The Mattlures Baby Bass was the follow up to Mattlures’ very successful Bluegill bait and debuted in the summer of 2005. The Baby Bass is 5 inches long and weighs approximately 1.5oz. There are four available colors which include; Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Striper, and Yellow Bass. The stock hook is a 3/0 Black Nickel Mustad Ultrapoint. These soft plastic baits are individually hand poured and hand painted and retail for $11.95.
The first and most obvious discussion point on the Baby Bass is the paint job. Like the Mattlures Bluegill, the Baby Bass simply has an awesome paint job. The colors look ‘just right’ above and below the water. The Largemouth Bass color in particular is dead on and the level of detail and the blending in the colors is killer. The Striper color is interesting and I’ve heard some positive feedback from that bait on the CA Delta where stripers are prevalent. With the overall silver color on the Striper color, you could easily use that bait in a shad imitating situation as well.
The construction on the Baby Bass is solid and I would expect to get a good number of fish per bait. 10-15 fish per bait would not be unreasonable. Like any soft plastic bait you might get the tail bit off first cast, but it’s unlikely. Matt has done a good job blending durability with action on the Baby Bass and I give high marks for the tail action. The Baby Bass can be fished very slowly and ‘fluttered’ on the sink. I see a lot of mass produced baits that seem to have been designed without considering action vs. weight of lure vs. fall speed but the Baby Bass hits it just about right. You can toss it out, put the reel in gear and it will swim on the way down on a tight line. That’s a good action any day of the week in my book.
The overall action on the Baby Bass is a very fast tail flutter combined with a slight body wobble. To offer a reference point, it doesn’t wobble as hard as a Big Hammer does, but the tail action is just as fast if not faster. I’ve heard a lot of reports in the 6 months since this bait released and the verdict from the bass definitely appears to be positive. There have been a lot of catches on the bait, especially what you might call tournament grade 3-9lb fish. This bait is already proving to be effective all over the country and I really believe that it’s only a matter of time before some big time East Coast tournament stick wins a big tournament on it and blows it up.
Two things to talk about here in the cons department. My first impression of the Baby Bass was via a picture I saw of the bait on Tackle Warehouse. When I looked at it, I thought the paint job looked a little rough, like there was some black junk on the lure. When I got the baits in my hand I saw that same thing but I realized that the black stuff was just loose paint, almost like overspray or something that just dried on the bait. Washing the bait removed most of that stuff immediately. So when you look at the picture on TW, don’t be deterred, the baits after washing them briefly or fishing with them will look like the pic in this review.
The other thing to talk about is price. There’s two totally valid arguments you make on the price. From a lure making standpoint, this is a hand poured and more importantly a hand painted bait. Trust me, painting plastic baits like this is no cake walk and Mattlures does a phenomenal job. So $11.95 isn’t unreasonable when you look at it like that. But when you look at it from the standpoint that it’s a 5” swimbait, $11.95 is a lot higher than anything else out there. Serious guys will still buy this bait regardless, but some people will probably dismiss it just based on price. My advice would be not to.
