Here are the two 110s Randy tested.
by Randy Breth [If you’d like to get some free stuff to review for BassParade, let us know using the Contact page.]
Part 1 ended with my first impressions of the Megabass Vision 110s, which covered everything but the action of these sweet baits. So here goes, starting with that. Then to a recap of on-the-water testing.
Action
I think the most unique feature of the 110 is the angle the lure sits at when it come to rest on a pause: Its angle is nose down at about 30 degrees. This makes the 110 the total opposite of how most other jerkbaits work.
For example, an XRap noses down and to the side when jerked, then slowly tries to rise horizontal. This pause has been the trigger when fishing suspending jerkbaits either fast or slow. But it’s not the lack of action, but rather the slower, more subtle action of a wounded baitfish, disoriented and drifting.
The 110 stands the normal action on its head, and I think that’s why it’s been so successful: The fish have seen every other suspending lure, but the action of this lure is totally different.
I know some old hands still weight their lures to give them a nose-down attitude at rest, but that’s a hit-or-miss thing on most lures. Sometimes you can add weight and get it right, sometimes you just sink the lure or deaden the action to where it doesn’t work.
The 110 does it perfectly, right out of the box.
The nose-down attitude on the pause allows you to do another neat trick with the 110: When working the normal rod-tip-down, jerk-jerk-pause cadence, throw in an upward jerk with the rod tip. That makes the lure tip upward just like a baitfish suddenly trying to swim up and away from any following bass – another deadly trigger.
A shot of the various jerkbaits Randy has in his aresenal.
Testing, Testing
I made trips to several smaller local lakes, a couple of smallmouth streams and even Beaver Lake itself, and didn’t do as well as I thought I would this spring. Seemed like the timing of my trips were wrong, or it rained like a monsoon, or I just wasn’t on the fish like normal.
I really wanted to have one of those hero shots with an 8-pounder and the 110 hanging out of it’s maw, but that didn’t happen.
Instead I may have had an even better test of the lures, I was able to squeak out a few fish here and there when maybe I would have blanked, and did have a couple of good days where fish came pretty easy on the 110.
Some key things about the 110:
> It’ll float up very slowly in the coldest water, say about 45 or under.
> From the mid-’40s into the mid-’50s it suspends almost perfectly – just fantastic with that nose-down attitude on the pause.
> In warmer water it may sink, but the warmer the water, generally the faster you should work it. Pause it longer and you can get deeper.
And…
Of course the big question everyone wants to know is: Is the Megabass Vision 110 worth the steep price?
I say yes, with a couple of qualifications to that answer.
If you fish suspending jerk baits like I do (a lot), then you better get a few in your line up. Fish them, learn the little tricks these baits can do that the others can’t.
If you don’t fish jerkbaits much, maybe you can’t justify dropping that kind of change. But think about this point for a second before you think too much about price: If you like the Senko, you’ll spend the same amount on 5 or 6 packs as one Vision 110. And if you’re smart and have a lure retriever (more on that in a second), you may be fishing that 110 long after you have to restock on those Senkos.
Btw, I did snag that Go Pro II in a bad spot when fishing a close-to-home smallmouth river, and I didn’t have a lure retriever with me. I tried every trick to get it back, including reeling the rod tip down to the snag to “push†the lure off (which is stupid, really – potentially breaking the tip of a custom rod worth hundreds to get back a lure).
I finally tied the cut-off tag end of my line to a stump on shore and went back home to get a few things. An hour later I was back with a flippin’ stick spooled with 65-pound braid and a limb saw – and I got back that lure.
I wouldn’t have cared if it was another lure, and I’m not sure if it was the price of it that made me do it. Bottom line: That particular lure is a flat-out fish catcher, and I wanted it back.
– End of part 2 of 2 –
