Slug-Go Is Still Going Strong

When Herb Reed created the Slug-Go more than 30 years ago, he knew he had something different than what every other fishing lure company was offering. Although he wasn’t sure if he could make a living selling his odd soft plastic creation, he did feel pretty certain he had something unique and effective enough to compel him to pursue lure making as a full-time occupation. Well, the Slug-Go is still going strong, and Herb Reed is a very busy man these days

The introduction of the Slug-Go created a whole new genre of fishing bait and fishing style: a soft plastic jerk bait that you rigged yourself, with hooks and weight (or no weight), depending on the fishing conditions and situation you found yourself in. In that regard, it was unlike any of the hard jerk baits that were on the market, nor did it have the kind of “built-in” wobble action of those baits. 

But let’s back up a bit. Reed was looking to create a lure that could basically do what a Rapala minnow bait could do but in a weed-choked environment. An artist by vocation and a lure designer by predilection (he designed his first marketable lure, the Skipping Jig, after graduating from art college, and began selling it to eager anglers), Reed set to work building prototypes for his idea of a weedless jerk bait that could be worked in heavy cover. Reed finally introduced the Slug-Go around 1988 or 1989, via his company Lunker City Fishing. He doesn’t recall exactly which year it happened, which makes sense if you consider that what began as a balsa wood prototype went through around 60 different permutations of designs and materials until he was satisfied.

Settling on soft plastic as the lure’s material enabled him to rig the Slug-Go with weight or without, and use a single hook rather than weed-snagging trebles. It also enabled the bait to slowly sink, allowing it to be fished anywhere in the water column, depending on retrieve. The plastic is firmer than the plastic of most worms, and there’s no tail on the rear end. Reed said that the lack of a tail gave the lure a more erratic action versus a consistent wobble. This, he says, makes the bait appear vulnerable or injured to a predator. 

No one had seen anything like it before, a soft plastic bait that looks kinda, sorta, like a cross between a soft plastic worm and a hard minnow bait…maybe…and can be fished similarly to a hard body jerk bait (reeling with periodic twitches, slashes or sweeps of the rod).. It really was and is a unique bait. And the colors were unlike what anglers had seen as well. “I had a background, trained as an artist, so I applied new ways of using colors to my plastics which at the time made them more unique,” Reed told me. “There were no baitfish type colors at the time so I invented colors from my imagination to mimic certain baitfish, such as Alewife, Arkansas Shiner, Green Shiner and others.”

He initially thought the Slug-Go would be a hard sell to anglers. Reed told Steve Price of Fishing Tackle Retailer (April, 2020), “Soft jerkbaits were not in our vocabulary. When I was making my first lures and fishing with my friends, I never thought the Slug-Go would go very far because I didn’t think people would understand it. Because it looks so simple, I didn’t think people would accept it, but once fishermen actually saw its action in the water, they could relate to it.” The name Slug-Go came from a casual remark a friend made while motoring over to Reed, who was testing prototypes from his boat. The friend remarked, upon seeing the nearly finalized bait, that they looked like slugs hanging off the side of Reed’s boat.

In March, 1990, In-Fisherman author Rich Zaleski wrote an article bubbling with praise for the newly introduced Slug-Go. Beginning the piece with “My name is Rich and I am a Slug-Goholic,” Zaleski’s praise only increased from there. The magazine article caught the fancy of anglers everywhere, and the Slug-Go was a hit. So much so, in fact, that Reed had a hard time keeping up with the demand. He went from hand-pouring to injection molding and still had trouble meeting the orders that were rolling in.

When asked about the impact of Zaleski’s article, Reed remarked, “Without a doubt the In-Fisherman Magazine was a huge factor, where serious anglers became aware of the Slug-Go’s existence.” They became more than aware, they were desperate to try this new plastic jerkbait. And once they tried it, they were hooked, because it worked!

Nothing has really changed in the design of the Slug-Go since its release on the market, except there are more sizes to it now than there were when Lunker City started producing them. The 6-inch size is still the most popular among freshwater anglers. As for rigging, that hasn’t changed much either. Reed indicates that, “The single most simple way is to Chin/Nose rig it. Least complicated way to have a straight lure, and so simple anyone can do it. Most often rigged with a size 1/0 VGB hook for Slug-Go’s 6” or less.” 

Basically, you just gently pop the rod a bit during the retrieve and the Slug-Go will dart, weave and glide erratically. In between twitches, as you pause your retrieve, the Slug-Go will glide slowly and smoothly, acting very much like an injured or dying minnow. Reed affirmed that bass see a Slug-Go as an easy meal, and often the strikes are savage. The action is unpredictable, “Because,” according to Reed, “there is very little stabilization or ‘drag’ from the rear portion of the lure. There is no directional energy or drag. [It behaves] similarly to a kite without a tail. It will glide and choose a random direction; ‘instability’ rather than a [predictable] cadence pattern, such as caused by a lip on a crankbait, or by a tail section to cause ‘drag control’ such as a spinner would, or a larger tail that would cause resistance and create direction stability.”

