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It is mid-August in North Alabama. The
temperature has been over 100 degrees for a week and the water
surface temperature is in the low 90's. Fishing, as well as fishermen,
appear to be at a standstill.
Yet, I watch Charlie Brewer catch 10-15
bass an hour for four hours.
In the next instance, the thermometer is
hovering around 40 degrees. The time is late January in that
same section of Alabama and it is the absolute middle of Winter.
Brewer takes 35 bass in a three hour
period.
During the Fall and Spring, he performs
similar bass- catching feats. Even immediately after strong Spring
cold fronts, the man continues to defy all bass fishing `rules' and
seemingly catches bass at will.
Whether the locations are the gin clear
lakes of Tennessee or the stained waters and thick grasses of the
shallow Florida lakes, Brewer continuously out-fishes everyone five or
ten to one.
Charlie Brewer is not a magician (though
there have been times when I sure thought he might be), nor does
he have a `magic' lure. But, Brewer does have a bass fishing system
which is so close to fool-proof that the
experienced angler can virtually predict and guarantee her success.
This article is going to tell you about a
method and a specific lure for catching bass; things which can vastly
improve their catch rates. That would appear to really be nothing new,
in that many magazine features have
promised to do the same thing. However, this bass-catching system is
actually a total fishing `philosophy'
and the angler plays just as important a part, if not more so, as the
lure. And, most importantly, Charlie
Brewer's method of catching bass is no gimmick or come-on. It simply
works. And, without even having to
send any box-tops in to Battle Creek, Michigan, it can work for you.
I have to be honest and advise you up
front that only a few readers of this article are going to totally grasp
the potential of its contents; but, that small number will find that
they can triple or quadruple their bass
fishing success.
For many years, Charlie Brewer was a
dedicated heavy tackle angler and one of the better bass fishermen
around. However, too much of a good thing can eventually lead to boredom
in any endeavor, and so it
eventually came about that Charlie Brewer needed new challenges and new
worlds to conquer.
To make the long story a bit shorter,
Brewer decided to fish with only extremely light tackle and give the
bass more of a chance. Plus, he undertook the tasks of solving the
problems of the usual poor fishing
experienced in both mid- Summer and mid-Winter.
The end results of Brewer's efforts and
experiments were successful beyond anything he had hoped for. Not
only did he discover a nearly perfect method for successful year-round
bass fishing, Brewer gradually evolved
a fishing `philosophy' which has (and will continue to do so in the
future) been of benefit to millions of fellow
fishermen.
Brewer's fishing system is very simply
based on two things: common sense and simplicity. It our
often-frenzied world of tournament competition, too-short weekend
excursions, complex electronic gadgetry,
and wild lure shapes and colors, we frequently lose sight of both of
these factors. But, if your desire is to
catch bass, you can be as successful as you like by following Brewer's
methods. It is a bit like making
money-- the harder one applies oneself, the more dollars she can gain.
The following three items
form the core of the `Slider" fishing philosophy:
Enjoy fishing!
Keep it simple!
Slow down!
We are quick to note that these `goals'
could well fit our everyday lives rather well. So, it is obvious that
they
should have some merit in our fishing.
Charlie Brewer told this writer that we
tend to get so caught up in the competitiveness of fishing, whether in
contests and just us against the bass, that we start to lose the initial
goals of relaxation and enjoyment.
"If you go fishing simply to go
fishing and enjoy a day on the water," Brewer stated, "then
chances are very
good that you will succeed in those goals and catch fish, too. But, if
you go fishing just with the intention of
just catching fish, chances are very good you will wind up frustrated. I
reached that latter position and,
somehow, recognized that the ability to `enjoy fishing' had slipped
away. That's what made me return to
the basics."
The `basics', as Brewer calls them, were
light tackle, small lures and less boat running/more fishing. And, in
applying these elements of his new fishing philosophy, Brewer discovered
that the slower he fished, the
better his success rate. He found that a simple, common sense approach,
coupled with these basic items,
allowed him to catch more fish than he had every dreamed possible. And,
it was easy and a LOT more fun.
The Brewer `not-quite-magic' lure is
called a Slider. However, he is the first to admit that it is the
attitude of
the angler and the method of fishing, and not the lure, which generates
the success.
Brewer explained, "The Slider is
just a little four inch worm which, along with a special lead-head I
dreamed
up, allows me to fish the way I wanted. The lure was designed to do a
specific thing and that was to catch
bass. The plastic worm is a bit stiff, in that I did not want it to have
any action, except what I give it while
fishing. The lead-head deliberately looks as though a steamroller ran
over it, but there are good reasons.
First, the flat, protruding edges of the lead allow me to take my
side-cutters and trim some off. This means
that I can `tailor' the weight of the lure. Secondly, unlike most jig
heads, mine is NOT meant to be hopped
along the lake or river bottom. It is intended to be retrieved at a
constant rate and, consequently, the head is
flat to allow it to plane through the water in a stable and controlled
manner."
