Savage Gear Lip lure

Savage Gear lip lure - target fish pike (but expect perch and chub too)
This is a jointed hard swimbait available in many colours and a few sizes, 9.5cm, 13cm and 19cm. There is a 25cm jointed hard lure from SG but this is the lipless swim and jerk version. Note there is also a larger lipped low rider swimbait. I use all three of the lip lure sizes, the smallest for pike, perch and chub as a target, the 13cm as a jack catching machine and the 19cm as my preferred choice for pike. However as the pictures below will prove you will eventually catch chub and big perch on the 19cm if you are lucky. All three sizes have caught me big pike but the big lure has a better average for size caught. The lure should be suited to a rod and reel combo rated for casting and matched with strong enough braid and trace to give you a chance of getting the lure back should you become snagged. The lure is a shallow lure, 1-5 feet deep on a normal retrieve so perfect for shallower waters.

This particular lip lure version enables you to fish the lure in a few ways. Simply cast out and wind in for a steady swimming action with slight rocking. More aggressive retrieves wields a more aggressive rock of the lure while a very slow retrieve, kind of like slow motion, can often be the difference in encouraging a take. My preferred retrieve style is hard jerks. By jerking the lure rather than straight winding you impart an erratic wobble of the lure and this wobble gives off vibration and flash of colour which both in turn work the senses of a pike. This jerk should be mixed with pauses and this pause is often where the take comes. So keeping a taught line is important so you are immediately in touch with any knock. The hits come front back and side and so what you feel on the rod tip will be different each time. It could be the tinniest of touches, an arm ripping yank or the line could go slack meaning the fish is coming towards you. The jerks and pauses are a stop-go technique which once mastered is a devastating pike magnet. You can mix the stop-go jerks with stop go short retrieves for similar results and also speeding up or slowing down both retrieve or jerk to trigger the hit. As a word of note, the stop go isn't the old style retrieve and then pause to let the lure sink or rise. These lures are slow sink, slow float or suspend which means they won't go far on the pause. The lure also does a half side turn on the pause for added effect.

Remember you are lure fishing and the fun comes from making it happen, not just cast out and wind in. One day the soft and steady approach does it, the next it's hard and fast. So work the lure in any way you can, you will catch on all methods. As a general rule I will go in "quiet" with a cast out and steady wind in, often running along the bank side and see if there are any pike waiting to ambush. If no takes occur I will cover the same water again with a "noisy" approach of sharp stop-go jerks, lots of vibration and flash and this is to try to trigger a hit, make it happen.

My personal colour choice are any of the natural colour patterns, particularly any with a flash of silver in the paint job which will be highlighted more with the jerk and wobble of the lure. Colour choice should be used to your advantage or to aid in poor light conditions or murky water. Similarly the use of the lip for creating vibration in these conditions will help alert the pike.

There are cheaper versions of this lure from some random manufacturers. You may find one that works but many of them are poor in comparison using weaker wire and poorer hooks. However having the odd one in your bag might pick up a bonus fish as you'll dare to cast it in or around the big snags.

Top tip
You can switch the split rings on the hook holders (not the nose of the lure though) to weaker split rings to create a weak point. This weak point should then give, should you become snagged, resulting in lost hook rather than lost lure.

Chub on 19cm Savage Gear lip lure

perch on 19cm Savage Gear lip lure

This lip lure has done me a few twenties!

On t' tube

I've had another little crack at a video and it's up on my fancy Youtube page. There were plenty of failed attempts at many things and a few choice words after faffing with software that wasn't worth a toss in the end, but it's not a bad effort and shows to me at least the potential for this little hobby. Would you believe the footage in this video is from less than an hours fishing after work this week, crazy when so much of my fishing for the last month has been devoid of fish. I've actually managed to catch a few Esox, on lures and had some fun. My next videos will hopefully be something a little more arty farty or have a theme to them, possibly instructional or possibly just none stop explosive takes. Who knows? So here it is in all it's glory. I'll soon have my own slot on SkySports if I keep this up.

Link to video

The flames are here

I'm still here. I guess a few of you might have be thinking I'd got lost in a six foot snow drift somewhere. Nothing as exciting as that, I just didn't have the urge to write mostly because I didn't have the urge to fish. I've still been out but I didn't have a burning passion deep inside and so I didn't bother. I think it was the cold that put out that fire If I'm honest. Usually it doesn't bother me so much but this time it did, maybe I'm getting old. Or maybe I'm just a bit wiser (not as stupid any more)?

