If you have a favorite lure, put it to good use

Perhaps you are no different from the thousands of other anglers in the area who have tackle boxes stuffed with lures and gadgets that just sit there and do nothing.

One fisherman told me he has hundreds of lures that never saw the light of day nor were ever exposed to a single drop of water. To me, that's pretty sad.

Of course, I can forgive antique lure collector Dan Basore, who is reported to be short on sleeping space since he lays out elements of his massive lure collection on top of the bedspread in the master bedroom. Only kidding, Dan.

So here's my point.

There's an adage calling our attention to fishing tackle and lures. It goes like this: "It's the lure that catches the fisherman, not the fish."

In some cases, that may be true. I have no idea who dreamed up that little diddy, but I admit to falling prey to some of the lure packaging and advertising. I also confess I have many lure boxes I've never opened.

When I was learning the ropes from my late father, I sat quietly in a boat while Irv tossed one of his surface baits to the open spots in a patch of lily pads.

"Once the plug lands in the water," he instructed, "wait a bit until the surface ripples calm down," he added. "That's the time when you start your slow retrieve and make a lot of plug noise with crazy, jerking movements."

I held that early lesson near and dear to my heart for over 40 years - until I discovered a slightly better technique.

The newer version involves starting my retrieve the very second the lure hits the water. It seemed to me that bass were more readily willing to chase the bait when a significant amount of noise was happening on the surface. But that's not the real purpose of this column.

I'm asking you to think about the following.

If there was a world where you had to choose just one lure for bass fishing, what would it be?

Personally, I would go with a surface popper.

I am not including the Zara Spook displaying its so-called "walking the dog" routine. I mean a surface plug or lure that has a nose pushing water out and away from it when retrieved.

A small class of these notables includes the Lucky 13, Heddon Basser, Chug Bug and Skitter Pops, as well as a few of the very old baits that have garnered more dust and spider webs in the attic than fish in the livewell in recent years.

I do not object to using new, finely crafted plastic lures that may hold the promise of untold piscatorial battles.

But I do ask you to ponder this possibility.

Let's say you have a couple lures manufactured in the late 1950s. You personally used them dozens of time to catch bass and pike. And for some reason you left them in one of your tackle boxes where hidden elements caused the hooks to rust and become dull. Your interest in using them has waned as you became aware of the glitzy advertising schtick for something new.

Well, it says here those old poppers are worth revisiting.

I've gone back to the Lucky 13 and have had a ball catching scads of bass and a muskie on the surface with the old reliable, which, by the way, it hasn't shown its age at all.

Notes:

• Some anglers heading in to the southern reaches of Michigan right on Lake Michigan report perch activity is very good in fairly shallow water. It's not quite the same, but it's better than nothing with a perch report coming from the Chicago lakefront before sunrise as decent.

• Before any additional rainfall, the Fox River has been kind to smallmouth anglers and those who thrive on a fast bite of channel and flathead catfish. Deep Lake panfish excellent. Bangs Lake bass best at night on top-water lures, while Chain muskies on Lake Catherine continue to improve

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.