Some New Gear To Look At This Spring
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 Motor Guide 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 Motor
Guide 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 Bass Master Classic.
Chris said, “The 6XD 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 6XD 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.
Wayne Ek,
Agape Fishing Guides
classicbass.com Field Staff
