(Editor's note: This short feature came from Alan McGuckin of Dynamic Sponsorships).
Terry “Big Show” Scroggins won his first bass tournament in Florida at the age of 12, and he’s since won $2 million dollars as one of the most decorated anglers in the history of the largemouth-rich Sunshine State.
Amazingly, he doesn’t have a lure sponsor. So Scroggins’ willingness to choose four lures that no bass angler should be without in Florida comes with a measure of credibility as heavy as the limits of bass that fill his livewells.
> Big jig – All things pertaining to bass fishing in Florida are a little bigger, and jigs are no exception. Scroggins reaches for either a 3/4- or 1-ounce flipping-style jig when dissecting reeds, cattails and lily pads. For Florida’s abundant thick vegetation, he’s always sure to use a jig built with a double weedguard, like the one that Joe Medlock invented and still builds today.
No surprise, his two favorite colors are green-pumpkin or black/blue, and he uses a Zoom Big Salty Chunk for a trailer.
You can’t tow a 21-foot Triton with a Volkswagen Bug, and likewise a man-sized jig requires stout fishing line. Scroggins likes 65-pound Hi-Seas braid.
> ChatterBait – “This is my search bait,” said Scroggins. “It’s hard to beat a ChatterBait when you’re trying to cover lots of water.”
The Palatka-area pro loves a half-ounce ChatterBait for making long casts over expansive fields of submerged hydrilla at places like Toho, Rodman, and Okeechobee, but says a ChatterBait is also a great tool for “hopping” and swimming along river-bottom shell beds in 4 to 8 feet of water on his home waters of the St. Johns River.
He trims the Chatterbait with a Zoom Super Fluke Jr. as a trailer, and casts it on 15-pound fluorocarbon.
> Smithwick Devil’s Horse – This wooden topwater lure has gained a legendary reputation among Southern bass anglers, and there are few places where it shines brighter than Florida. Propellers at each end create plenty of fish-attracting commotion, while at the same time restrict the lure from moving too far forward too fast. That in turn allows it to stay in one spot and tease big bass to bite it.
“That lure has been around longer than me, and it’s still catching ‘em. We call it “The Donkey” because it works slow and steady. A lot of times, you’ll see big bass swirl right under it for a second or two before they decide to smash it , which makes it one of the most exciting lures you’ll ever tie on.”
Like a lot of topwater lures, it draws the most strikes during low-light conditions, but there are times when they’ll eat it all day. Scroggins’ favorite Devil’s Horse is the 3/8-ounce size and features chrome sides, a black back and orange belly. He emphasizes using 15-pound monofilament, not braid.
> Senko – Gary Yamamoto invented it, and in Scroggins’ opinion, the 5-inch version of this revolutionary soft-plastic bait is still the best one to buy.
“There’s probably not a soft-plastic lure in the world that will get you a few critical bites when you need ‘em most than a 5-inch Senko,” said Scroggins. “Just make sure you give the fish a couple good seconds to eat it before you set the hook, or you’ll miss a lot of bites.”
It’s also a versatile lure. Some choose to Texas-rig it with light 1/16- to 5/16-ounce weights. Others rig it wacky-style with no weight at all, while some choose to insert a nail weight into the less-pointy end of the ballpoint pen-shaped lure.
Scroggins throws his Senkos on 12-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon and says you can’t go wrong with various shades of green-pumpkin in clear to slightly stained water, but opts for junebug or black-blue if the water is off-colored.
