Team Toyota’s Terry “Big Show” Scroggins has embraced the newest sonar technology with solid performances to show for it recently. However, he’s also not afraid to fall back on time-proven classics like firetiger-colored Bomber 2A crankbaits and Storm Chug Bugs, both of which he says could be in his starting lineup at this week’s MLF Bass Pro Tour event on North Carolina’s Chowan River.
“Not many of us are familiar with the Chowan, but it reminds me a lot of my home waters of the St. Johns River. It’s an old tidal river with a lot of shallow-water targets to throw at, and old baits like the firetiger 2A Bomber and Chug Bug are perfect for that situation,” says Scroggins.
Scroggins says there’s just something magical about the color firetiger anytime he’s fishing in Florida, Georgia or the Carolinas, and Bass Fishing Hall of Fame biologist and avid angler Gene Gilliland agrees.
“I believe a Texan named Floyd Mabry is credited with developing that iconic color around 1975, and I agree with Scroggins that a firetiger Bomber is a must-have in most any angler’s tackle box. I don’t go anywhere without a firetiger Bomber 6A,” said Gilliland, who grew up in Gainesville, Texas, where the Bomber’s roots run deep.
Scroggins has lived on the St. Johns for 45 years and has fished it frequently throughout that time. Frankly, he’s a living legend there, and he remembers discovering the goodness of the firetiger 2A Bomber in the 1990s. Its subtle size, combined with its highly buoyant ability to back out of snags around everything from sunken barges to laydown trees, is what makes it so effective.
“It’s kind of a like a squarebill, which we all know is a super lure, but it’s a little more subtle and runs a little shallower than most squarebills. All I know for sure is that sucker catches ‘em."
When asked why the Storm Chug Bug could be productive on the Chowan, his answer doesn’t differ much from his take on the 2A. “Because it catches fish! It’s a unique lure in that it’s sort of like a subtle popper, but also walks like a Zara Spook. So, you get the best of both worlds with a Chug Bug, and I swear the orange belly on the firetiger version gets more bites than other colors in the Southeast,” says Scroggins.
So, while the Chowan River may not be super familiar to Scroggins, it feels like home. He’s very much looking forward to competing on the blackwater river, not far from the Atlantic Ocean, and you can bet there will be plenty of orange bellies rigged on his Mud Hole custom rods.
