Furry Fish Baits

Like a smart fisherman guarding his prime spot, we now secure our cart with 128 bit SSL Certificate from renowned sercurity company Comodo Security Services. This action was in no way associated with a breach of any data that has been entered on our website.  Rather, this is to ensure any data that is entered as you create an account (physical/mailing address, email address, phone number(s), etc.) is secure from prying eyes.

Just to be clear, we have never collected any credit card or Paypal information from our clients. All credit card data is collected on the secure servers of Authorized.net. Most of you may have already realized, when you have completed your order and are prepared to check out, you are redirected to the Authorize.net servers. The payment page is branded to provide a look and feel of our site, but the data is actually entered on the Authorize.net site. Authorize.net is one of the largest credit card processors in America. Thier servers are more secure than all but a few merchants.

The Paypal payments are obviously collected and processed by Paypal themselves. This also ensures that all critical credit card data is entered on Paypal's secure servers.

To sum it up, when you complete your order for your favorite fishing lures on our site, the information you provide to create an account is now sercured. The payment/credit card data you enter is now -and always has been - captured and secured by Authorized.net and Paypal, two of the largest and most secured companies in the world.

As spring turns to summer, we thought it would be a good idea to discuss fishing the cover to find those big lunkers. As the heat of the day brings much warmer water temperatures, the bass tend to seek relief.  There are two ways they seek this relief: they either 1) swim to deeper water that isn't heated by the sun or they 2) seek shelter/cover. Pulling the bass from the deep is one thing, but how do you entice them from their cover? One of the easiest ways is to use one of our weedless jig bass fishing lures and through the lure among the water cover. This cover is usually made up of lily pads, eel grass, etc. Once the weedeless jig hits the water, give it a few seconds to sink. With cover, it usually takes a few extra moments for the jig to sink to the sweet spot. Begin to slowly retreive the lure in a reel - slight jerk- sink rhythm, reel - slight jerk - sink rhythm. This allows the fishing lure to stay in the sweet spot of the fish longer and provides a better opportunity to catch that trophy lunker!

It has been a rather warm winter nationally. It has certainly been warm here in the south. However, as we've discussed in previous posts, when the weather gets warm, the spring bass are spawning and looking for food. During the Shootout on the St. Johns in March, we witnessed multiple catches that exceeded 8 lbs +. All of the professionals were very complimentary of the size and number of bass that they boated.

It's been a very busy spring for us here at Bass Capital Outfitters LLC. We've been working hard this spring to bring to market a new bass fishing lures that compliment our current line. We already have a new head style designed that will provide a more realistic look that bass won't be able to resist.

Stay tuned!

It has been a very mild summer and fall throughout much of the country. According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) , October 2011 was the globe's 8th warmest October on record.  Here's a map from NOAA that provides a graphical representation of summer temperatures:

But what do these mild temperatures mean for fishing? It has been proven that bass like the warm weather. As the weather cools/turns cold, the fish retreat to deeper waters. As the water warms and the sun comes out, the bass become more active and will feed in a more predictable pattern. The activity and cyclical nature of fish during periods of warm weather is really no mystery. Bass spawn in the spring as temperatures warm. Therefore, as the weather warms, the fish become more active in anticipation of the stress of spawning.

Even though the warmer fall weather means a boom for fishing this fall/winter, long term the extreme weather swings can have a detrimental effect on the health of the bass. Like humans, bass are susceptible to weather stresses. The extreme weather stresses cause the fish to get out of cycle, thus creating conditions whereby the bass my spawn too soon or increasing the probability for a 'fish kill', thus stressing the species. A good example is when there is an extended period of warm weather in the winter that 'tricks' a tree to bloom. That one bloom in the winter wouldn't have a detrimental effect on the tree, but if that pattern were to repeat itself for multiple years, it certainly would have an impact on the species of tree.

Setting aside the science of the warmer fall, it really is a good time to get out and do some bass fishing. From all reports that we've received, the fish are still active and are biting. Therefore, grab your best Furry Fish Bait bass fishing lure and get out there and catch yourself some lunkers!

The question is inevitable - what is the best color for fishing lures? Well, that depends a lot on 1) what is the water clarity and 2) to a lesser degree, what are the outside conditions. In shallow water with muddy to moderate clarity, it is usually best to stick to colors that illuminate, like chartreuse or firetiger. These colors are more vibrant and easier for the fish to detect. As the water clarity changes to a more tea/light coffee/stained appearance,  it is okay to switch to more of a pumpkin, brown olive and watermelon color. As the water clarity become more clear (midday for instance), you are fine to switch to the darker colors, such as brown and blue/black. This color selection also holds true for outside conditions - the darker the outside (think overcast), the lighter colors will work well. As the conditions brighten (think full sun), it is best to switch to darker colors. Also, in brighter conditions (usually indicates water will be warmer), the fish will become more active and start to chase those fishing lures that imitate the action and color of their natural food. Therefore, a great color for these conditions are crayfish. Based on this generic (and highly subjective) guide, we have grouped the fishing lure colors into three color type: vibrant, light/browns and dark colors. Our ultimate suggestion would be to try and determine the water clarity and pick the proper color. However, even more important, the best advice is to be flexible. If you select vibrant and are not receiving many strikes after sufficient casts, switch to light/brown colors to see if that will entice the fish to strike. As with everything about fishing, there are only suggestions, no surefire "it always works" answer to the color question. The best answer is to always use your experience to determine the best the color that will give you the highest probability of catching that lunker that is lurking and ready to strike.

