BangOLure Landing Percentage

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, JHoss said:

The one with a prop.

I am baffled by these lures not being more popular. I work the Bomber Prop A a lot of different ways and it produces every spring. Post spawn seems to be the very best time for me. I lose a lot of fish too. You cant horse them in , or set the hook to soon. Thats the hard part for me. Letting the fish take it for a second is difficult. Cant help it though ,  reflexes.  I'm like that with all top waters. 

[Reel]

The Prop A is made of plastic so it doesn't float as high but is still a good lure.  Getting a good hookset with the Bagley can be difficult because you often see the strike.  I was very popular at a certain time up north for smallmouth.  You would get so many strikes that it was worth loosing a few fish.  And yes, post spawn is the time.

[JHoss]

I'm also surprised it's not fished more. I've only seen one other person throw it in a tournament over the years, and I think I may be the only person under 65 in the whole state who has them in his box. 

 

I can think of a few days where the bite shut off entirely for every other bait, but the BangOLure kept producing. 

 

I imagine if they weren't so hard to cast, more folks might use them. I haven't used a Bomber version, but sounds like they're more castable. 

[A-Jay]

11 minutes ago, JHoss said:

I can think of a few days where the bite shut off entirely for every other bait, but the BangOLure kept producing. 

My question would be,

how long did it take to eliminate 

every other bait, before the BangOLure proved to be the only effective presentation ? 

A-Jay

 

 

[JHoss]

27 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

My question would be,

how long did it take to eliminate 

every other bait, before the BangOLure proved to be the only effective presentation ? 

A-Jay

The most prominent memory took a few hours to figure out. Took me an hour or so in the morning to relocate the fish I had found in practice and picked up a few on a buzz bait as expected. As the sun got up I caught a few more on various baits (probably cycled through 10 or 12) and had a decent limit. Eventually the sun got high and they stopped eating anything else. I finally put that BangOLure on and went back through the same areas and proceeded to cull most of my fish. It was a kayak derby and I ended around 90". I'm not sure I'll ever forget the 6+ that threw the BangOLure back at me. I had a feeling there'd be a good one on a small flat point with some stumps. I had switched rods a couple times from losing fish already and had it on a M F spinning rod with braid to mono leader. I knew she was big when she hit it. She made a jump completely out of the water 75 ft away and shook that big ol head and threw the bait back at me. I did manage another around her size a short while after that I was able to get in the boat. 

 

Another time was in a river and all the usual baits weren't working. Decided to try the BangOLure but didn't figured out that's what the wanted until I made a cast between a few cypress knees and backlashed. As I was picking out the backlash a fish took it under. That's how I caught them the rest of the day.

 

Were there other baits that would've worked in those situations? Absolutely. But there's plenty of times the first 10-20 baits don't work and I figure something out that does. 

[king fisher]

On 3/10/2025 at 9:33 AM, JHoss said:

As I was picking out the backlash a fish took it under. That's how I caught them the rest of the day.

So you backlashed every cast the rest of the day to get hits?  I like to catch bass, but you take getting bit to a whole new level.

[primetime]

I throw the Bagley prop topwater alot, same with the Long A floating jerkbait over weeds etc...All Mine have 3 treble hooks and I believe I fished all of them with stock hooks at first and never remember having landing issues.

 

I never set the hook until I see that a fish has the lure, I really don't set it, I just apply some pressure so its not near as hard as what you would do with topwater plastics or pitching etc....

 

The balsa makes them light so I rarely throw the bang o lure on casting gear but I have thrown it on straight braid and a moderate rod.....

 

I think the key is giving the fish time after they hit it to make sure you can drive a few hooks in good. I actually throw the Bomber Long A far at times so I add a bright pink stripe to the top so I can see when it moves or is underwater. It's easy to pull the lure away if you get excited and also can see subtle hits much better. 

[rboat]

I throw the bangolure quite a bit, both with and without prop. I change out the trebles to Mustad kvd triple grips and remove the center treble on on all my jerkbaits. I do not notice any difference in bites, landing fish, or any problem with lure action. With only 2 trebles it is easier to unhook the fish with less damage to them and to me.