We all have lures, soft plastics that we turn to and fish with total confidence, trusty favourites that are proven fish catchers.Over the years you learn to read the conditions and select lures that you know will do the do and once youve got to know your marks its just a matter of time before you get your first hit.

The Bait Breath 4 inch tt shad in ayu has long been a firm favourite of mine, attatched to a ecogear iwashi 14 g its a match made in bass heaven and ive caught hundreds of bass bumping it in the flow.

The triangular tail of the tt shad is the thing that makes the difference in my opinion as it doesnt take much current to get it working and the bass just cant resist it. I tend to use the tt in clear water anything murkier i will switch to something else, like the x layer with the inbuilt rattle.

I tend to glue the tt to the jighead to prevent slipping or general tearing. Anyhows its a sp that i trust and its always in my bag and when conditions allow its deadly, as all these recent fish prove….

I recently had the pleasure of guiding Dave Taylor and Matt Newcombe, two highly experienced anglers, Dave has caught more big bass than you could wish for and many of his articles in Total Sea Fishing ( for bass ) have long stayed in my memory bank. I was confident we would catch knowing the fish had been showing well, yet it ended up being a tough day on the water with only one decent fish caught to Matt on a giant x layer bumped in the flow.

This got me thinking and im sure the difference in this soft plastic stickbait that made the difference was the inbuilt rattle.

So for my following solo sessions i tried the xlayer bumped in the flow in comparison to other sps and the xlayer came out on top, the rattle won the day !!

Many anglers are now adding rattles to there sps with great effect, so its no mystery that the rattle can make a difference between catching and not, the fish obviously hone in on it, anyhows from my recent experienced im now totally sold, shake rattle and roll, thanks Matt !!..

The water temperature has now dropped to 15 degrees which is what it was in June, so i will fish confidently through November into December as long as the conditions allow. If you would like a guided session please contact me via my email joelsoul68@live.com …….