"My intent," our teacher
continued, "is to present a small lure as naturally and as
effortlessly as possible.
It will catch the bass, if the angler will slow down and apply
herself."
Brewer's fishing method, as we said
earlier, is about as simple as it gets. He uses a short, light graphite
spinning rod, about 5 1/2 feet in length and a bit on the stiff side.
Next, Brewer attaches an ultra-light
spinning reel and fills it with four to eight pound-test line. (As with
any light tackle angling, line-watching is a
`must', so a fluorescent line mono is recommended.) The actual size of
the line is generally a function of
water clarity, with the lightest line used in the more clear waters.
The basic Slider lure is rigged as per
the accompanying illustrations. The hook is a fine wire Aberdeen-type
and, exposed the way it is, setting hook is very easy and you will
rarely miss the bass. Never use the
weedless rigging unless absolutely necessary, in that it makes the
hook-set more of a task. If this rigging is
required, be sure to drive the hook all the way through the worm body a
couple of times to ream out a
passage for the hook and allow it to pass through easier on the strike.
The presentation of the Slider lures is
really the easy part. All we do is cast it out and reel it back. There
is
absolutely NO action imparted to the lure by the angler. And, if you
read back a few lines, you will find that
Brewer said that he designed the lure to have no action, either. As
strange as it might seem, especially in
this age of `gadget' lures (those which go rattle, bang, clang, pop,
whiz or whir), the Slider really does do
nothing-- no sound, no wiggles, no bumps and grinds. It simply `slides'
through the water.
"The intent is to imitate, as
closely as possible, a small minnow," Charlie Brewer told us.
"I know you have
seen the way they seem to effortlessly swim along and, even when he is
scared and fleeing, the minnow
appears to show no body motion at all. This lack of noticeable motion is
the goal of the Slider lure. That is
why I dubbed it the `do-nothing' method of fishing. The angler tries to
do nothing, except bring the lure back
to the boat as smoothly and quietly as possible."
As we said, the Slider is cast out and
retrieved back. Well, there is a little more to it than that, but very
little.
Just as is the case with any lure, DEPTH is the number one factor in
Slider lure presentation success.
Generally, the desired depth is attained by allowing the lure to sink a
selected amount and then keeping it
there with a combination of retrieve speed and raising/lower of the rod
tip. The initial weight of the Slider
head, the amount of lead that might be trimmed off, and line size are
also ways to fine tune the necessary
relationship between depth and speed when using this lure and fishing
method. The key ingredients are to,
first, determine the depth of the bass that day or in the area where you
have chosen to fish and, then, find
the correct speed which will trigger a strike. With the Slider, there
are three speeds which work well: slow,
very slow, and darn near stopped.
The newcomer to the Slider method,
whether using the Slider lure, a jig, or something similar, will find
that
strike detection can be very easy or very difficult, depending on the
mood of the bass. The vast majority of
strikes will come as a gradual, steady tightening of the line, or a
swim-off to one side or the other. Since the
lure is small and moving slowly, it has a great appeal to all fish, both
large and small. Bluegills, crappies
and anything else that swims will nibble at the Slider. Consequently, we
find that we are constantly getting
`bumps' and `taps' on the lure. This good, in that it shows we are in an
area of fish life and are probably
retrieving at the correct speed. But, don't let this continual nibbling
action cause you to set the hook
prematurely. ONLY, and we repeat ONLY, set the hook on a steady
tightening of the line or a swim-off.
Both of these indicate that a fish (most probably a bass) has a firm
lip- lock on the lure. The size and speed
of the little lure do not, with the exception of an occasional greedy
Smallmouth bass, provoke savage,
line-wrenching strikes.
Since we are using light line and tackle,
a word on setting the hook is in order. That word is `gentle'. The
sharp little hook will grab the bass and actually hold him better than a
larger one. Its size and sharpness
allow it to penetrate easily and deeply. Accordingly, a tight line is
really all that is necessary, in that the pull
of the bass will usually drive the hook home. However, for those few
times that the bass may not have the
lure deeply within his mouth or when using the weedless rigging method,
the method for setting the hook is
too `sweep' the hook home. This is done by letting the line come tight
with the movement of the bass and
then sweeping the rod tip back across the left shoulder (right shoulder,
if you hold the rod with the left hand).
Do not yank or jerk; be gentle and smooth.
Charlie Brewer's Slider fishing method is
easy, non- tiring and produces one heck of a lot of bass. If that
were not enough, it also puts the FUN back into fishing. And, that is
what it is supposed to be all about.
Catalogs and other data on
the Slider can be obtained from;
Brewer's Slider Company
PO Box 130
Lawrenceburg, Tenn. 38464 |
