Mama take this Jitterbug from me. I can’t cast it any more. It’s getting to dark, to dark for me to see. You cast it for me, so I can keep fishing. Hey, Hey, Hey…Knock, knock, knocking on Mr. Bass door. Yeah…oh yeah.
A wooden Fred Arbogast Jitterbug brings back memories of times when I was much younger and had a full head of hair. Our family would travel for its summer vacation up to Lake Mille Lacs in Minnesota to relax and go fishing. Every morning my father and the other men who were up in the lodge would take off in a fleet of boats leaving their wives and kids behind. I always assumed that they were die hard anglers, but the truth be told, they were probably just seeking solitude of fishing quietly not caring if they caught any. That left me and my brothers along with one small row boat, a couple fishing poles, and a few lures with mom. Although my mom wasn’t overly excited about taking the row boat out with three rambunctious boys, she probably thought that if we all rowed enough it would tire us out. Little did she know that we had a never ending supply of adrenalin pumping though us. Her only chance of survival was having us cast out wooden Jitterbug and reel them in till our arms gave out.

I love to pitch and flip Texas rigged soft plastics. Nothing can compare to pitching and flipping in and around thick cover in anticipation of that thump. It’s challenging to make a lure fit into a tight space and big oversized soft plastics are not appropriate. No, an angler really needs a small, compact soft plastic lure. The YUM F2 Wooly Bug fits in that category. A compact lure that can fit into tight spaces yet catch big bass.

It’s one of those why didn’t I think of that moments. Trolling crankbaits for slab crappie sure makes a lot of sense. Crappie like to school in open water or on offshore ledges at times and the only way to catch them is trolling. Sure during the spawn they migrate towards the bank, but often a cold front will push them back to deeper water quickly. Big Slab crappies have a ravishing appetite often eating big forage or following schools of shad to feast on. One lure that imitates this forage is crankbaits.  A crankbaits like the new Rebel Crappie Crank-R was designed with input from renowned crappie tournament pro and crappie fishing guide Todd Huckabee specifically for catching those slab crappie.

No, it’s not Super Worm! It’s Gene Larew’s new 6-inch Salt Flick’R. It can’t be easy being a Salt Flick’R. Not quite a traditional sinking worm, swimbait, shaky worm or do-nothing worm. Though once taken out of the inside an angler’s tackle box can turn in to a sinking worm, swimbait, shaky worm or do-nothing worm by removing its appendages. Just like Superman can turn into a number of different super lures with a change of appearance.