April Freshwater Lure of the Month: Kinchou Minnow

April Freshwater Lure of the Month: Kinchou Minnow

We are very excited at this month's selection for Lure of the Month.  The Matzuo Kinchou Minnow is a newly launched lure from the Matzuo Tournament collection, and boy is it a winner! This new launch has struck a fear in the rest of the hard bait market - especially with the fish!

The New Kinchou Minnow launched it's signature flared bloody red gills, high pitched rattle, and seductive curves and lip to create a frenzied panic in the water that has never been witnessed before.  It is an aggressive diver with maximum wobble action covering the widest range of water depths from four to 20 feet – crank it or deep water troll. 

The Kinchou features the nervousness of an eccentric baitfish with its curved body and incredible wide wobble! Its aggressive wobble action will receive much attention as it swims thru the water. With its wide wobble, it creates a different resonate sound - different from any other baits. Retrieve or Troll - Fast or Slow! The Kinchou creates a high resonating rattle created by the stainless steel bearings chambered inside the body. The pitch of these bearings is highly attractive to both active and neutral fish

The Matzuo company adds: “This distressed beauty is perfectly balanced to float at rest or take off and dive when retrieved. Fish don’t stand a chance!"

 Marianne Huskey, Professional Walleye Angler and the recipient of the prestigious Anglers Insight Marketing Angler of the Year Award for 2012:

“I am very excited to be working with Matzuo America® and their line of innovative fishing products,” Marianne Huskey commented. “I am most excited to start promoting and fishing with the new Matzuo Kinchou Minnow. It is a perfect hardbait for beginners to professional anglers to experience all the excitement that hooking a trophy fish brings.”

April Saltwater Lure of the Month: Pencil Popper

April Saltwater Lure of the Month: Pencil Popper

Pencil Poppers date all the way back to the 1940's, when an old time plug maker by the name of Stan Gibbs from Buzzard's Bay, Massachusetts was trying to create something that would cast further out than any of the other lures that he had at the time.  The business that Stan created out of his own curiosity and necessity is still running today, though it has changed hands several times since he sold it in 1972.

Stan was known for several different specialties.  He focused on pencil poppers (3 1/8 oz) that he designed to give him an edge in the Cape Cod Canal, his plug testing grounds.  He was also responsible for innovations such as "Cast-A-Lure", Mackerel paint finishes, differently designed bottle poppers, and the California special pencil popper - which at 5+ oz was one of the heaviest pencil poppers created at the time.

While he originally was just creating these plugs for friends and family, the demand quickly grew for these poppers that could "cast for miles".  He gained popularity and respect, and before he knew it his little company was producing hundreds of poppers every month.

Stan's company really took off in 1945 when he visited New Jersey.  The fishermen there had only been used to slinging bucktails, tins, and some very light wooden plugs.  After a few had the chance to try Gibbs' pencil poppers, they raved for days about how the poppers could get out further and cast better in strong winds.  They began to see that the pencil poppers gave them an edge, and the rest, my friends, is plug building history.

Tips:

The pencil popper is perfect for Saltwater top water fishing for any gamefish! Works for BIG stripers, bluefish, Tailor, Queenfish, Giant Trevally, Tuna, and many more.  Fast-taper rods with long butts are advisable for working pencil poppers. Use your wrist more than your arms.  The trick is to brace the rod butt against your thigh and apply motion with a slight wrist action. The wrist action creates a side-to-side splashing motion in the popper that doesn't require as fast a retrieve and can be slowed even further as the plug nears the boat.

April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Adam's Parachute

April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Adam's Parachute

The Parachute Adams is perhaps the most important and versatile of all dry flies. It is a must have dry fly in a variety of sizes for fish on trout rivers all over the world. The white post gives the fly fisherman a focal reference point in all types of water. The pattern can be used as a mayfly or as a searching or attractor fly. Fly fishermen in all types of rivers, streams, and lakes should keep several sizes on the top row of the fly box.

