Check Out These Hot New Baits From Luhr Jensen, Charlie Myer, The Fish Sniffer Online

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Check Out These Hot New Baits From Luhr Jensen

By: Charlie Myer
February, 1999

More Articles by Charlie

A long time fixture on the salmon, trout and steelhead scene, Luhr Jensen has stormed the bass fishing market in recent years and now has a solid foothold as one of the industries most innovative lure manufacturers. One of my long time favorite baits, the Fingerling series is now being introduced in a shallow diving version that is available in two sizes: the 5/16 ounce, 3-3/8 inch model that dives to four feet and the 1 ounce, 5-1/8 inch lure that dives to seven feet.

According to the folks at Luhr Jensen, "the fingerling series puts the best features of handmade balsa lures together with space age, tough skinned, closed-cell foam. These are the first long, thin bodies crankbaits with high speed retrieve capability along with modern tight crankbait swimming action."

One of the keys to this popular bait is the unique lip shape and balance that create a fish catching action at any speed. On a slow retrieve, the bait has a very wide and loose action. However, at high speed, the bait tightens up with a "buzz saw" wiggle that can trigger tremendous reaction strikes.

The Fingerling series is available in a wide array of colors including striper, yellow/orange back, red peacock, rainbow trout, metallic perch, perch, baby largemouth bass, silver/black top, silver/blue top and fire tiger.

Another exciting new bait being offered by Luhr Jensen is the new Super Shad. In early 1998, Luhr Jensen ran a contest for lure designers and the Super Shad was the winner and is now being manufactured and marketed by Luhr Jensen.

The Super Shad is a wooden, 5 inch lipped crankbait that will dive 7 feet deep when fished on 10 pound mono. The bait has a "lazy" side-to-side action and has proved to be an awesome big bass bait in early testing. I can just imagine what kind of damage this bait could do on a couple of our local lakes such as Amador or Clear Lake. This bait is available in three colors: 0806 rainbow trout, 0982 gold foil/black shad and 0996 silver foil/black shad.

Finally, Luhr Jensen is releasing an ultralight version of the Brush Baby series that will offer this popular crankbait in a 1/6 ounce model along with the 1/4 and 1/2 ounce models already on the market. The 1/6 ounce "Lil' Scooter" is 3 inches long and dives 10 feet deep on 10 pound mono.

The Brush Baby series is unique in that it is the first crankbait specifically designed to be fished in heavy cover including brush and rip rap. The lure features "brush cams" on both its lip and body that enable the bait to run through amazingly thick cover. Also, these are extremely buoyant baits, which allow them to quickly back off the cover once contact is made. This could be a real winner on the Delta, especially when the fish get finicky and you need to downsize your baits.

The "Lil' Scooter" is available in the same 20 plus colors the 1/4 and 1/2 ounce models come in and they have the same high quality finish that Luhr Jensen crankbaits are known for. In fact, most of the patterns require as many as 17 paint steps.