strike," he said. "The best part of all is knowing that you were able to irritate the fish bad enough to make him strike your lure in the first place."

A third fisherman was lamenting the fact that most bass fishermen take far more tackle with them on a trip than they'll ever use. He spoke of a fella named Frank, whom he once fished with in a club. It seems that Frank only fished plastic worms...various sizes from 4 to 10 inches, rigged a lot of different ways (e.g., T-rig, weightless, split shot, or on his own version of a shakey head, before shakey heads became a big thing).

Frank's catch rates were impressive...often placing in the top three in club tournaments. He had fished for many years and had tried a lot of other bass baits before settling on plastic worms. He had the utmost confidence in his choice.

When it comes to trophy-bass hunters, they generally favor topwater baits, just for the simple reason that big bass generally are found in shallow water. Topwaters, like buzzbaits, twitching stickbaits, and frogs, usually get the nod.

As one angler explained, "You wouldn't think of going elk hunting with a .22 rifle, so why would you go search for trophy bass with average tackle?"