And the two small, indented lines near the middle of the lure’s body? Reed says, “If you swim or pull the Slug-Go with a brisk sweep, you will see that the action is a squirting, squiggle ‘eel-type’ swimming motion. These simple ‘notches’ are flex points, which allow the energy to transcend through the length of the body causing a whip in the tail while returning the body back to its straight form before the next jerk or dart snap from your rod.” It’s details like this that make me realize why the Slug-Go is so effective; there’s a lot of thought and design creativity behind this lure. It’s deceptively simple-looking, but every aspect of it has been designed with purposeful intention.  

“The Slug-Go is more in the philosophy of an injured minnow/dying baitfish/Rapala-esque type lure,” Reed declared. “Designed to be vulnerable in appearance and action, yet able to fall through the water column and NOT just a dying surface lure. Slug-Go is one of the few lures that can change direction, depth and speed in the same retrieve. Every cast can use a different darting, popping, slow-to-fast or descending retrieve. You are the Puppeteer. You make the Slug-Go perform!”

I asked Reed about how long he’d been tinkering with lure making, given that he had seemingly immediate success with his Skipping Jig and then the Slug-Go. He replied, “I started designing lures as a young boy under the age of 10. One of my first memories was when I made a “Moth”-type lure from flaring out a cigarette filter I found, on a hook while trout fishing. Caught my limit of trout on it! My Dad was watching and excited.” Lunker City, by the way, still produces the Skipping Jig, only now it’s called the PanHead Jig.

I also asked Herb what his personal best bass is that he’s caught on a Slug-Go. He told me, “My personal best is just under 8 lbs on a Slug-Go – living in the N.E., bass aren’t huge. It also caught a 19 lb. 10 oz. largemouth in Mexico, a top twelve largest bass ever caught in the world.” And here’s a bit of Slug-Go trivia: The Zimbabwe national bass record was apparently broken four times in a single month by anglers using the Slug-Go. The Slug-Go was the hottest bait in the world for a while.

So the lure that started a whole new genre of soft plastics and spawned dozens of imitators is still in demand and, while perhaps not setting the market on fire as it once was, is still catching big bass. I recently read a message board where someone brought up the Slug-Go, and virtually every comment was effusive in its praise and recounted stories of big bass or large numbers caught on the bait, and how it’s still a go-to lure for many anglers.

Lunker City Fishing has an active website where they produce a series of soft plastics, jigs and other terminal tackle, like special “Texposer” hooks designed specifically for use in the Slug-Go. And bonus, it is manufactured entirely in the U.S.A.. On the Bassmaster Tournament Series, Lunker City sponsors pro angler Alex Wetherell. Wetherell was a Junior Bassmaster World Champion, a B.A.S.S. Nation Divisional Champion, and is currently fishing the Bassmaster Elite Series. Thus far he’s had a tournament record of 8 top 10 finishes and 9 top 20 finishes, and he is coming off an 8th place finish at the Folds of Honor Bassmaster Elite at the Sabine River in Texas in early June. Who knows, a high placing from Wetherell might put the Slug-Go back in the spotlight. In 1991 Kevin VanDam used the lure to secure a second place finish at the Bassmaster Florida Invitational on the St. Johns River. VanDam subsequently went on to place highly in other tournaments using the Slug-Go.

Lunker City Fishing also has a YouTube channel. It’s not updated too frequently, but there’s a fantastic video on the channel titled “VINTAGE Lunker City Slug-Go Video | Herb Reed & Doug Hannon.” In the video, Reed and the Bass Professor, Doug Hannon, talk about how to rig and fish the Slug-Go and why it’s so effective. It’s really a great video, not only because you get to hear both Reed and Hannon speak on-camera, but because there’s a lot of underwater footage showing the lure in action and schools of bass attacking it. Click here to go straight to the video. There’s also an early Slug-Go commercial on the page that should bring back some memories for some anglers.

The Slug-Go will go down in bass fishing history as one of the most influential and important lures ever developed. It really spawned an industry, where dozens of other soft bait manufacturers have attempted to duplicate the magic of the original Slug-Go. But while imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, it’s a challenge for other soft plastics to precisely duplicate the movement and “life” of the original.

Sidenote: I noticed that the Lunker City website is selling Bill Murphy’s book, In Pursuit of Giant Bass. Terry Battisti wanted me to ask Herb about that, what the relationship was with Reed and Murphy. Herb Reed’s reply:

“Yes, I will continue to sell his book until it’s gone. I bought thousands of copies back in the day when it was first published. Bill Murphy and I became friends and shared many conversations about observations and experiences. We spoke at least several times a month if not weekly at times. Bill was very detail oriented and full of patience and dedication as an angler. He always intrigued me with his awareness of the environment, habitat and the natural instincts of bass. I believe he understood the California Largemouth better than anyone. I understood Bill Murphy and his pursuit with the technique he developed known as ‘stitching.’ We developed the Muscle Worm together for him to use with his very ‘deliberate’ methods.”

“To understand ‘stitching’ is to realize the intention and purpose of detailing and cross hatching a spot with multitudes of casts, inches apart. Bill was a master at presentation to provide the ‘opportunity’ of his lure to a bass dozens of times from different angles. He understood and developed those techniques then that I believe nobody else was even thinking about. Extremely unique, intense and deliberate!”

Bill Murphy’s book sells for $39.99 but is currently on sale on the Lunker City website for $24.95.