Monday, February 20
While “Blue Glimmer” is actually a color scheme and not a lure, it is how I’ve always referred to my all time favorite spinnerbait. Much less of a mouthful and a bit more mysterious than showing your hand and telling someone that “the bass are really hitting on a Stanley 3/8 ounce Vibra Shaft Rainbow Glitter Series Spinnerbait in the Blue Glimmer pattern.” Whew!
The Vibra Shaft Rainbow Glitter Series came in a variety of patterns and featured striped double willow leaf blades paired with matching heads and skirts. I’m not quite sure when this particular model began disappearing from the shelves of major retailers but I figure it to be around 2000 when my Uncle Dick picked me up a couple of the vanishing baits somewhere in Kewanee. He even called the company later and learned that they were no longer in production. At that point only the smaller ¼ ounce model was still widely available. Of course, that’s now more than a few years ago so the odds are slim that you’ll discover one in some unusual location such as the following examples of my good fortune.
March 2002 – I spotted one of these baits in a pile of stuff at Julie’s and hoped that it was one that I’d purchased and left laying around for some reason. Being honest, I figured that I’d first ask her if she knew why it was there rather than just swiping it. “Oh yeah,” she replied, “I think you said it was a good lure to give to (family member’s name omitted) but I wound up getting them something else.” What to do next? Those things retailed for around $4.00 but I would have given considerably more to have another spare. Fortunately, my soon to be wife went with the whole “our stuff” concept and we gave the lure a new home in one of “our” tackle boxes.
September 2002 – Brent and I had wrapped up a less than successful bicycling trip to fish the interior strip mines of Snakeden Hollow State Fish & Wildlife Area and decided to stop at the baitshop in Victoria to look around and get a pop. We first checked out the wall of photos (which included our brother in law and his 8-4 bass from April 2000) and then proceeded to tour the large selection of lures. There it was, a Blue Glimmer. I’d been in the baitshop at least three times in the previous six months but had never noticed one before. It was the only one they had which was probably a good thing for my bank account because it’s hard to say how many I could have justified purchasing.
This lure has produced forty bass scattered throughout the Top Bass list and accounts for nine of the top twenty spots on the all time spinnerbait bass list. The lure also holds top spot for May (3-15, Banner Marsh, 5/3/00) and October (4-8, Lake Bracken, 10-16-98). It has placed two muskies on the list (Lake Storey, 10/23/98 and 10/30/98), caught two four pounders in one day (4-10 and 4-0, Lake Bracken, 4/14/99) and two three pounders in one day (3-10 and 3-1, Lake Storey, 10/29/98) along with holding the lake record for Gladstone Lake (2-4, 10/2/01).
Of course, statistics can be cited and manipulated to prove many points. With that in mind, I’m sure that this lure has been attached to the end of a line much more than other models and colors, and, therefore, had much more opportunity to catch fish. However, the success is hard to argue after casting more than a few other spinnerbaits over the years. The Blue Glimmer reigned supreme from 1997 through 2008 before giving way to a pair of other spinnerbaits. These days when chunking a spinnerbait I’m likely throwing an old Hank Parker Classic from Mann’s Bait Company or a Strike King Quad Shad model as for some odd reason I still can’t bring myself to open one of those “brand new” Blue Glimmers pictured and described above.
Simply another example of why stubborn, weird, a bit superstitious, whimsical yet predictable and prone to more than a few potentially bad habits are all applicable if I were to try and describe my fishing style. Thus, writing this stuff is actually kind of therapeutic. It’s given me time to step back and take a look at some things I might do to get out of a rut or add some diversity to my approach. Yet the next lure coming your way ain’t gonna change beyond perhaps a few experimental tweaks or refinements as it completely revolutionized how I now spend a fair share of my time on the water. Talk to you later. Troy
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