Be it known now that this is until now a secret, and you’ll read about it first right here. You’ll see it in magazines and on television in a few months, but this is your chance to be a step ahead of your competition from early spring to early summer.
You may not know the name Mitch Looper, but you know and love some of the lures he’s invented or helped design in cooperation with BOOYAH and YUM. He’s the evil-fishing-genius behind BOOYAH’S Swim’n Jig, and was integral in the development of the Houdini Shad for YUM. Just last week he discovered a combination of two lures that will trigger big bass when they get in the grass. His Swim’n Jig is half of this new combo, and a little history is in order.
“Back in May of 1985 I took my wife to a lake that had water willows and a lot of grass in it, and while we were launching the boat we saw a big fish explode in that thick cover,” Looper said. “Back then I only had four rods to my name, one with a spinnerbait, one with a buzzbait, one with a lipless crankbait and the other with a jig. I pulled over there and saw fry so I knew it was a big bass.”
Looper first threw the spinnerbait into the cover, then the buzzbait. Obviously the lipless crankbait wasn’t an option. He then threw the jig in.
“I worked it like you’re supposed to work a jig, twitching it up and letting it settle, and nothing,” he said. “I threw in there three or four times then gave up and reeled the jig real fast, and when it came just past the edge of the weeds a big old swell came up and it was a 7 ½-pound largemouth.”
Looper worked his way around the lake using his newfound technique of casting up to the bank and bringing the jig back at a relatively fast pace right under the water and caught nine bass for a total weight of more than 40 pounds. It was a sunny day the next time he visited the lake and he only caught three bass, but each weighed better than five pounds. The next week it was storming and he and his father tore them up.
“Our best five weighed more than 35 pounds, and our best 20 went more than 100 pounds,” he said. “I thought, ‘Boy, there’s something to this.’”
Then mid-June rolled around and the weeds grew taller and the jig started catching on them. He realized he needed a new jig, one with an arrowhead shaped head and flat to plane up in the water.
“I took a jig and put it in a vise,” he said, “then pounded on it with a sledgehammer to get the head flat, then used side-cutters on it to trim it to the right shape. Over the next couple of years I made minor improvements, and in 2003 BOOYAH decided they wanted to produce it. No other major company was making one and even today the others that are on the market don’t deflect weeds or produce fish like this one.”
While the Swim’n Jig alone has produced hundreds of 5-pound-plus bass for Looper over the years, his challenge has been to find the perfect trailer. He’s now found one; one that not only increases the wake and water displacement but also prompts an enticing wobble of the jig. It’s the new YUM Money Craw.
“Either the trailers weren’t big enough or they were so big that bass just got the trailer,” Looper said of his 10-year search. “What I like about this combination is that side-to-side wobble of the jig. And the action of the Money Craw is consistent -- every single one works correctly right out of the package.”
The Swim’n Jig/Money Craw combo bite comes on as the water warms to 52- to 55-degrees and big bass start moving into the weeds, and continues until about July in most areas of the country. Up North it could work all summer long, and in the Deep South it may be over by early June. Looper provided some additional fishing tips to get you on the track for big bass.
“Windy days are good, cloudy and windy days are better, and cloudy, windy and stormy days are best,” he said. “I like the color combinations of white-on-white, black-brown with a Nest Robber Money Craw and the black-chartreuse with the River Craw or Tiger Craw. The black and blue Swim’n Jig also will be a killer, but I think everyone always throws black and blue so I like to do something different. If the water is clear, I go with the white or brown color combos, and go to the black in murky water.”