On his blog, my mate Henry Gilbey has been raging on about these new lures for a long time. If you’ve read any of his blogs yourself, you might think “Xorus - Duo Tide - Megabass Zonk - Xlayer, Tackle House Feed -  Patchinko 11  - it all gets a bit confusing, surely a lure is just a lure?”

But for those in the know, a lure is not just a lure!

There’s an old saying that “if you cast the wrong lure for long enough, it will soon become the right lure”. This statement works on the predictability that if you sit there casting the wrong lure continuously, eventually one daft fish is going to hit it! But is that really what you want? I don’t derive my fishing buzz from fishing flukes and I’m sure you don’t either. What I’m saying is, I like to target my fish, fine tuning my tackle and technique, and I like to know why I got my results so that I can repeat them next time. With the bass’s clever and cunning personality, the best way to target this fish is properly, not half heartedly or with inadequate tackle.

Bass fishing has taken off big time in the last few years and fair play too. The bass offers the ultimate challenge in UK saltwater angling. They’re cunning and they require tact - they’re finicky and challenging. Once hooked they fight mean and once landed, they make an awesome photo. There’s no doubt about it - modern bass fishing is where it’s at!

As bass fishing has grown in popularity, so specialist angling businesses have sprung up all over the place. Run by anglers for anglers, these businesses usually form because of one very good angler who knows his stuff and feels compelled to help other anglers gain the same results as he does; and this can be said for Mr Fish and his www.mrfishjersey.net website, which supplies super modern bass tackle for today’s specialist bass angler. Introducing Mick Ward Aka ‘Mr Fish’...

Mick Ward was born and bred in Jersey and has always lived within a few hundred yards of the sea so getting into fishing as a young lad was almost compulsory. About 15 years ago, Mick realised that out of all the forms of angling, he most loved lure fishing. So when Mick started going on weekend breaks to France to fish for Bass, he saw the vast range of modern lures available and just how deadly they really were. With this in mind he and his brother decided to open their own shop based around modern hi-tech bass fishing and bass lures. Today, several years on, Mick and his brother supply what are now classed by those in the forefront of UK bass fishing, as the three best top-water lures available...

The Xorus Patchinko has to be one of the ugliest lures I have ever seen, but don’t let that deceive you... the Patchinko 2 is the best all-round surface lure for bass in the UK at the moment. It casts further than any other bass lure of its type and size, and this is due to its ugly butt. The weight in this lure is all rear-ended, giving it a ‘bulged’ look, but this lure has been critically balanced so that the weighted section flies through the air first when cast to reduce tangles. The Patchinko comes fitted with top quality Decoy hooks.

The Patchinko is one of the easiest lures to ‘Walk the dog’ with. It has a zigzagging motion across the surface that is created with small twitches of the wrist.

Xorus Patchinko 2
Weight 25g
Length 140mm
Diving depth – surface
Colour - Silver/Black
Action ‘walk the dog’
Price £17.95

The Tackle House FEED shallow is one of the best modern lures to hit UK shores in recent years. It has a tungsten weight transferral system (in English that’s internal ball bearing weights!) which let this lure absolutely fly when you cast it – and I can confirm it does fly! As it has no bib as such, it also casts very accurately and is not prone to spin in mid flight. The FEED shallow requires no special retrieve either, just a steady, constant wind will create its rolling “S” Slithering movement that drives bass absolutely crazy.

The FEED shallow dives to about 45cm but, if you lift the rod tip up, you can get them to swim just under the surface, so this makes it the ideal bass lure for shallow ground like over rocks and kelp.

Tackle House FEED shallow
Weight 19g
Length 128mm
Diving depth - 5-45cm
Colour – Sardine
Action ‘rolling slither’
Price £19.95

The Duo Tide Minnow SLD (Slim Long Distance) has become an iconic lure in its first year of UK bass fishing. It’s a winning lure with trophies under its belt so far:  WSF 2008 Boat Bass Lure fishing challenge, Bob Jameson 9lb 8oz - WSF 2008 Shore Bass Lure fishing challenge, Graham Hill 14lb 1oz - and the WSF First bass of 2009 challenge, Steve Payne 4bl 1oz. Need I say more!

The Tide Minnow range goes from 75mm to 200mm and the whole range is made a multitude of colours for every situation. I find they need a bit of a kick to get a good wobble but literally working them with twitches brings them to life, just like an injured baitfish. The Tide Minnows cast outstandingly and will dive from 2ft to 4ft deep. The action is a rolling zigzag.

Duo Tide Minnow
Weight 17g
Length 120mm
Diving depth - 2-4ft
Colour - Glass Eel
Action ‘long rolling zigzag’
Price £18.95

Pictured with these three lures is the B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sport Fishing Society) Bass Lure Storage System available from the UK B.A.S.S. website www.ukbass.com Price £1.50 each (all proceeds to the bass restoration project)

My view... These are three of the best top-water bass lures money can buy. You get what you pay for in this life and mainlines, trace lines, hooks, and LURES are the most important tackle any angler will ever own. Scrimping and scraping on the wrong lure to cast “for long enough” is not my kind of bass fishing. I’d rather take the best lures available knowing they will give me the deadliest results - I certainly wouldn’t go bass fishing at the moment without my Duo Tide Minnow (!!!) And the B.A.S.S. bass lure storage system... What a neat idea for a great cause!

Watch this space. Mick and friends have been working on a book about modern bass angling – this should be out sometime soon and looks set to be an awesome professional insight into the world of lure fishing!

For more information on the above lures visit Mr Fish at www.mrfishjersey.net

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