Downsizing for Big Bass

Sometimes fish just don’t want to play the game. No matter how hard you try your tested and proven offerings they fail. This was the case at Somerset Dam recently. I had located bass and tried all the proven techniques on these deep schooling fish but they just weren’t cooperating. The most successful lure for the morning had been an ice jig. The tiny lure was gaining plenty of attention but in most cases the fish were failing to hook up. I thought about it for a while and reached into my tackle box for the answer. 


The new Powerbait MF40 soft vibes were just what the bass were after. Being a small profile lure loaded with super-sharp trebles, hookups wouldn’t be a problem provided I could get the bites. I fished these lures vertically to schooled fish as well as casting out and then hopping along the bottom back to the boat. Both retrieves were similar in that each time I would lift the lure 1-2 foot off the bottom. During these lifts, the lure could be felt vibrating through the 4lb Fireline. Most hits happened as the lure was sinking back to the bottom or dead-sticked at the bottom of the drop. 
After racking up numbers of smaller bass during the morning, I was confident to give the MF40 a run when the action picked up late in the afternoon.

I was hopping the lure down a ledge that dropped from 27 to 50 feet when the tiny offering was crunched. This was a big bass and I had to keep my cool and let it run to prevent pulling the tiny hooks. All went to plan and I netted my biggest bass taken on an MF40 so far. The fish weighed 2.6 kg and was as fat as a football. I know the next time the going is tough and bass are chasing smaller offerings, the MF40 will be one of my go to baits

Cheers Jason