Storm® SubWart®

We do a lot of fishing on Lake Shannondale (a local private lake) for Largemouth. We've only had access to the lake for the past two years so we are still learning the seasonal patterns.

One of the problems we faced this year was finding the fish after the water reached 85° or so. My reading of Knowing Bass by Keith A. Jones seemed to indicate that the Bass would be in the warmest spots, assuming their other requirements were met.

To make a long story short, we found the Bass in 3-6' of water but the problem was that they were in weed beds. The weeds were thick and came to within 6-12" of the surface. Difficult fishing. Topwaters worked sometimes, weightless Senkos worked sometimes but I personally don't like the "feel" of a weightless Senko. We tried jerkbaits but they weren't the answer either. We tried Rapala-type minnows with varied success. I basically tried everything I had that could be used in the top 12" of the water column.

I finally tried a Storm® SubWart® in Baby Bass color. Bingo! The bait can be worked as a top water by doing a slow twitching retrieve but the beauty of this lure is that it can cover from topwater to about 12" deep. Perfect for over the weedbeds we encountered. In my experience, topwaters do best under certain low-light, light wind conditions. The SubWart® isn't limited to these conditions because it will dive at a depth of up to 12" depending on the retrieve speed and the rod top position (lower your rod top close to the water for a deeper dive).

My experience this summer was that the SubWart® will "call" the Bass in from a greater distance than either a topwater or a Senko (either that or fish were ignoring the top waters and Senkos). In either case, the SubWart worked when the others failed and consistently brought Bass from their hiding places deep in the weedbeds.

Next time you suspect the Bass are hiding in weedbeds that don't come all the way to the surface, try a SubWart. I think you'll be pleased.