For most topwater lures – maybe for all topwaters – it’s the splash that’s more important than the shape. Strikes occur predominately as the topwater causes a commotion rather than just sitting still and doing nothing. Certainly, soft-plastic frogs can be the exception, but even frogs work best when slithered and crawled, which is their way of making a splash.
Anglers can affect the way any topwater cuts the surface, but popular and effective topwaters often repeat their splashes as regularly as a metronome ticks from side to side. With these characteristic and common upheavals, bass can become accustomed to various topwaters and then lay off the baits they’ve been hooked on.
That is why, when a new topwater hits the market, I want to see what it can do and observe its splash. After a trip or two on the water, the bass will tell me if the bait is something unique, something they’ll react to, or something that will get their attention for a while.
But a topwater doesn’t exactly have to be new on the market to be something new on the water. Sometimes it can be a very old bait, one that stopped being manufactured or one that faded out of favor.
That situation is the tale behind the Heddon Vamp, a lure that has a storied history and is now being reissued and sold, only by its manufacturer, on the Internet.
The Heddon Vamp has one of the oddest faces in all of luredom. Sometimes it reminds me of a dog’s snout, other times it resembles one of those water sleds pulled on the backs of boats. Whatever it looks like or is meant to be, the Heddon Vamp is a classic lure that in its heyday caught a lot of bass – and pike too.
I lost my last Heddon Vamp only about six years ago when a toothy critter swam up to it and nipped it at the knot. As the pike sauntered off, a tear almost came to my eye because I knew I had lost a bait that had hooked hundreds of largemouth and a lure I’d used as a secret weapon when fish were being pressured by tons of other topwaters. Now with the reissue as the Heddon Vamp Spook available only at Lurenet.com, I play the Vamp again. I know there’s going to be a hot time on my favorite lakes this summer.
The key difference between the antique lure and the reissued bait is that the old model was made of wood and the new is molded plastic. The two materials have different buoyancy so the plastic will have to prove itself. Also the vintage bait had raised glass or zinc eyes embedded above the snout; the new version has flat eyes, part of the mold.
There was a lot of hardware on the original wooden Vamp and there still is on the contemporary plastic version. For starters, the bait comes equipped with three treble hooks. Each hook is attached to the body by a rounded bar and two screws on each bar. The bar for the rear treble curves around the tail of the body to reach dead center. Hooks do not pull out of the Heddon Vamp.
The reissued baits are in billed and unbilled models. The bill is as wide as teaspoon and is attached by three screws around the body. That’s a total of nine visible screws on this bait. In addition, the line tie is a metal screw eye under the nose.
According to a notebook drawing by Vamp collector Phil Soukup, there was also a 1921 model with a wire bar line tie under the nose. Basically this a strip of metal held flush to the lure’s body except for a small, open, downward curve in which the line was tied.
To attach the wire bar to the Vamp body required another screw near the tip of the nose, however the screw at the middle of the lip did double duty holding the center lip screw and the rear screw of the wire bar. The plastic eyes had a metal tack for a pupil, which held the eye to the body. As I said, there is a lot of hardware on this bait, both old and new. But even with all this hardware the wooden bait sat on the surface until worked.
Heddon was already a respected and successful lure company when the Vamp was issued in late 1920. I suspect the last Vamp I lost was made after 1950, as after World War II Heddon stopped Vamps with glass eyes and mine had plastic peepers with the tack. I’m not a lure collector, but I know the bait I had was a common frog color, and its value, to me, was more important as a successful fish catcher than a fireplace piece.
Overall, the commotion created by the Vamp is unique – and here I’m detailing the lipped model as opposed to the lipless Vamp Spook. A great presentation is to work the bait with short, sputtering starts and stops. But the lip also insures that the bait will dive and when pulled under the surface, can be retrieved in straight line. When the retrieve is halted, the bait floats to the surface.
Some fishing eons ago, I worked out a retrieve that made the Vamp a combination chugger-diver. After landing – and Vamps land with a splat – I’d twitch the bait in two-inch jerks, two or three of them at most. The nose was pulled down. Then I’d pause the lure, let the rings fade out and surface jerk it again. After that, I’d bring the lure farther down by sweeping the rod horizontally across my body. The sweep pulled the bait several feet below the surface and several feet across. Then I’d reset the rod in the starting position, gather the slack, and let the bait rise to the surface. Following this appearance, like an alligator coming topside, I’d start the retrieve all over again.
At night I limit the Vamp to short, quiet spurts, and I wouldn’t dive the bait. A black Vamp with white lines on its sides (a color that’s been reissued) was a terrific bait for largemouths on moonless nights.
Speaking of alligators, if you are going where gators and bass coexist, make sure to take a number of green Vamps, particularly in the time of gator hatching. This bait is terrific when big largemouths are feeding on baby gators, which they do.
In the Northeast, it’s a great bait for tossing around the edges of matted reeds, pads, and grass. I like to pull the Vamp on a parallel plane with the edges and work it above the drop-offs just outside the weed line. Conventional rods and 12-pound fluorocarbon (to help sink the bait) should do well. I like models with orange bellies that imitate sunfish.
The Vamp also can be used in open water where the weeds haven’t reached the surface. When there’s a chop on the surface, a Vamp can raise enough commotion to call them up. And with Vamps, it’s all about the commotion.
Facebook
MySpace
Digg
Stumble
Mixx
Fark
del.icio.us
LiveSpaces