Although Bomber Lures manufactures a 6-inch saltwater version of their Long A, Tracy Bayles insists on fishing with the 4 ½-inch freshwater version of the lure, usually thought of as a bass bait.
That habit started in 1981, when his family purchased a camp at Fourchon just down the road from Leeville.
“Being from Monroe, all we had was bass gear,” Bayles said. “We had some really big catches of speckled trout with Tiny Torpedoes. But Bomber Long A’s were even better. We tried other similar baits. Rogues didn’t work as well. The lip was to fragile because it was glued in place.
“We did Redfins, too, but didn’t like the color choices. Nowadays Yo-Zuri makes a good one, but they are more expensive.”
One concession he makes is to change each lure’s hooks for Mustad treble hooks. Saltwater fish are bigger, he said, and will bend the original wire hooks on the diminutive Long A’s.
For fishing these lures, Bayles uses 7 ½-foot Okuma or Shimano medium-fast rods.
“They have good backbone, but the tip is soft enough to work the lures,” he said. “You don’t want a stiff rod to fish Bombers.”
He recommended using baitcasting reels because “it is tough to fish jerk baits with a spinning reel.”
The reels are often spooled with 12-pound-test Seaguar fluorocarbon line, although he often uses Trilene monofilament lines, as well.
Bayles clearly loves the lures.
“Sometimes Bombers will out-catch live bait,” he said. “There’s just something in that action that triggers a bite.”
