Today's average bass angler's tackle box is almost sure to hold a wide array of spinner-baits, plastic worms, lipless crankbaits, deep-diving crankbaits, surface plugs and probably a few spoons. What may be lacking in that important and intimate tool of the bass-fishing trade, however, are jointed or "broken back" plugs.

Why are jointed plugs important? "Because they catch fish," said veteran lure designer and angler Sam Griffin of Moore Haven, Florida, the man Roland Martin said may be the best top-water lure fishermen in America. "At certain times, in certain waters, nothing catches more bass than a jointed plug. They're especially good when a shallow-running crankbait is needed, and nothing depicts a crippled, struggling minnow on the surface better than a jointed plug.

"Almost every day I'm fishing I'll start with some type of surface artificial. But if bass just roll on the lure instead of taking it, I'll immediately go to a jointed plug. I can fish a jointed lure with a slow, twitching retrieve I call 'dead sticking' that makes the lure hover in one place. But that rear jointed part of the plug wiggles and quivers without hardly any overall movement of the lure. It has action without the angler imparting much movement to it. This is important when object fishing around stumps, weed edges and other similar cover for reluctant bass. A jointed plug fished like that often triggers bass to strike that otherwise refuse standard surface baits."

Griffin also said jointed lures are among the best big fish plugs available. On his home water of sprawling, bass-filled Lake Okeechobee, he regularly uses jointed plugs when the water is low and fish concentrated. If he employs standard plugs he catches lots of bass, but if he switches to jointed plugs, his catch immediately increases in average size. This may be because many of today's jointed plugs are large, simply because the construction of such lures is such that making small jointed plugs is more difficult due to the detail they require. Most broken back lures are minnow-like in shape, floating-diving models, and measure overall from 4 to 7 inches.

Griffin is producing such a large wooden lure called the "Fish Creek Darter-Jointed," that measures 5 inches long and weighs a heavy 3/4 ounces (Custom Lures By Sam, (941) 946-3441, Moore Haven, FL)."You don't see as many broken-back lures on the market today as you used to — especially wooden ones — because they're expensive to make," Griffin states. "It's almost like making two separate plugs, then joining them together. The process isn't twice as expensive as making a single, solid plug, but it's definitely more costly and that keeps a lot of companies out of the broken-back market."

Not many two-piece, deep-diving crankbaits are on the market today, but some anglers firmly believe that such lures are sensational bass producers, especially in deep, dark-stained water. Such jointed crankbaits put out a lot of vibration, and that helps bass home in on them — triggering violent, seek-and-kill strikes.

The now defunct Lee Sisson Lure Company produced such plugs, and the anglers who still have them, cherish the lures for their bass-catching effectiveness. Today some anglers even cross cut standard large wood diving plugs, then re-attach them with screw-in ring eyes, split rings and paint to produce deep-diving jointed plugs.

Griffin has made about 750,000 wood plugs in his long career as a lure maker, almost all of them from sugar pine. He prefers sugar pine for construction of his broken-back plugs because its lively or buoyant, and it holds a screw eye well, which is vitally important for a wooden plug to hold up well to the rigors of everyday bass fishing. Cedar is good plug wood, too, explains Griffin, but he uses sugar pine because of its ready availability in his home area of South Florida.

Balsa is a favorite wood for some plugs, but because it's soft, Griffin says it's not his favorite for jointed plugs. The exception to that is the jointed "Rapala Minnow" — one of the most popular and productive of all broken-back lures.

Another bass fishing situation where jointed lures shine is in moving water. "When 'object fishing around undercut banks, brushy stream-side areas, stumps, logs and such, a broken-back plug is my first lure choice," Griffin continues. "I can cast the plug up-current of a prime pocket or creek eddy, and let the lure drift along tight to the cover without moving it out of the strike zone. All I have to do is wiggle or slightly twitch my rod and the rear of the plug shimmies with seductive action. That can't be done with a regular plug without pulling the lure out from cover where bass hold tight."

Griffin said standard stop-and-go retrieves work well with jointed plugs, especially when rod twitches and waggles are interwoven in the process. "It's usually best to 'sweep' the rod when starting a retrieve of a jointed plug instead of just simply winding the reel handle like a normal crankbait," states Griffin. "If you don't sweep the rod first, sometimes a jointed plug rolls out and doesn't have great action from the beginning of the retrieve. But if a sweep is given to the rod as the reel is wound, a jointed plug immediately goes underwater and has terrific action at the very beginning of the retrieve. That's very important when object fishing."

Griffin isn't a fan of the new gel-spun poly braided lines for use with jointed plugs because braids are unforgiving, meaning they're too responsive to hook sets and normal angler errors. For the same reason he also favors fiberglass or composite graphite/fiberglass rods over 100 percent graphite rods when fishing broken-back plugs.

"Some people might think I'm old-fashioned about the new braids, graphite rods, and for that matter jointed plugs," Griffin explains matter-of-factly. "But I know what works, and monofilament, fiberglass rods, and jointed plugs have been producing bass for me for more years than I can remember. I don't see any reason why they won't keep right on taking bass as long as there are fish around to catch."