BAGLEY,
The "David & Goliath" Lures
by Dr Dickie Devereux

INTRODUCTION by Brian Barwell, Deputy Editor
Dr Richard Devereux, known affectionately to our editorial Team as "Dick The Doc", has written several articles for us, as has his fly-fishing wife, Sarah — he's also the very man who coined the expression "Flure-fishing" to describe the over-lap between fly and lure fishing.

Anyway, this time around, we have persuaded Dick to write about his favourite lures, the Band of Bagleys which he calls his "David & Goliath" Lures for reasons which will soon become obvious:

The Monster Shad
I bought my first Bagley Monster Shad not long after they first became more easily available in the UK, and not long after that, I lost it on a snag ! But in that short space of time, it caught me a good few pike, one zander, and showed me its potential.

Instead of replacing it straight away with another brand new Monster Shad, I decided to try out a couple of other smaller Bagley plugs and top of my list was the TopGun, and what a fantastic plug that is!

TopGun
Although I much prefer the classic wooden Bagleys, I can forgive the plastic TopGun because it's got such a consistent action and really runs true to its depth and is very tolerant of a wide range of retrieval speeds.

Yes, I must admit that I do like the wooden Bagley lures ! They've got a quality look, feel and construction about them, and big or small, these plugs have excellent fish-catching abilities. Although they might cost a bit more than some other run-of-the-mill plastic plugs, I'm convinced that you get what you pay for with Bagley and that they're good value for the money.

"David & Goliath" Lures
I call Bagleys my David & Goliath plugs because the smallest of them have caught some of my biggest pike, and vice versa! This brings me back to the Monster Shad which is such a versatile plug. I've read a lot about how you can trim its lip, add extra weight and so on and so forth, to extends its fish-catching capabilities.

If I remember rightly, it was Sheffield's lure-angling ace Derek "Gibbo" Gibson who wrote a lot about tuning Monster Shads and he's very obviously a dab hand at it.

As with all lures though, it's how you fish them that counts for as much if not more when it comes to results, but, as I've already said, the design of Bagley lures seems to be able to cope with a much wider range of retrieve speeds than some other plugs.

I've now built-up quite a collection of Bagley's "David & Goliath" plugs and always feel that I can rely on one or another to stop me from blanking; either that or there are no fish to be had! I'm sure other lure-anglers feel exactly the same about some other brands.

Super Small Fry
But getting back to Bagleys, the Monster Shad is obviously my "Goliath" lure but when it comes to choosing "David" lures for this short review, it's been quite difficult because all the small ones are giant-killers on their day ! What I would say though, is that if you haven't tried any of Bagley's Small Fry range, then do yourself a big favour and try them out for yourself.

One of my most favourite "Little David" lures was Bagley's Bitty Craw, a tiny crayfish look-alike, but I think that it was very much an unsung hero with low sales volumes and it eventually vanished from their range ... but fortunately only for a short while because it's been re-incarnated as the Small Fry Cray — GREAT, and small at the same time! Just like David.

As well as the Small Fry Cray there are Small Fry Bream and Shads in Bagley's range — take your pick. It's when the going gets tough that skilled lure-anglers using "David" lures with enticing actions and running at the optimum depth, who stand the best chances of connecting with that Goliath.

Trace wire, always!
I should just mention that you should always use a wire trace even with "Little David" lures on small waters because there's no telling when a pike's going to appear from nowhere and grab you by the Bagleys .... ouch! It's also important to prevent as far as possible, the weight of your trace from affecting the actions of small plugs too much.

You don't really need a pair of swivels when you're plugging (as opposed to spinning) so I do without swivels and use a couple of tiny Drennan Rings instead — magic ! I use 15 lb 7-strand wire for my "David" lures and step up to 20 or 28 lb for my "Goliath" plugs. This is an ace tip that I picked-up from an article by that top-drawer lure-angler, John Worzencraft when he wrote about light & ultra-light lure-fishing a while back:

To get the most casting distance, accuracy, control and action from your lures, be they Bagley or any other brand, I've found that braids are giant step forward compared with my old monos even though I've read that they're not so hot in the abrasion resistance stakes. My current fave braid is Berkley Whiplash but who knows what'll hit the market next week, next month or next year? I've always got my eye out for any new braids to try — Spiderwire Stealth is one !

Correct Depth
The main things to bear in mind whichever plugs you're using and whether you're after pike, perch or chub, is to make sure that they'll dive to where your target predators are mostly likely to be in your venues at that time of year, and that your lures run back at the correct depth.

While this may seem a very obvious statement, it's also very easy to forget especially in the easier days of shallower, warmer Summer waters when predators are grabbing everything from the surface to the bottom and leaping in the air like lunatics!

Yep, if it's "Goliath" pike and chub that you're after (and who isn't?!), bolt on a "David"-sized Bagley, it'll make you feel a whole lot better — trust me, I'm a Doctor!

Take care, and have fun fishing.
Dick Devereux

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