Entry 164-4

Fishing Strike King’s Products with Mike Wurm

Part 4: The Iguana

Editor's Note: Mike Wurm of Hot Springs, Arkansas, has been a professional angler for 11 years. He fishes both the FLW and Bassmasters tournament and has won two Bassmasters tournaments.

Question: When do you use the new Iguana?

Wurm: Everyone knows that big baits catch big bass, except when there’s not any big bait on which the bass can feed on. That’s when you have to use the Mini 3. However, if a bass has a choice between big bait and a small bait, he’ll usually choose the bigger one.

California anglers have taught us that this is true with the big baits they use to catch the big bass in California. Those anglers out there use big swim baits about the size of a tennis shoe. These lures have affectionately picked up the name “tennis shoes”. These big tennis-shoe baits produce 9-, 10-, 12- and 14-pound bass in California. Strike King produces a big swim bait now, but the company decided it needed a big plastic bait that would attract big bass just like the big tennis shoe baits do. They knew that the 3X material that they were using was a sensitive and rugged material. They decided to produce a big lizard known as the Iguana. The Iguana is an 8-inch lizard that stretches out to 10 inches. It has four legs that stick out from the body, which create a lot of action and wiggle.

The Iguana has a large profile that attracts large bass. Most of the time, I Texas-rig the Iguana. The difference is that I use a bigger hook than when I’m fishing the lizard. You cannot put No. 1/0 hook on a 10-inch bait. You’re going to have to use a No. 4/0 or a No. 5/0 hook in a bait this big. If I’m fishing this bait in shallow-water cover, I’m going to use a light lead to get the bait down. I don’t want a lot of splash to spook the bass. If I’m fishing it on deep structure, I’m going to use a heavier bait to get the Iguana down deep. I like that the Iguana is especially deadly when fished on the edge of grass. I think if you can fish the Iguana off the edge of grass and into deep water, you’re going to find that big bass that are holding there will eat it up.

What we’re seeing now in bass lures is that more fishermen are opting to catch bigger bass. We have plenty of lures that will catch bass from 9 to 14 inches. In many lakes, these are the average-size bass. Using most lures, you can catch those bass. When you decide to target the bigger bass, you need a bigger lure. I think most anglers come to a point in their day of fishing that if they’ve caught all the small bass they want to catch, then they will have had a successful day of bass fishing. However, instead of going home, they want to use a bigger lure to catch bigger bass. Now that Strike King has identified this trend in bass fishing, we’re seeing more lures like the Iguana and the King Kong coming on to the bass scene.

Another thing that’s affecting the growth of large lures is that more areas are producing bigger bass. At one time, the only place you could catch a 10-pound bass was in Florida. Now Texas, California and all the other southern states are beginning to produce bigger bass. Therefore, because there is now an opportunity to catch bigger bass than there was in the past, we need more and bigger bass lures. The Iguana fits this niche.

Fishing Strike King’s Products with Mike Wurm

Part 4: The Iguana

Next: The Deuce

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