I'll never forget seeing that great headline in Bassmaster magazine several years ago, "The last secret bait of the pros." Who wouldn't read that story? I'd put the same headline on a story every year in the magazine, if I were calling the shots. (Be glad I'm not.)
But the point here is that another "last secret bait of the pros" could describe the key part of Kevin Ledoux's arsenal this week.
"I owe (Chris) Zaldain and (Brandon) Palaniuk a bunch because they're the ones that turned me on to this certain bait," Ledoux said Saturday. "It's just deadly on shallow smallmouth. They swore me to secrecy too, so we've got to try to keep it a secret, even tomorrow."
Well, it's "tomorrow" and if you're watching Bassmaster Live, you know the secret's out. The last secret bait of the pros? A simple little black marabou jig – in a 1/16th-ounce size, mostly. The last secret bait of the pros, in this case, is one of the oldest fishing lures on Earth.
"It looks like the silliest thing in the world, but the smallies eat it," Ledoux said. "There's a small community of these northern dudes that do this, and they jack 'em up here. Me being a kid from Oklahoma, the first fish I've ever caught on it wasWednesday (during practice). I'm like, holy cow, that's a pretty cool deal."
The black marabou jig has gotten cooler every day since for Ledoux.