We have created a Facebook page for our fishing lures. If you are on Facebook, you can like our page. Once you like our page, you will be entered to win a fishing lure package of three weedless jigs (your color choice), a spinnerbait and a buzzbait. This is a $25 value for just liking us on Facebook! Also, if you've purchased our lures and have caught some fish or have a testimonial, we certainly would love to see the pictures and hear the stories. In fact, if you send us a testimonial and/or pictures, we'll enter you to win the same lure package. So head over to our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Furry-Fish-Baits/179541248746536?sk=app_190322544333196 and let us know what you think!

Also, as a side note, we also have redesigned our Youtube page. You can see the redesigned page at http://www.youtube.com/user/Furryfishbaits

I recently read an article that explained as the recession continues, most consumers are looking for cheaper products over higher quality -but higher priced- products. Reading the article got me thinking about our fishing lures. Even though we think our lures are an excellent value for a hand-made, unique lure, we could possibly lower the price by using lower quality materials. A good example of that would be to use cheaper china hooks instead of better quality -but more expensive- Mustad hooks.  So the question becomes, for the average fisherman, is price or quality more important? If price is more important, how much would the price have to decrease for you to accept lower quality?

We are often asked why we use Mustad hooks in our bass fishing lures. As most may know, there certainly are cheaper fishing hooks. However, take it from someone who has had a hook bend (or worse, break), cheaper hooks can be the difference between landing a lunker and watching him splash away. Unbelievable as it is, Mustad hooks have been around since 1832. In fact, Mustad was the first company to use an automatic machine to create their hooks (1877). Mustad has a very rich history with the following story found on their website:

One day in the late 19th century, a travelling Norwegian salesman,  came wandering through the Amazon rainforest in the hills between  Brazil and Venezuela. It was there that he met with the Yanomami tribe and introduced them to the products of his suitcase: fish hooks. Even to this day the Yanomami word for fishhook is simply “a Mustad”.

When it comes to trying to land a fat boy lunker, that's not the time to decide if you can get away with an inferior hook. Plus, since we pride ourselves on using the best materials and manufacturing our lures in America, saving a few pennies on a hook just does not seem wise.

Fishing products continue to come under attack from Federal and State regulatory agencies throughout the United States (and world). New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts, Washington (and others) have banned lead sinkers and/or jigs in certain lakes or of certain weight/length. As most everyone who reads this probably already knows, in August 2010 the EPA was petitioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and four other organizations to ban all lead in fishing tackle and ammunition under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). To the EPA's credit, they did not follow the request as the evidence for the ban was deemed insufficient. The public outcry that surrounded the request was tremendous.

However, in our opinion, it is but a matter of time before lead fishing products will be banned throughout the United States. As a manufacturer of bass fishing jigs, we are currently experimenting with some alternatives to lead. Most alternatives are not ideal as they either 1) don't provide an acceptable same size/weight ratio to lead or 2) they are extremely expensive to manufacture (cost of materials). We have made it our goal to create an alternative (not replacement at this time) of lead fishing jigs that can compete in size and cost. Stay tuned!  

We've had some international customers contact us concerning the delivery status of their bass fishing lures. In all instances, the customer has selected United States Postal Service (USPS) First Class International shipping. If you are an international customer, I think it's important to bare in mind the following:

         •  Any package - but especially First Class - can be held in customs for an extended period of time (I've heard a month or more is possible for First Class packages).  It's uncommon for the parcel to spend more than a week or two, but it is certainly possible.

         •   There is no option with the USPS to provide tracking information for First Class shipping. The reason for this is rather simple, as the USPS simply hands the package to the postal service of the receiving country.

         •   If you need your package as soon as possible, we would suggest USPS International Priority Mail. The difference is price from First Class to Priority is nominal  - but Priority will provide a much quicker delivery time. 

Having said the above, I think it's important to understand that once the package is shipped, we have no control over the length of time in transit. We typically ship the lures within 3- 5 business days (most times we can ship quicker than this - it all depends on the time of year the order is placed). If any questions, we are always willing to provide a shipping confirmation and customs receipt.

As an added help, we are making a concerted effort to provide timely updates as to the status of shipping in the users profile. However, there are instances when we have shipped the lures and the profile hasn't been updated. If there's a question, please feel free to contact us as to the status of your package.