Which Of These Awesome Lures? Xorus Frosty Verses DUO Realis

Xorus Frosty Verses Duo Realis: You have to laugh sometimes, but not so long ago I was going through my lure collection and decided I would have a bit of a clearout. Ultimately, I only ended up getting rid of a couple and sold them to my fishing buddy Steve Wood.

The two lures I sold him were the ‘IMA Chappy’ and the ‘DUO Realis’. I had never caught on the Realis or the Chappy come to think of it but never had given them a fair crack at the whip in all honesty.

This gets me into another realm of negative thinking and self-limiting beliefs when it comes to lure fishing. I know, I’ve been reading too many self-help books lol.

There Was A Lack Of Fish

Here’s the thing: all the time we were drawing a blank we were trying out all these supposedly fantastic new lures. The problem was we just weren’t catching any fish. The bottom line is there probably wasn’t any fish around, or, we plain hadn’t found them. It’s not rocket science. You could have the greatest lure in the world but if there’s no fish you ain’t gonna catch, it’s that simple.

Steve Woods Most Productive Lure

So getting back to the Realis it just turns out that that particular lure (the one I sold him) has turned out to be his most productive lure so far this year.

As for the IMA Chappy, I haven’t seen him use that yet. However, our other lure-fishing buddy ‘Rodger’ was also fishing with us. Ironically, Rodger had never previously caught on the Chappie either, it was just in his lure box on this particular day.

Using A Lure That You Know Works Is A Step In The Right Direction

To cut a long story short both Steve and Rodger had caught on this particular day but muggins (me) hadn’t. I had reverted back to my trusty sub-surface ‘IMA Komomo II Chameleon before I had any success. Incidentally, I had already lost two on the Chameleon before the other two had had any luck.

The Fish Were Very Apprehensive

Rodger eventually had 3 and also had about ten ‘hits’ but the fish just weren’t connecting with the lure. The fish was apprehensive and just wouldn’t commit to taking the lure. Blimey! who could blame them for being a bit sceptical? I sometimes wonder what it actually is that makes a bass strike into action. because some of the lures do not resemble anything that is swimming in the sea.

As we came towards the end of the session, I finally hooked into a fish. Certainly not the biggest in the world, but saved me a blank nevertheless.

First Light: Dawn Raids For Bass

On the next session, we found ourselves heading out at first light, about 2.30 in the morning to be precise. This was double early and in total darkness.

The water clarity was not that great in fact it was pretty murky. Amazingly, I was always a believer that fishing in total darkness at night is a lot better in general lure fishing for bass. However, judging by the two sessions we had at first light this definitely wasn’t the case.

The Water Has To Be Really Good Fishing In Total Darkness

On this occasion, the water was not that great (as we mentioned earlier) so maybe this was the reason why we didn’t get any takes or hits.

From what I have learnt in the past, the water clarity (in pitch-black darkness) pretty much has to be crystal clear. Some people may beg to differ and I am definitely not going to argue. Some of my previous bass fishing theories have gone right out of the window this year (2021) already.

Xorus Frosty Verses The DUO Realis

So typically when the darkness had gone and the light of day was upon us we started to get some action. Coincidentally, we both had fish in succession, both around the 45cm mark. We have found this kind of action on a few occasions that we both had bass together. Maybe, there was a shoal going through where we were fishing.

Then, we would have another quiet period before Steve Wood had two bass one after the other. Jeez, I was 3-1 down. I have to be really honest I was questioning my ‘walking the dog’ technique, I had this awful feeling I was doing something wrong. In fact, I was getting that feeling I was going to get crushed and was getting anxious, even though it wasn’t a competition. This was terrible, especially after the other night when everyone else was landing fish but not me. I was just losing them.

Not getting any takes or follows

Watching our Youtube video (‘Catching Bass Surface Lure Fishing Xorus Frosty Verses DUO Realis‘) which is filmed from these couple of sessions, you would think that we are having a great session. Realistically that wasn’t the case at all. We had thrashed away for ages trying to catch.

In this scenario, earlier, when we did find the fish, they seemed to be in maybe a channel (where Steve Wood was fishing) because on two occasions he had a fish I had cast where he was fishing and hooked into a fish almost instantly. Coincidence? Hmmm…I’m not sure.

Four Bass On The Trot For THe Xorus Frosty

Yes, four bass on the trot. So what changed for me to suddenly start catching like that? Well here’s the thing: I just changed my retrieve to a slower pace. Also, because I have a new rod the ‘Shimano Luminis’ the action is a lot stiffer resulting in a more sensitive tip. This is also better for soft plastics (IMO)

We Were Constantly Changing Lures But Not Location – Mistake

When I checked the footage from the recordings, I mean watching the whole thing from start to finish, there were very long periods of time when we were not catching. I say that because normally I skip to the parts where I know we catch fish.

Even though we were changing lures every so often, we weren’t moving around. Why, well my reason was I didn’t want to slip over clambering around those slippery rocks and gullies. However, when I did eventually move to another spot I had a fish within a couple of casts and a baby Pollock that was smaller than my lure. But that is my new PB nevertheless it is the only Pollock I’ve ever caught. Made my day

How Things Change With The Tide

After this session, we had a couple of evenings fishing at the same location and still managed to catch. But when the bigger tides came around the fish seemed to vanish. I had tried a newer location and although there was plenty of sea life, like crabs fish and bucket loads of prawns you would think there would be bass in abundance. We even found a small cuckoo wrasse lying again on a rock trying to camouflage from any predators that may be lurking around. Well, that wrasse didn’t have to worry about bass because I went there twice without a sniff.

Amazingly, the other two had turned up but I had decided enough was enough and went home. But unfortunately for them, they stayed out and fished five different locations and never caught a thing. This is strange because normally (in previous years) we would only fish the bigger tide thinking the slacker tides were not so good…how wrong are we?

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