Excerpt from:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/intermediate/part21.php

"A lot of people don't understand the significance of parachute flies. These hackled morsels are a lot more than just another dry fly. They land, float and look much different to the fisherman than the standard dry fly. To the fish, they also look much different than a standard dry fly.
First, the body of a parachute dry fly is suspended in the surface film. The only time natural insects have their bodies resting fully in the surface tension or film is during emergence or when they have been captured by that film and lay dying on the surface. For that reason alone, this is an excellent fly to use during the hatch when insects are emerging, and later during the mayfly spinner fall when adult insects have been captured by the surface film and lay dead or dying in that film. These are also the two best times for the fish to capture insects since the insects are most vulnerable at these times.
Second, the hackle on a parachute dry fly looks like the legs of an insect when viewed from the bottom. As an adult insect emerges from its nymphal body, it extends its legs outward to support its weight on the surface tension of the water. As it continues to crawl out of its shuck, it places more weight on its legs until it's free from the shuck. As the shuck floats away, the adult insect dries its wings and eventually flies away. Only during the wing drying phase of this emergence does a standard dry fly look more natural from below than a parachute dry fly.
Again, when the female returns to the water to lay eggs, its wings often get caught by the surface tension of the water and begin to absorb water. The female will spread her legs out to provide support for her body as she dumps her ballast of eggs and tries to rise above the water to fly away. They are rarely successful in flying away, but their legs and wings remain splayed out on the surface as they expire and float downstream. From the bottom, this also looks a lot like a parachute dry fly.
Finally, the post type wing of a parachute dry fly is easy for the fisherman to see. This is very important during heavy hatches and heavy spinner falls. If your fly looks exactly like all the other flies on the water, it's often lost in the crowd and missed strikes are the result. That's a good reason to use a visible post on your parachute flies.

April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Nymph Head Pheasant Tail Nymph

April Freshwater Fly of the Month: Nymph Head Pheasant Tail Nymph

Fishing Guide's Top Selection of 2013!!

There are over 600 mayfly nymph species, of which most are brown, and very similar in appearance to the pheasant tail nymph. Originally tied by Frank Sawyer, the Pheasant Tail Nymph is one of the oldest of modern nymphs. A few good wrinkles have been added over the years, such as the peacock thorax, optional beadhead, etc., but when you peel them away, it's still Sawyer's elegantly simple, generically suggestive, devastatingly effective nymph. this pattern has been tweaked over the years, with a bead to sink the fly and catch a trout's attention, and flash to appear like an emerger. 

The Pheasant Tail nymph is one of the most utilized nymph patterns in the history of the sport for the simple reason that it works almost anywhere. 

The heavy metal Nymph-Head Pheasant Tail Flashback-Olive that we are featuring as this month's FishingEnthusiast.com Freshwater Fly of the Month enhances traditional nymph flies. These fishing flies catch big fish. With the extra-heavy tungsten bead head and chemically sharpened hooks, you can't beat the quality or success this fly brings. 

The Nymph-Head fly portfolio is designed to be a more realistic and attractive option to a series of proven fly patterns. The most successful trout flies are fishing flies that can imitate a wide variety of insect life. With already successful patterns like the Copper John, Pheasant Tail and Hares Ear as the base for this category, and now you can Nymph-Head tungsten beads to that mix. Not only do these bead heads keep the fly in the strike zone longer, but also provide a realistic and color-consistent fly profile for catching trout. 

At the end of the day, fish rely on color, proportions, and profile to decide what to eat. These flies catch more fish. 


Check out FlyDealFlies.com for other Nymph Head selections!

March Walleye Lure of the Month: Rat-L-Trap

"Often Imitated, Never Duplicated”

The Rat-l-Trap was invented by Bill Lewis in his small workshop in Boyce, Louisiana 30 years ago.  This lure is notable because it was the first crankbait of its kind in two respects.  Lewis designed his lure with a built-in rattle chamber and, more importantly, the Rat-l-Trap was the first crankbait to boast a lipless design.  These innovations allow the Rat-l-Trap to create a loud, unique underwater fish-attracting rattle and to display a tight wiggling action at nearly any speed.

Bill Lewis got his start selling the lure from the trunk of his car throughout Louisiana and Texas.  He knew immediately that he had a hit on his hands.  The Rat-l-Trap rapidly became one of the most sought after lures on the bass fishing circuit.  Today, the lure is a mainstay in most anglers’ tackle boxes and is fished successfully in saltwater and freshwater alike.

