Lizards

By Lynn Burkhead


Another popular plastic bait for this time of the year is one that BASS pro Edwin Evers puts near the top of his lure list: the versatile lizard, a bait that can elicit a smashing strike from a female on the spawning bed.

"It's a good bait to fish," said Evers, one of the hottest young anglers on the CITGO Bassmaster Pro Tour. "In terms of catching big bass, lizards and salamanders really prey on the eggs that big females lay, so the bigger fish are more apt to eat them. I do get a lot of bites from bigger fish in the spring on lizards."

How much bigger? Evers has caught lots of 8- and 9-pound bass on this type of lure, which he fishes primarily during stable weather conditions.

"With a lizard, I like to keep it on bottom," he offered. "I'll do that by popping it and scurrying it across the bottom, still looking for isolated cover. I usually like a Yum 6-inch lizard in green pumpkin or watermelon colors with a 1/8-ounce weight. I'll fish it Texas-rigged around cover that I can see using a 7-foot All-Star rod in medium-heavy action with a Pflueger President 6:3:1 reel spooled with 14- to 17-pound-test Silver Thread monofilament."