Wired 2 Fish - Mega means bigger and better too

Mega means bigger and better too

There are some great national companies out there that make products that flat catch bass and even though they don’t have millions in marketing dollars anglers find out about them and use their products. Large affinities with these companies exist and many times their baits are kept secret by design. Bass fisherpeople are funny that way.

Gene Larew Tackle is one of those companies. Gene Larew has been making quality fishing tackle forever. So much good stuff that if you were from the Upper Midwest fishing the Illinois or Mississippi Rivers and didn’t have a Gene Larew Salt Craw or a Gene Larew Ring Worm in your box you were fishing for second place. Die Hard anglers bought them in hundred packs and because of an expensive color selection you could match your water clarity with a color almost instantly. Great colors like black/chartreuse, black/yellow, purple/white, black/white all became go-to colors for many of us. There were times when I had only Gene Larew products tied on with the minor exception of a Bomber A SI or a Billy Phillips Go-Go Girl to mix it up. These baits are still in my river arsenal.

Gene Larew products flat caught bass and sometimes in some very tough conditions. Muddy water, floxum, junk river systems, it didn’t matter. Gene Larew baits caught fish!

Right after the Salt Craw and 4” Ringworm became a mainstay for river rats, anglers started noticing a new bait called a Gene Larew Mega-Ring Tube. The 4.5 incher was a tube bait with very large air catching rings, a hollow body, great tentacles, and most definitely some great action for flipper and pitchers. It fished more like a worm than a tube and when a bass ate it he crunched it.

Most noted right away that the bass that were caught on this bait were larger and because the bait was hollow larger rattles could be utilized. The head of the bait has a perfect amount of plastic for screw in weights and a 5/0 hook is optimum for it. Dipping the ends of the tentacles in chartreuse dye accented the bait.

NOTE: Remember, this bait came out before Denny Brauer won the Classic at High Rock and the tube became a sensation. That sensation still exists and we have caught fish all over the country on this bait. The Illinois River, Mississippi River, Kentucky Lake, Guntersville, Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend, Mark Twain and Lake of the Ozarks are all lakes that we have caught fish on the “tube”.

I sometimes get asked if you could only have one bait what would it be? I would have to put a jig and chunk and the Mega Ring Tube in a tie. No kidding, no bologna. This is a great bait and one of the best kept secrets around when fishing clear or muddy water.

Another neat component of the Mega Ring Tube is they are garlic scented. I like dark watermelon, watermelon, and black and silver as color choices. I have experimented with others but seem to gravitate back to these three colors no matter what the conditions.