To begin with, I fell in love with these minnows long time ago, and they became an integral part of my arsenal. A lot of beginners – fans of bass fishing in the ponds of Cyprus – steer clear of these beautiful and very often expensive minnows. The reasons are simple: high price, frequent breaks and trivial inaptitude to use them.

For many years I used different types and models of lures. I managed to understand something interesting and discover a lot of new things. Today I’ll speak about one particular series of lures – Cablista by Pontoon21 which has proved to be effective for bass fishing and has become one of my favorite among minnows.

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Minnow Cablista: the advantage is in the details!

As long as I bought lures of this series, I liked how they looked: exquisite prolonged body, very interesting and at the same time simple form. I got the impression that the lure is «comprehensible», suitable for long-range casts and controllable. The last quality is very important, because you can manage the lure as you want. And in this respect Cablista is a perfect “friend” for conducting different underwater experiments. A wide range of models contribute to this fact.

There’re a lot of various colorations and models, differing both in their weight and length. These are the minnows of the following sizes: 75, 90, 105 and 125 mm, at the same time their weight ranges from 4,6 to 19,9 g.

I managed to check it myself the range of every model against the wind. Because the winds on the island could be very strong, especially at the ponds near the sea. Even the smallest lure of 75 mm, weighing 4,6 grams, perfectly flies in any kind of weather. If the conditions are very difficult, or you just need to cast the lure as far as possible, Cablista P21-CAB-105SP-SMR 105 mm weighing 13,2 g always came to rescue. If you use an appropriate tackle, the lure will fly far and will get to the necessary point even if the wind is strong.

When I fish in cold water I use bigger sizes: : 125 mm P21-CAB-125SP-SMR BV Back OB RE, especially, when one needs to cast as far as possible or we are talking about a trophy weighing more than 2 kilos. It is easy casting that I was particularly fond of. At first sight, it might seem that the balance of the lure with skillful casting enables to get the lure to small bays nearby as well as to a distance of 50 meters and more.

For sure, you may choose heavier lures, but you need to have an appropriate rod for that. it should have a big test, as well as extra fast action. And the universal Cablista 105 is perfect for any kind of rod of any test, at least, for those spinning rods, that we generally use for bass fishing. Moreover, this lure has perfect aerodynamics and the system of long range casting, namely movable balls inside.

The horizon of retrieves

I would like to point out one more important advantage of this model. The thing is that Cablista SMR is aimed for fishing in shallow waters or waters of medium depth (no more than 1,5 meters). The abbreviation SMR means shallow medium runner, which means that the lure goes deeper than the standard shallow runner if you use standard twitching technique. And if the retrieve is quite aggressive with sharp jerks, the lure is able of going even deeper. One needs to take into account that the hard bait can surely be used in deeper waters – the bass will strike.

One more advantage is that Cablista works perfectly in shallow waters. If the retrieve is slow with long pauses (thanks to a perfectly made lip), the lure barely touching the bottom moves according to the trajectory you made, imitating fish which looks for something in the sand, and noticing the danger starts running. This behavior provoke bass which are ready to attack even from a great distance. Very often I used to see an edge, and then a sharp slope to the depths. Bass used to come out of the depths and take the lure like a vice. High-quality hooks

We can’t but point out the hooks that Cablista is equipped with, the are very strong and of high quality. Not a single one has unbent so far, neither being in the fish nor after catching on something. Let’s take, for example, a small model P21-CAB-90SP-SMR Alumina Ebony Yamame of 90 mm, bass of more than 2 kilos struck is more than once. Strange as it might seem but such an inappropriate lure coped with them perfectly. I would like to pay your attention to the fact that when you stand on a stiff slope with a steep and stones under your feet and you don’t have a net, and at the same time the hooked bass, so to say, spoons the ball and shakes its head, this is a real test for any lure. Well, even a 90 mm one is equipped with strong hooks which cope with such species better than ever.

Several pieces of advice on Pontoon21 Cablista

My applying different types of retrieves helped me to study this model in thorough way, because for many years I’ve been fishing bass in various conditions and often in difficult places. That’s why, we can make several conclusions and give some advice how to use Cablista.

• The main advice is that it doesn’t bite, you need to vary your retrieve. It often happened so that after a lot of unsuccessful casts, you just needed to change a little bit the retrieve, or viceversa, make pauses longer, and bass immediately took interest in the lure.

•The main retrieve: different variants of jerking, twitching, ripping, pumping – to your taste. The main thing is that the lure obediently reacts to all of them.

•The suspending version of Cablista is able of floating in the water column as if it were a real fish. And it is at this moment that bass attack. Use this version with long pauses in your retrieve, when bass gets capricious.

•Experiment with colors. Sometimes, especially in clear water of numerous ponds of Cyprus, it helps.

Standard colors of Pontoon21 Cablista

I’d like to dwell on this question in particular, because for me, though simple as the might seem, are really great! One understands the constructors’ plan to full extent when you watch the action of the lure under water. Some colors turned into a benchmark. And I’m strongly convinced that if there’re bass in the area, they will definitely bite. For myself, I chose 4 most appropriate colors, which do not leave bass uninterested, they are Metallic HG Silver&Black OB RE, Natural Yamame YE, Wakasagi HM and Silver Shad.

Of course, the other colors are also effective, but it is these ones that always helped me. And not only did they help me but also brought me some new emotions as well as new trophies, both in cold water and heat when it is 41 degrees above zero and it seems that fish are boiling

Conclusion

To sum it up, I can say without any doubt that if you are going to fish for bass, Cablista must be in your box. I’d like to pay your attention to the quality and price of the lure. To my mind, it’s a perfect variant both for amateurs and professionals.

Vadim Lazitski