Light Bulbs – switch on fishing !!!!
By Mark Kitteridge.
I love my soft-plastic fishing, and part of the attraction comes from the constantly evolving tackle.While the soft-plastics themselves are the obvious ‘rock stars’ in the technique, they’re no use without a decent lead-headed hook to get them down, impart an interesting action, and then hold onto the fish through any ensuing fights.
To be honest, I already had these aspects sorted with another lead-head brand, and am not the sort of person to change for no reason, so it took a comprehensive display by Ocean Angler distributor, Paul Senior, to get me to try his version, called ‘Light Bulbs’.Before this session I’d been catching much more than my share for quite a while, so was somewhat bemused when Paul started hauling in three fish to my one, with the only apparent reasons being a slightly lighter leader … and his Light Bulb lead-head.
Finally, a beaten man, I humbly asked to use one – and immediately my catch rate picked up to become more equally shared. Impressive..
Since then I’ve enjoyed plenty more success, especially when fishing relatively shallow water to around 10 metres in cloudy or overcast conditions. I believe this is due to the Light Bulbs’ ‘open secret’: each head has UV eyes painted on it, covered by a clear protective topcoat. However, although available with three different colours of UV-reflective eyes – pink, green and blue – you won’t see them (unless you have a UV emitting light), so buying them requires a small leap of faith!
Another strength – literally – is the hook incorporated. Sharp, strong and surprisingly thin, they’ve been 100% reliable so far.
As for the shank length, some people say they’re too short, but I love them configured this way – even when using 7” soft-plastics. After all, the shorter shank allows the longer tails to impart more action, rather than be held rigidly in place with a length of metal, so they entice more bites. And even if the fish do bite short, so what – all they’ve experienced is a fleeting feeling of soft, food-like material, so usually bite again, more often than not hooking up this time. Also, a shorter shank enables anglers to change down to 4” and even 3” soft-plastics if desired without having to chop off and retie the lead-head. This truly is a case of ‘one size fits all’. The Light Bulb’s hook gape is also a very universal size, being big enough to accommodate even 7” soft-plastics and avoid catching too many undersized fish, yet they don’t look out of place in 4” lures.
Check out how the Jigheads look under a UV light by watching the video
It takes a competent soft-baiter to recognise that fractions of an ounce – equating to just a handful of grams – can make all the difference at times, so I’m not surprised to see that Paul’s Light Bulbs come in six weights: ¼, 3/8, 1/2 , 3/4 , 5/8 and 1oz, so there’s one to suit most situations. Nor did it surprise me that Ocean Angler ‘Light Bulbs’ cost a little more than some other brands (@$13-14 per pack RRP), as i believe they offer anglers more, too.
Thanks to New Zealand Fishing News for letting us publish Marks article.