YUM Sooie - A Cross Between A Tube, A Lizard, and Who Knows What Else
By Troy Jens
It's not what you'd call pretty to look at, but a lot of the things that bass eat won't win any beauty contests. The new Sooie by the YUM bait company is sort of a cross between a tube, a lizard, and who knows what else. I like it because the bass love it. The Sooie is a solid, durable bait with a thick body, perfect for pitching and flipping the heavy cover on Lake Guntersville. It works equally as well as a standard Texas-Rig in deeper water situations.
Through the summer, beginning in June I find a lot of big bass laid up in the thick clumps and mats of grass. Most of the 7 to 9 pound bass I catch during the summer are in the hydrilla on the ledges and humps, but I find a few monsters on the edges of milfoil lines as well. Grass in and around the lily pad fields is also a good target area for locating really big bass. The grass keeps a lot of hawgs shallow all summer long.
I use the Sooie much like a tube or big worm, putting a 3/4 oz Tg Tungsten weight ahead of a 5/0 hook and pegging the weight with a toothpick. For line I use at least 25-lb mono or 50-lb braid. I then pitch the bait into the thick clumps of grass and work it straight up and down. Usually as with a jig or other pitching methods, the bite comes on the first fall. I drop the Sooie in the grass, lift it up and down a couple times then pick it up and drop it in another patch of grass. It works in the thick mats as well, using a 1-1/4oz or larger weight to get it through the heavy top layer. In the pads and scattered grass, you can get away with a lighter weight and make longer pitches and short tosses to the target areas. My favorite colors are watermelon/red flake and the redbug.
Get out there this month and learn to pitch the grass, it's where the really big fish live all summer long, and they will eat a Sooie.