I did catch some fish in a handful of small lure sessions. All jacks but all as welcome as the next fish. Many times I've just had the ultra lite set up just to see if anything else was out there feeding but I didn't catch anything other than jacks. It would have been nice to drop on a nice big fat perch but never mind. While most people this last month have been frantically scrambling to catch a nice fat pike before they spawn, I've actually resisted the urge and often tried to stay away from where I think the bigger fish will be. Those pike deserve a rest at this time of the year I feel.

Sods law though, even when you are chasing something completely different you still end up catching a pike. That nice fat eight pound odd fish fell to a 2 inch kopyto lure while trying to find perch in a canal next to the lock gates. Absolutely fantastic fun on a 3-15g rated rod, bent double and line ripping off the spool. Another pleasing part of it was I'd never fished the spot before and hadn't even planned on fishing that day either. The story goes that I was family taxi guy and was dropping my sister in law off at work. I often drive around with the sat nav on which also shows up bodies of water, canals and rivers and as I passed this canal something just made me go give it a go even though I had to be home within the hour. Forty five minutes later and I'd had two pike and found a new spot to drop in on through the year. I expect the perch will be there at some point this coming year.

I'm hoping to get out more this year with the lighter set ups. I enjoy the jerkbaits and large lures and I often need the heavy set up as when I'm on it, and the pike are on it, I need good strong gear that can cope with fish after fish. But it is fun to catch smaller fish, and perch, chub, trout and anything else that will take a lure will be on my list this year. Throw in the odd jack and it'll make for some good fun. I've also just dropped on a nice light pike lure set up. A local second hand shop had in a nice Savage Gear butch light XLNT 10-30g, a rod I've been meaning to get hold of for some time and I'm looking forward to giving it a whirl with the Shimano caenan reel that also caught my eye. I also picked up another ultr lite rod so that my lad can come out with me for some perch when the weather warms up a bit. He's much wiser than even I as he won't even think about going fishing until it's t-shirt weather.

This evening I spent some time sorting out all my smaller lures into boxes. Trying to make it easy to just pick up one or two to suit the rod I'll be using, rather than carting around everything like I normally do. I usually try to cover every eventuality like most anglers, which means carting around every lure in your collection. We all know there's no need but the majority of us still do it. I took three lure boxes out the other day, and just used one two inch kopyto lure the whole time. I know, I'm crazy, but I'm trying to at least get a bit of control of my problem. I doubt I'll ever beat it of course.

The weather is finally starting to improve and on the horizon are some nice spring temperatures. This should mean us anglers can get out in comfort and also stand a chance of catching a fish or two. I'm going to go and get out tomorrow morning first light for a few hours. My day is taken up with family duties, but no one is ever up and about at the crack of dawn and so I have at least got that bit of time to go and play.

I think I have that fire burning again.

Competition Winner!

Recently I entered the Pike and Predators magazine monthly Savage Gear competition. I use plenty of their lures so there was a good chance I would eventually drop on a decent fish while using one of them (I've actually had a 22.5lb pike on the rainbow lip lure earlier in the year). Last month I received those fancy new Real Eels in the post and managed to wangle a twenty one pound beast out within less than an hour of opening the parcel. It didn't dawn on me straight away to do it but not too long after I emailed my entry and the waiting began. I was at the local newsagents as soon as the latest edition was out but resisted opening the pages until I got home. I then quickly flicked through to be greeted with my mug shot and that fish and I was over the moon. I never win owt!

£250 lure prize

Today I got home from work to find a box sat waiting for me and I knew what it was. I do often have a parcel waiting for me when I get home, that lure addiction is a bit of a killer but seeing the size of this box I knew it wasn't something I'd ordered. What a pleasant surprise. The prize was £250 worth of Savage Gear lures but you all know that doesn't go far when you start buying lures. There was plenty in the box and even better there was a good chunk which I didn't even own any of. There's the odd lip lure and low rider of various sizes and plenty of soft 4plays in all sizes, some lip skulls and a good colour selection too. I was chuffed to bits with the selection of cannibal shads inside because they are a lure I have yet to purchase or try but I did fancy them. I haven't got around to fishing for them yet, but I reckon they will be a top lure for zander! So a nice little surprise and welcome addition to my lure addiction. I'll be out as soon as possible to give them a try.

Finally a big thank you to Pike and Predator magazine and of course Savage Gear while not forgetting of course the pike herself. She was a great adversary and I hope she's out there causing havoc among the silver fish as we speak!

The winning fish

Savage Gear lure hang bag modified.

