A Look at Minnesota’s Own Bass Jig Specialist
As we spoke to All-Terrain Tackle owner, Steve Hauge, he paused briefly and asked me, “can you hear me alright; I’m packing jigs right now.”
I could hear Steve perfectly fine and we began on our conversation of how he began All-Terrain Tackle in 2002. Long time Minnesota tournament angler and specifically Lake Minnetonka ace Jim Moynagh started to run out of his football jig that had helped him win numerous tournaments over his career and in particularly help launch his FLW Tournament career, came to Steve to work on a football jig.
Fifteen years later All-Terrain Tackle now offers over 400 styles of skirted and un-skirted jig options and FLW Tour Pro Jim Moynagh has been on Steve’s Pro Staff ever since! Joining Jim this year is BASS Elite Series Pro Adrian Avena, who hails from New Jersey. “Having Jim and Adrian representing All-Terrain on the national level tours is a big help for me, as they not only provide valuable exposure, but are able to try our products out on a wide array of bodies of water,” commented Steve.
A new product for 2017 that went through development last year is the Trail R Loc system, which is now standard on all All-Terrain Tackle Jigs. You simply thread your favorite jig trailer on, pull the Trail R Loc back over the point of the hook and through the hole; this puts just a slight amount of tension on the trailer keeping it in place.
“By keeping your trailer in place, an angler will be able to make more casts or flips throughout the day without having to re-rig his jig trailer because of a hookset or because you just caught a fish,” said Hauge. “During our on the water trials with it, we went from using 20 jig trailers in a day to 2 or 3!”
All-Terrain Tackle’s tagline is, Bass Jig Specialists, so who better to turn to stock up on some bass jigs for your next fishing season. Two of their mainstay jigs include the Rattling A.T. Jig and the Grassmaster Weed Jig, both of which have helped anglers in Minnesota and across the U.S. garner numerous tournament wins and big bass awards.
It is not often in the fishing tackle industry that you see the words; Made in the U.S.A. on a jig package, but that is what you see and get with All-Terrain! All of Steve’s products are manufactured, assembled, packaged, stored and shipped all out of the land of 10,000 Lakes!
When I was discussing this matter with Steve, he did point out that yes it is difficult to compete on price with the big companies who cut their costs by going overseas with their product, but clearly that hasn’t affected All-Terrain’s business, as their products are available in retailers such as, Cabelas, Gander Mountain, Scheels, Tackle Warehouse and nearly all local MN fishing tackle stores.
For Steve though he enjoys the relationships and camaraderie he has developed with anglers across the United States the past 15 years, as he has the same anglers calling him every spring to place their annual jig order.
When you are talking to someone who has made, tinkered and conversed with more anglers about bass jigs than probably anyone, you don’t want to leave without getting some jig tips, so I asked Steve for some insight on jig fishing.
“The main thing I have to say is that any national level pro, or tournament angler that uses a jig preps/tweaks their jig before it hits the water,” said Steve. “It allows that jig to perform to its fullest potential and differentiates it from the countless other jigs that a bass will see over the course of a day.”
Here are three jig tweaks that Steve provided for Classic Bass:
Trim/Thin the Weedguard – Most jigs come with a standard weedguard that is too long and heavy…thin it out and shorten it down and your hookup ratio will go up!
Trim the Skirt – Let’s just say on average a skirt that comes on a jig is 3 inches, trim it down to 2 and you’ll have a jig that has a more compact profile and your trailer will have more action to it
Get Away from the Norm – Around 40 percent of our jig sales are in some variation of black, that means a lot of bass see a black/blue jig! Change things up and try those natural looking colors, or a jig that has some accent color to it.
As I let Steve get back to packaging jigs, one could wonder just where that jig he was packing was off to and how many bass that it would catch!
