The world of bass fishing has been flipped over, tossed about, shaken up and turned on its head over the past decade. The rise in reputation of forward-facing sonar (FFS) has little doubt had quite a bit to do with these chaotic instances. However the Covid pandemic introduced loads of new anglers to the game as effectively, and with the identical variety of fish to fish for, and extra anglers on the water with higher tech than ever earlier than, bass fishing has undoubtedly modified.
Nowhere is that this extra evident than in among the new lures which have emerged in recent times. And the “rubber cube” type baits (just like the Geecrack Cue Bomb) sit on the highest of the oddball heap. Consisting of a bit of plastic with a dozen or extra protruding tentacles, one in all these items appears to be like extra like one thing from a sci-fi movie than a deal with store. However, toss one within the water and also you’ll discover fairly shortly that it has a depraved motion to it. Taku Ito lately utilized a big OSP cube (14mm) on a drop shot to win the Smith Mountain Lake Elite collection occasion.
I haven’t fished with these new fangled fishing lures myself, and so they’re truly very laborious to get your palms on. So, I reached out to Alton Jones Jr — one of many high bass anglers on the earth in the mean time — to get his tackle essentially the most fashionable bait in bass fishing.
Understanding the Geecrack Imo Kemushi Cue Bomb — and Different Baits Like It
Alton Jones Jr.
The phrases “rubber cube” and “fuzzy cube” have been broadly circulated when speaking about this new bait sort, each derived from the primary bait of this sort to realize traction—the OSP Saikoro Cube Rubber Mushy Bait. However there are different comparable baits as effectively, just like the Hideup Coike. And, in fact, the one which Jones truly helped design—the Geecrack Imo Kemushi Cue Bomb.
“A whole lot of these crazes began in Japan,” says Jones. “If you discuss fishing in Japan, you’ve extremely pressured bass, usually loads of clear water fishing and also you’re simply fishing for a really small inhabitants.”
Principally, bass in Japan are sometimes very laborious to catch. Most of those fish have seen conventional lures time and time once more. So, it takes one thing new to show their heads and unlock their jaws, even when it doesn’t seem like something specifically.
“I’m not going to take a seat right here and attempt to promote you on it imitating this baitfish or this crawdad,” says Jones. “The extra I’ve realized about bass, they’re simply opportunistic feeders. If it appears to be like prefer it has protein in it and if it appears to be like like one thing they’ll match their mouths round, they’re gonna attempt it. And in a world the place they’ve seen each minnow and each Yum Dinger and Senko and Roboworm, simply displaying them one thing totally different generates bites.”
How one can Rig Rubber Cube Baits
Taku Ito received the Smith Lake Bassmaser Elite Collection occasion this yr utilizing an OSP rubber cube.
Jones fishes his Geecrack Cue Bomb and different rubber cube baits three alternative ways: weightless, on a Neko rig, and on a drop shot. He shifts between these strategies based mostly totally on the depth that he’s fishing. The Neko rig is greatest when potential, but when the fish are greater than 15 toes deep he recommends going with the drop shot. And if fishing shallow, he prefers fishing it weightless.
“It has an excellent gradual price of fall (when rigged weightless), I’m speaking like a foot each three seconds,” Jones says. “That’s extremely shallow, when fish are guarding fry, they’re cruising or they’re spawning. I mainly must be fishing in lower than 18 inches of water to fish it that method.”
When swapping over to a Neko rig, Jones inserts a 1/sixteenth ounce nail weight into his bait. This provides him just a bit extra casting vary and helps the bait fall at a sooner clip. He additionally extremely recommends utilizing a barely bigger hook than he usually would with a wacky or Neko rig.
“You might want to throw an even bigger hook in that factor as a result of it has a lot plastic,” he says. “It eats up loads of chunk of the hook. Throwing it on an outsized hook has been key to the hookup to touchdown ratio.”
Jones additionally fishes the Cue Bomb on a drop shot, and says that is one of the simplest ways for a newcomer to do that type of fishing. He sticks with the identical bigger hook, a 1/0 or 2/0 VMC Wacky Weedless Neko Hook. However he’ll go up fairly a bit within the weight, utilizing a 3/8 ounce. And he prefers an extended chief than regular too, since he’s realized that the bass like this bait higher up off the underside. Jones stresses the significance of sustaining contact with the bait, protecting it up within the water column and shaking it “violently”.
“I’m going to make use of a comparatively lengthy chief, on the earth of drop photographs,” Jones says. “Eighteen inches can be as quick as I’d go. Actually giving it a ton of motion and letting these tentacles do the work up within the water column appears to generate much more bites. For some motive, I’ve not been capable of get a constant chunk going (with the bait) on the underside.”
What Makes the Geecrack Cue Bomb So Efficient
These baits are efficient as a result of they provide one thing fully new for bass to contemplate. Most fish have by no means seen something fairly like one in all these lures, in both a pure or synthetic providing. So these baits, with their flaring tentacles taking pictures off in each route, preserve the bass guessing.
As for the gear, a 7-foot medium motion spinning rod and reel with a braided mainline and a fluorocarbon chief can be utilized to fish all three strategies. The 1/0 or 2/0 Neko hooks work effectively. Hold the bait weightless in tremendous shallow water, add a tiny 1/sixteenth ounce nail weight to Neko rig the bait, and use a 3/8-ounce weight with the drop shot to shoot it straight to the underside in deep water.
Learn Subsequent: How one can Fish the Geecrack Bellows Gill
You might catch a fish sometimes in stained water with one in all these baits, however it is a approach greatest fitted to clear water and excessive visibility. If the bass have been simpler so that you can discover than they’ve been so that you can catch, it’s best to contemplate one in all these rubber cube baits. They might simply be the software wanted to trick the cautious bass into biting.