As many lure anglers have found before, I had the problem of lure storage. I was using a bucket to hang the lures in, but I was forever knocking it over and then spending the time untangling the mass of hooks. Often my sessions are short so this was even more an annoyance. I'd also acquired a few larger lures and my B&Q tackle boxes weren't big enough. Time to ditch them and the rucksack and get a bag that was built for the job. I'd read and seen on the net how people had modified camo-cool bags and put in a few short sections of pipe in, which is a great idea in my opinion. After some thought I decided I needed a little space also for a couple of lure boxes and a few bits and bobs so ruled out the cool bag idea. I saw a Savage Gear lure hang bag which was often priced around £60 but spotted it on Glasgow Anglings, www.Fishinmegastore.com (top site!) for £45 so took the plunge. Incidentally, I've since spotted it at http://www.mullarkeys.co.uk for £35 all though I've never bought from that site so can't comment on their service.

As you can see the bag has a few side pockets so that's what tipped me in it's favour. The front pocket even comes complete with a Savage Gear lure tackle box which was a bonus. The bag arrived and I chucked all my lures in. Something wasn't quite right. As every lure angler knows, you end up with loads of lures and what ever you leave at home you find you want when you're out on the bank. I couldn't quite fit in all my lures, well at least not all the smaller ones. The front pocket I already filled with small lures but I also had another small box I could do with fitting inside. The two side pockets were full with tools, trace wire, crimps, scales, trebles, split rings, camera and more and are too small anyway for the standard sized lure boxes so I had to think of something different. When you first get the bag, the centre compartment is empty and you have to fix the lure hang storage bit together. It's not too tricky if you have three hands, the plastic sections basically slot over each other to make a square grid. Each grid as deep as the bag, that's 11inches for the old guys and 28cm for us young ones, and each grid can hold two savage gear 19cm lures comfortably, you could probably squeeze another in but they'd be prone to tangling. There are 25 compartments for the lures, you don't need me to do the maths. When this bag is full it's a nice weight to carry around, so beware. A decent fit bloke shouldn't have too much of a problem though to be honest. As I said though, it still wasn't quite right for me.

So I grabbed some tools and started modifying the bag. Yes, my brand new bag was being operated on. The missus was calling me an idiot but I was a man on a mission. I worked out that I could lose one row of my five by five lure compartments, still have a good forty large lures in, and in that empty row I could squeeze another tackle box for spinners and small lures. I pulled apart all the compartments and cut the end off a few, which then when I slotted them all back together gave me compartments 5x4 and one long end row equivalent to 5x1, if that makes sense. In this row I slotted another lure box and had space to stand up my extra long pliers, forceps and cutters for easy access.

 The quick knock up in Microsoft paint on the right shows first an idea of the gridded lure storage area as it comes and then one cross piece (there are 12 in total) which you simply slot over another. The red line shows where I cut off on four of the cross pieces, which now when you slot them together leaves the last row one long row, as the photo of my modified bag below should show. You could of course use your own initiative and cut other sections to what I did so that your extra large compartment is in a different place, not as big or bigger. Whatever you decide you need to sort your needs. I would suggest though not to remove too many as you will at some point make it too weak, plus of course what's the point of buying this particular bag if you have to change it too much in the end?

After all that I had one final problem. The problem was that the depth of each compartment was longer than plenty of my lures. There's a good deep groove on every compartment and there's also plenty of grooves for each of the hooks to hang on, but should you clumsily miss then the lure would fall to the bottom. To get the lure out then you needed to use your forceps but that was fiddly and if you can stop the lure falling down in the first place it would save all that hassle. That's where that large white cube comes in. It's simply packing foam. My mate Fisky had already given me some to make a trace rig or whatever but instead I used it and cut it in to cubes which nicely fit in to each lure compartment. Packing the compartments out to various depths, now my lures can only ever fall a few centimetres and so even if they're not dangling from their hook I can easily grab them. The foam also doesn't even weigh anything and is easily removable and adjustable unlike my hacksaw job on the plastic compartments! Another benefit of this is I've found that some lures don't quite fit in the bag, they stick out. Because of their tail or diving vane length, on some lures such as the SG Low riders they protrude up above the top of the bag but now I can just drop them into the compartment instead of hanging them and save them being broken in transit. My bag is now perfect for me and currently has thirty two large lures in and still space for me to put in another ten at least. Everywhere I go now I only need one bag, my rod, net and unhooking mat. Easily manageable and saves me having to make sure I have everything each trip, now I know I'm sorted before I set off.

Hopefully this may be of use to someone out there in the fishing world. It may help you decide if this bag is right for you or even help you decide to go for the DIY camo-cooler bag and pipe lure bag. You may even already have this bag and be inspired to modify it or just put in the bits of foam to cure your own problems. Unfortunately it will not help you in any way catch more fish, sorry about that. If anyone can cure that particular problem then make sure you leave me the solution!