"Take
Aim with a Bomber lure"
recommends
Harry Howe
When I've got some nice pike and chub in my sights, there's nothing I like better than a Bomber — whether I'm trying to tempt them on the surface with a potent Popper, mid-depth with a Jointed Long Minnow or much deeper with a depth-charging Minnow 25A, Bombers are the business as far as I'm concerned!
BRILLIANT
BOMBERS
If you haven't tried these brilliant Bomber lures, you really must —
I can't remember exactly which Bomber got me hooked but I'm pretty sure that
it was either a Popper 3T in frog pattern or a jointed Long J16 Minnow in
silver, yellow and black
but both are equally brilliant.
In my opinion and compared with a lot of other lures, Bombers are very well built, they're top catchers and what's more, you don't get caught by having to pay top prices — I don't think that I've ever paid more than about £7 for any of my Bombers and that's got to be brilliant value for money.
TOP
POPPER
Starting from the top (of the water, I mean) the Bomber Popper with its hackled
tail treble and splopping action, is an almost unbeatable topwater lure. I
use two colour patterns usually frog and white, but I haven't been able to
get any replacement white ones for ages.
Another of my favourite patterns is Fire-Tiger and as you can't get them any more either, I have sacrificed one of my precious white ones and done a hand-painting job on it (see photo, above, left) — I think that I've make a fairly good job of it and it catches loads of chub and pike for me, so they obviously like it a lot and that's all that matters, isn't it?
THE
CHUB CATCHER
Next up Bomber-wise and depth-wise is my Minnow 14A, a super lure especially
for chub and it catches plenty of pike too. I usually fish it in the top couple
of feet of water, no deeper, and probably a lot less.
I don't think that a lot of anglers realise just how brilliant this little Bomber 14A minnow actually is. Most of the colour patterns work equally well and I don't have any particular favourite as far as the 14A goes.
A
PLUG FOR PIKE
The 14A is good for pike, but if I had to choose only one Bomber lure for
pike it would have to be the jointed 16J (see photo,
left) which runs at a very pikey depth (in my venues anyway) of
3 to 4 feet and has a brilliant action — at least, the pike seem to think
so.
OK
so this sort of depth may be a tad too shallow for some anglers but don't
worry, I've got another Bomber in my bag which will do a perfect deep-down
diving job .. but more of that in a moment.
I've had a lot of pike on my jointed Bombers. They've got a fantastic wiggling action that pike seem to find irresistible. They're strong and well built and will stand up to a lot of crunching from pike's teeth which is what they get because they're such good catchers.
FOR
FAT PERCH
If you're into perch as well as pike, you could do a lot worse than trying
the little Bomber 4F FatA — as it comes it's a bit too buoyant for my
liking but a bit of added weight soon cures that!
As far as I'm concerned, Fat "A"s mean Fat Perch (see photo below). As for which patterns, once again they all seem to work well but if I had to choose, it would be the pair on the right, Fire-Tiger and Tennessee Shad (see photo, right )
By the way, you need pretty lightweight tackle to fish these little lures, so they may be a bit on the small side for your normal set-up but I've found that it's certainly worth getting kitted out to be able to fish smaller lures like these sometimes because the results can be amazing.
DEPTH
CHARGE !
When I need to get down to those deeper water pike I turn to
what I call my "depth-charge" Bombers and crank a 25A right down
to them to winkle them out. It runs about 10 feet deep or more and if they're
down there, it'll usually sort them out.
Usually in the winter I have to fish quite a lot deeper down to get results. It can be very hard going fishing with lures in the winter but I find that my Bombers are brilliant for giving me the confidence to soldier on and in the end they usually deliver even in the worst conditions.
BRILLIANT
FOR BASSING
We usually go caravanning on the south-west coast for my holidays and there
are no prizes for guessing that I take my lure fishing tackle and Bomber plugs
with me.
They're simply brilliant if not "The Best" for bassing ! I use both jointed and unjointed Bomber Minnows for my bass fishing and both sorts are almost equally good; maybe the jointed ones have the advantage on some days. I fish for bass off the rocks and in the gullies and so you don't need anything that dives too deeply. Something like the 15J should suit you nicely if you fancy some bassing!
So take a tip from me, whatever predatory species, saltwater or freshwater, time of year, venue or depth, take aim for those pike, chub, perch, bass and other salty species, with a Bomber lure — if your sights are set correctly, you just can't miss!
Have
fun!
Harry "Bomber" Howe
