The Power of Plastic
by Mark Romanack
May the power be with you. Power Baits that is. Berkley's rapidly growing assortment of scent impregnated plastic baits has caught fire with anglers across the country. Some are even saying that Power Bait is more effective than live bait!
How could a plastic lure be more effective than live bait? Berkley Power Bait isn't made from the ordinary plastic used in most soft-bodied lures. Special scent and taste ingredients are impregnated into the plastic for a positive effect that has to be fished to be believed.
Plastic lures have natural action similar to live bait, but these lures are tougher and stay on the hook longer. Add in the fact that plastic baits are available in a wide range of sizes and colors and it's easy to see how live bait pales by comparison.
The notion of adding scent to plastic lures isn't a new idea. Bass anglers have been dripping on, dipping, and spraying their lures with fish scent for years. Power Bait is simply a more convenient means of fishing scented plastic. There's no mess, no need to re-apply scent, and no end to the fishing applications these products offer.
Available in a wide variety of popular plastic lure styles, anglers can choose from worms, ringworms, finesse worms, lizards, craws, soft twitch baits, frogs, spinnerbait trailers, tubes, grubs, shad bodies, jig spinners, spinnerbaits, weedless jigs, and even a lipless crankbait with a replaceable Power Bait tail. Virtually all the plastics an angler could hope for are offered in the Power Bait line.
Each of these lures is designed to help anglers catch fish using the tried and tested techniques popularized by guides and fishing pros around the country. The Power Slug is one of my favorite scented plastic lures. A soft-bodied twitch bait, this unique lure can be fished as a topwater teaser or below the surface for bass, northern pike, and even walleye.
As a surface bait fish, the Power Slug like a Texas-rigged worm minus the weight using a 5/0 offset hook for the six-inch version and a 2/0 hook for the four-inch version. Large hooks are essential when fishing these thick plastic baits. On the hookset the hook must pass through the plastic and still have enough bite to penetrate the fish's mouth.
Make short to medium length casts that are easy to control and fish twitch baits with the rod tip at approximately the two o'clock position. A high rod position helps keep as much line as possible out of the water and allows the angler to keep the bait darting and jumping easily across the surface.
Work the bait with short and repeated snaps of the wrist. Reel in slack line as the bait moves closer and be ready for a strike at any second.
Setting the hook too soon is the biggest mistake anglers make when fishing topwater twitch baits. The moment a bass or pike smashes the bait on the surface, reflexes take over and you set the hook before the fish actually has a grip on the lure.
When the fish strikes, force yourself to lower the rod tip, reel up any slack and set the hook hard when you feel the line pull tight. It takes awhile to condition yourself not to set the hook when a monster explodes on the surface.
When fishing soft twitch baits under the surface, these lures are easily weighted by inserting small lengths of lead or other weight into the plastic. I use pieces of ordinary pipe solder to add weight to my Power Slugs.
A little weight goes a long way. These lures are slow sinkers on their own and any extra weight causes them to sink faster.
Weighted twitch baits have the same fish catching power under the surface as they do on the surface. I cast these lures to weed edges and use them to coax bass, walleye, and northern pike into action. Set the hook when you feel the bite.
When bass or walleye are the target fish, I prefer 8- or 10-pound-test line. For pike, heavier 12- to 17-pound line will help eliminate some of the biteoffs associated with these toothy critters. I don't recommend steel leaders even for pike fishing. Steel leaders are stiff and reduce some of the subtle action these lures deliver. I say it's better to get bit and then bit off than to never have been bit.
Power Tubes and Grubs are also among my favorite plastic baits. Ideal for walleye and smallmouth bass, I fish these baits using 1/8- and 1/4-ounce leadheads that feature large gap hooks.
Jigheads designed for walleye fishing typically feature a No. 4 hook. Designed for live-bait fishing, a No. 4 hook is too small for use with plastic baits. Select a jig with a No. 2 or better yet No. 1 Aberdeen hook.
I like Aberdeen jig hooks because they are made from thin wire that is much easier to stick into the mouth of a walleye or bass. Think of it this way. Which could be used to easily penetrate the mouth of a fish, a straight pen or an ink pen?
I use tubes and grubs for a wide variety of bass and walleye fishing. The ideal lure for fishing sluggish bottom-hugging fish, I depend on Power Bait when fishing weed edges, rock humps, points, breaklines, shorelines, and other cover or structure types that help pinpoint the location of bass and walleye.
Jigging is a slow fishing method as compared to casting cranks and is therefore best applied to specific areas where fish are likely to be contacted. In other words, don't try to jig on flats or other areas where fish are widely scattered. It could take hours to contact fish. Instead, locate fish using faster moving methods and change to jigs when you've located fish. A slow and accurate presentation, jigging is one of the best techniques for triggering neutral or inactive bass and walleye.
A lipless crankbait like the new Power Rattle is a more effective way to cover large amounts of water quickly. Try casting these lures to flats with scattered weeds, the deltas around river mouths, river flats, flooded stump fields, and other areas where bass and walleye are likely to be found wandering in loosely scattered groups.
Powering up with Power Bait is good advice regardless of the species. Walleye, bass, pike, musky, crappie, and even saltwater fishing is made easier with scented plastic lures.
