Stick-baits don't look much and they don't have a pronounced in-built action, but if you give them a few flicks with the rod tip they imitate a small darting baitfish better than anything else.
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I have been using sluggos, Berkley bass minnows, lunker city, some of the Juro range and some imported Japanese and American lures.
I love stick baits but I still thought that for our conditions, some improvements could be made. Any one who hasn't been living under a rock for the last few years will know that my head is on the Squidgy packet and I have spent too many hours helping to design the Squidgy range of soft plastic lures.
Obviously I hated using opposition lures so I needed to fill a gap in our range and to design a lure that I was happy to use.
Flick baits are the result of twelve months of extensive design and testing. I guess they are no big deal - I just wanted a type of stick bait that would still fish well in slow 'mooching' mode, but would have a bit more kick and flash when it was flicked. |
Colour and transparency are the keys to slow presentations and lure shape and plastic consistency are the keys to a faster action. The lures have exceeded all my expectations and they work very well in many different roles.
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Lately I have been doing a lot of bream fishing with the flick baits on cruising and hanging fish. If you keep your eyes open, you will often see bream either hanging motionless high in the water or cruising in groups.
I designed the flick baits with Finesse darter style heads in mind and while they fish very well with these heads in deeper water, I found the cruising bream hard to catch on the lead heads. Most cruisers are in clear water and close to the surface so I developed some light resin-head jigs for the flick baits. |
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With the light heads it is easy to land a flick bait close to a bream and then to give the lure the old 'dying minnow' retrieve with a few flicks of the rod tip. This works like magic and I have been having an absolute field day.
A couple of days ago I had a thirty fish day and many of the fish were in the 'jumbo' class. I regard this particular style of fishing as about as good as it gets because you get to see all the action.
If you get it right, the lure lands with a gentle plop - the bream swivels around and casually swims over to investigate. Then you flick the lure a couple of times and it sort of flashes, twitches and then glides slowly down - the bream puts his nose almost on the lure and then sucks it in like a gold fish.
So far the flick baits have caught fish for me around racks on medium lead heads, along rack walls and in deeper holes on heavy lead heads and from snags on the lightest lead heads. The very best fun though has been on the experimental resin heads on the cruisers and hangers. I have also racked up a fairly impressive by catch on the flick baits. Jewfish, trevally, salmon, tailor and other weird things have all taken a liking to the new plastics. |
It is obvious to me that stick baits of various sorts are deadly when any small darting type baitfish are on the menu and flick baits seem to work as well as any that I have tried. There have been a squillion plastic lures flooding the Australian market for a couple of years now and most anglers are very discerning buyers.
The good news is that only the best lures will survive. You can hype any lure up as much as you like and you can knock any lure as much as you like - anglers will only buy the ones that work. |
I hope this little teaser will inspire you to look for a few cruisers and hangers. You can't buy a flick bait yet but it won't be long before the first production batch hits the shelves.
Just remember - whatever the hype, they are just another stick bait with a little extra kick and a little more durability. You still have to use the right heads for the job and cast them near fish.
Bushy |
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