This
is a great time of the year for the avid angler. No matter which
region you live in there are spring boat shows, fishing expos, new
fishing shows on television and a profusion of fishing products hitting
the market place, some new and some old but improved.
Speaking
of old but improved… about 18-years ago my dad
brought home an odd looking spinning rod. This rod was all blank with no handle,
just a reel seat. And since my dad was an avid crappie angler the rod was an
ultra-light or light model. Turned out that this little stick was indeed
a great panfish rod, so great that I eventually appropriated it from him and
a number of years later one of my boys appropriated it from 
me. Unfortunately,
I never saw any of those types of rods again, until last fall. That’s
when I noticed that Cabela’s had reintroduced the Mag Tough rod. They
have a number of models, some technique specific and others general purpose
rods. If the new Mag Touch rods are as good as the old ones were, Cabela’s
has a winner. I purchased a Mag Touch spinning rod this winter that I intend
to use as a drop-shot or jig worm rod this season.
I’ve been using MotorGuide trolling motors for more years
than I want to think about and they have always had a 2-bladed power prop,
designed to increase thrust and power in open water applications. But it was
not a weedless prop. Up to this point their best weed prop was the 3-blade
Machete prop, which I’ve been using for a couple of years with excellent
success. Sometime this past year MotorGuide released the Safari 2-blade weedless
propeller. This new propeller is designed to be quiet, powerful and weedless.
I‘ve always thought the Machete prop was a great weedless propeller.
I’ve got high hopes that the Safari will be even better.
At the CSI sporting goods show in Minneapolis, Mn. late last fall I
had a chance to see some new products scheduled for release by Strike King
Lure Company and Ardent Reels.
I’m very familiar with the Strike King
line of lures and soft plastics, as I use a number of their products. At the
CSI show, I worked with Darren Jacobson, who is the Northern Factory Account
Manager for Strike King Lures. He showed me all the new products that were
scheduled for release in 2010 and some new colors for some of the most popular
products currently in stores. All of the new products looked interesting, but
three of them really caught my eye.
The new Rage Thumper Worm is a 10-inch sickle-tail
worm that sports the Rage Tail design. This worm will move a lot
of water and it’s
now impregnated with Coffee Scent. Big 10-inch worms are rapidly becoming very
popular in the upper Midwest, as they’ve gained a reputation as a big
bass bait, especially during the summer months. The Rage Thumper is currently
offered in 9 colors.
A couple of years ago Strike King released
the Coffee Tube, which has become quite popular. This year they released
a Coffee Scent attractant in an aerosol form, made from coffee bean
oil. This
new scent can be used on all different kinds of plastics to make them more
attractive and hopefully increase your bite ratio.
Chris
Brown, Marketing and Consumer Relations Manager for Strike King Lures
gave me the heads-up on a new deep diving crankbait that Strike King
released at the BassMaster Classic. Chris said, “The 6 XD
is a 18’-
plus deep diver; designed off the popular Series 6 crankbait. With
several internal adjustments and a new bill to help this bait get
down and ‘hunt’ around
deeper cover to help you catch more fish. Available in 15 colors
the 6 XD is the ultimate deep diving crank.” I have not seen
or fished this bait yet, but I do have a huge amount of confidence
in the Series 5 and Series 6 crankbaits.
The first time I saw Lazer TroKar Hooks was at the
CSI show last fall. Now I’m starting to see them in most of the major fishing catalogs
that are coming out this spring. They look like a high quality hook and right
now it appears like the company is concentrating on the bass market. The hook
that caught my attention is the TK130 flippin’ hook. It’s a wide
gap straight shank hook, with the TroKar barb on the shank (designed to hold
plastics stationary on the shank). It looks like it is currently being released
in 4/0, 5/0 and 6/0 sizes. I think this hook is going to work great when you’re
flipping creature baits like the Rodent or 
Rage Space Monkey into heavy cover.
Every
once in a while something new comes along in the fishing industry
that has folks saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?”.
Over the past 20 years it’s happened time and time again. Things like
braided line, tungsten sinkers, Elaztech soft plastics and left-handed bait-casters.
All of which we take for granted now. I think Ardent Reels may have one of
those “why didn’t I think of that?” products. At the fall
CSI show Ryan Hohl (Ardent Outdoors, LLC) introduced me to the Ardent line
of reels and specifically the F700 Denny Brauer Flip-N-Pitch reel. This is
one of the few fresh-water bait casting reels on the market that is designed
to be “technique specific” and this reel is truly “technique
specific” to pitching and flipping. The first thing you notice is the
narrow spool, it holds 55-yards of 30-pound test line. The second thing you
notice is there is no worm gear shaft or line guide carrier; they have been
replaced with a large ceramic line eye, which acts as a line guide and reduces
friction. And the third thing that is instantly noticeable is the absence
of a star drag. The Flip-N-Pitch line of reels uses a preset Perma-Lock Drag
System set at 22-pounds, which is heavier than you can obtain with most conventional
casting reels. The F700 has 7+1 bearings and comes with a 6.3:1 ratio. All
covered by a 3-year warranty. I’m looking forward to soft water so I
can give one a try.
As always stay safe and we hope to see you on the water.
Wayne Ek is a guide, tournament
angler and writer living in Alexandria, Mn. And is a on the regional
pro-staff for Ardent Reels, Strike King Lure Company and Ludwikowski & Associates,
Inc., www.agapefishingguides.com
