Ooooooweeee! You’re So Ugly!

By Alan Clemons

PAA Communications

Back in 1963, legendary crooner Burl Ives starred in a modest movie with actress Hayley Mills titled “Summer Magic,” about a mother and children who move from the city to the country.

In it, Ives sings a memorable little ditty called The Ugly Bug Ball about caterpillars and ladybugs and other critters. It’s snappy – some might say sappy – but definitely a song that is remembered once it’s heard.

Bass fishing has its version of the ugly bug ball in the tackle shops around the world. Soft plastics are limited only by the imagination of the lure designer, and there definitely are some that turn heads. The key is whether they get the attention of the angler and the fish … the latter being more important to the former, of course, and the former being more important to the company selling the baits.

With no scientific polling or anything but personal selection – and no offense intended to anyone, of course — here are five considerations for an Ugly Bug Ball along with some honorable mention candidates.

Lunker City Ozmo

What is it? A crawly thing with a big butt and trailing tails? Or a bug with claws and antennae with a buggy body lagging behind?

The Ozmo definitely requires a second, or third, look and easily defines the term “creature bait.” It has enough appendages, flaps and shapes to fit any description. It looks like two bugs combined in some kind of weird science experiment from a lab stuck in the 1970s on the ABC Friday Night Movie.

But what’s cool about it is this oversized sculpin-hellgrammite-crayfish thingy would work in small or big rivers or as a pitch bait on lakes large and small.

Damiki Monster Miki

Damiki’s Monster Miki definitely is in the Top 5 because it looks like the spawn of that gigantic toothy critter in Alien (which stars Sigourney Weaver and a bunch of other stupid dudes who get eaten).

The Monster Miki comes in 2.5-, 4.5- and 6-inch versions with a slender main body and two long trailing ribbed, semi-curled tentacles. Those also have antennae in-between on the head … or, maybe the rear. Who knows?

At the other end of the body are three flat appendages on the sides and a pair of what looks like legs from a grasshopper on steroids. It’s a freaky bait and definitely something a bass would eat … probably, if for nothing else, out of self defense.

Roboworm Pitchin’ Kraw

Roboworm is known for its soft, lifelike worms favored mostly on the West Coast but also in some Eastern fisheries, with drop shots and shaky rigs being the primary techniques.

Don’t overlook the Pitchin’ Kraw, though, for sight-fishing or flipping. The tidy 4-inch bait features a body ribbed in two directions with three sets of legs that look like small leaves. They flap, though, providing some extra action.

The main feature is a pair of big paddle craw claws off the head combined with two long, curly antennae. On the fall these antennae flutter pretty seductively and then move with any twitch of the rod tip or water current.

Big Bite Bait Fighting Frog

This versatile bait with a bit of a futuristic design can be buzzed as a topwater, put on a jig, Texas-rigged or possibly Carolina-rigged.

At first blush the Big Bite Bait Fighting Frog is not dramatically ugly. In fact, it’s almost cute in an ugly sort of way. Kind of like the dog at the park that you keep staring at until you finally think, “Man, without the 49 wrinkles and smashed face, that would be a nice-looking dog.”

The Fighting Frog sort of looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Maybe a frog that’s been transmogrified into a super-frog. The bait is neither too plain nor wildly wacky. It has a streamlined body with hook slots on top and bottom, a pair of flippy legs and two longer claws that buzz and flap.

Lake Fork Hyper Freak

Freak is appropriate for this bait that looks like a scuttling bug dragging a pancake behind it.

The tail on the Hyper Freak is almost as big as the body. But the tail is flat and attached to the body by a thin ribbon. When you flip it or swim it on a jig, the tail goes haywire with a tremendous thumping action. Thread it on a jig as a trailer and you might be surprised.

Honorable Mention

These drew our attention as worthy of a mention: Damiki Hydra … Big Bite Baits Kriet Kreature … Gene Larew Biffle Bug … Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog … NetBait Action Cat … Hag’s Undertaker … Berkley PowerBait Mud Critter … Gambler Ugly Otter … Kicker Fish Kicker Kraw … Owner Yuki Bug … Yum Wooly Hawg Craw and the Prowler Lures DP Saw Craw.

(To see all these baits, visit Bass Pro Shops, Tackle Warehouse or your favorite retailer and search for Creature Baits.)

Tags: Bass, bass fishing, creature baits, flipping, PAA, PAA Bass Pro Shops Tournament Series, pitching