Though not many folks talk about it, big bass eat mice. I can remember seeing a 6-pound largemouth attack a live field mouse when I was a youngster fishing at a local farm pond. Nobody believed me for the longest time, but it didn’t matter. It was one of the coolest things my 8-year-old eyes had ever seen.
Admittedly, I’ve had an unused, still-in-the-package LIVETARGET Hollow Body Field Mouse sitting in my office for about a year. There was something about bass fishing with a fake mouse that seemed really weird to me, so I had a hard time jumping on the proverbial train.
I finally decided to break down and give it an honest chance several weeks ago. After hundreds of casts on several different bodies of water, I quickly realized what I had been missing—this is one bad dude.
If you’re interested in trying this bait, here’s what you should know about it.
- Walks easily
- Casts very well
- Excellent collapsibility
- Holds up surprisingly well
Anyone can walk it
I’ve used the LIVETARGET Hollow Body Field Mouse on two rods— a 7-foot, medium-heavy casting rod and a 7-foot, heavy-action casting rod. Regardless of my rod choice, I’ve found this bait to walk like an absolute dream. If you can twitch a fishing rod, you’ll be able to make this bait dance without any issues whatsoever.
I attribute this effortless walking action to the weighting and nose positioning of the Hollow Body Field Mouse. The tail-end is a bit heavier than the rest of the body, resulting in a slightly nose-up posture on the water. This allows the line tie and your fishing line to be free from the water’s surface and makes it very easy to begin your cadence on the very first rod twitch.
Interestingly enough, I’ve also found a “do-nothing” retrieve to be quite effective with this bait. I’ll make a long cast and just barely turn my reel handle to imitate a swimming mouse. The body will subtly rock from side-to-side while the lifelike tail waves behind. It can be tempting to not walk a hollow-bodied topwater lure, but you should definitely try it. Slowly swim it by the boat or shore a few times and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
You better have a lot of line
The Hollow Body Field Mouse casts a country mile. Its weigh is a bit deceiving, with the 2.25-inch model weighing 5/8-ounce, the 2.75-inch model weighing 3/4-ounce and the 3.5-inch model weighing 1-ounce.
With a simple overhead cast, I can easily take my reel all the way down to the backing. I expected this bait’s bulbous profile to catch a good bit of air throughout the cast, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how streamlined it is while in flight. A slight, or even a considerable breeze has little to no affect on its casting distance or accuracy. I can see this being especially advantageous to bank anglers who have limited mobility. If you’ve always wanted to fish a sexy-looking corner of your local pond, put the Hollow Body Field Mouse on some braided line and let ‘er fly. You’ll be very pleased with its castability.
Excellent collapsibility
I harp on this quite frequently when reviewing hollow-bodied topwaters and there’s a good reason for it—you can get all the strikes in the world, but they won’t do you any good if you can’t get a solid hookup. If that plastic body doesn’t collapse to expose the hook points, you’re fighting a losing battle.
This bait, however, collapses almost effortlessly. When a bass bites it, don’t wait to set the hook. It’s one of the few topwater baits that allows you to set the hook after the inital blowup. It’s incredibly soft and the hooks become exposed with the slightest of pressure.
With such excellent collapsibility, however, comes a few minor disadvantages you should be aware of. It comes through matted vegetation very well, but it will periodically snag on the thicker stalks of emergent aquatic vegetation. It’s nothing that’ll cause you to curse and scream, but it will happen from time to time.
I’ve also found the Hollow Body Field Mouse to take on a bit of water every 5 to 6 casts. Again, this doesn’t bother me much because I have a habit of squeezing my hollow-bellied topwaters between every other cast, so I’m somewhat used to going through the motions. But if you want to maximize this bait’s effectiveness, make sure you squeeze out any excess water after every third or fourth cast.
Holds up well
Before using this bait, my biggest concern was its durability—not so much the plastic body, but the tail. I don’t use many baits with long tails protruding from them, so I wasn’t quite sure was to expect.
At the time of this writing, I’m happy to say that I haven’t had any durability issues with the tail of the Hollow Body Field Mouse. I’ve caught several fish on it and it has remained intact and totally functional.
Final impressions
I have really enjoyed fishing with this bait. I still can’t get over how well it walks and casts, and have been equally impressed by both its durability and versatility. If you’re looking to try something new, I’d certainly recommend the Hollow Body Field Mouse.
The LIVETARGET Hollow Body Field Mouse is available at TackleWarehouse.com.