This made-by-hand lure has proven itself effective on big bass, stripers, and other game fish in all types of water.  It has been so successful, in fact, that nearly all recognized lure manufacturers now sell their own variation of this unique lure -- quite a compliment to Bill Lewis's ingenuity.  It’s interesting to note that there has not been a single change made to the Rat-l-Trap original design since its introduction, although Bill Lewis Lures has released several different versions of the original.  This truly classic lure can be found in a number of different sizes and dressed in literally dozens of colors.

Featured lure: Rat-l-Trap

Designer: Bill Lewis

Created: 1969

Manufacturer: Bill Lewis Lures ^®

Technique: 

The Rat-L-Trap can be fished with a variety of retrieves in a variety of conditions.  The lure tracks perfectly with a fast retrieve, demanding attention from feeding fish.  It can also be trolled at a slow speed with equal success.  Experiment with a yo-yo like retrieve for added results.

Join the fun at FishingEnthusiast.com!!

March Saltwater Lure of the Month: Heddon Super Spook

December 2010

SUPER SPOOK, Jr.

“For any fish that feeds on other fish”

The Zara Spook was invented in Pensacola, a seaport in NW Florida, on Pensacola Bay, in 1922. This seductive lure with its trademark wiggle was originally called the Zaragossa, aptly named after the "wiggling" women on Zaragossa Street, which at the time was Pensacola’s red-light district.  A few years later the lure was given a new design (1939) and the name was forever changed to the Zara Spook.  The latter portion of its new name was inspired by the skeleton-like design painted along the sides of the first version of this popular lure.

To this day the Zara Spook remains one of the most often fished lures of all time.  In fact, even after all of these years and despite its enormous success, the Zara Spook's left-to-right, right-to-left top water action remains unique in the marketplace.  This 'walk the dog' motion pulls even the most stubborn game fish from the bottom when no other lure can.  The version of the classic enclosed is crafted from plastic and now called the "Super Spook", but the original was hand-carved from white cedar.  Not to worry, today’s Super Spook is as deadly as the original.  Heddon, a company whose history dates back to 1894, originally sold the lure.  It’s now manufactured under the careful eye of EBSCO Industries, Inc.

Date Created: 1922 (The original Zara Spook received its name in 1939 and the Super Spook followed)

Manufacturer: EBSCO Industries, Inc

Technique:

Cast the Super Spook out into likely cover.  Let it rest long enough for the ripples to disperse.   With your rod tip at a 30 degree angle from the water, begin twitching the lure from side to side with an occasional short pause to induce its trademark 'walk-the-dog' style action.

March Freshwater Lure of the Month: Daredevle

March 2013

Freshwater Lure of the Month:

DARDEVLE

The creator of the Dardevle, Lou Eppinger, was making his living as a taxidermist in SE Michigan at the end of the 1800’s.  When Eppinger’s business hit somewhat of a slump, he decided to sell lures alongside his taxidermy services in order to help make ends meet.  As the tackle end of his business grew, Eppinger soon began to experiment with lures of his own design.  While on a fishing trip in the Canadian woods, Eppinger took along a spoon he had handcrafted back in Michigan.  He was pleasantly surprised with the results.  Eppinger particularly liked the long distances he could cast his lure—even into a stiff wind.  On top of everything, Eppinger’s prototype actually caught more fish than any other bait he fished on the trip.

After quite a bit of tinkering, Eppinger’s first lure made its official American debut in 1912.  Initially Eppinger called his lure the Osprey.  Eight years later, Eppinger changed the name of his wonder-lure to the Dardevle after the Marines, who had been nicknamed the “Dare Devils” for their feats of bravery in the first World War.  Today, Eppinger’s trademark red-and-white stripped Dardevle is perhaps the most recognizable and omnipresent lures ever to hit the fishing scene.  Alongside his trademark paint scheme, anglers will find dozens of color and size combinations.  Although all the colors have their fans, FE is partial to the classic red-and-white.

Featured lure: Dardevle

Created by: Lou Eppinger

Created: c. 1912

Manufacturer: Eppinger Manufacturing Company

Type: Spoon

Technique:

While this lure is not considered to be the most versatile of all lures, as many anglers will confirm, it’s highly effective when others simply are not.  The Dardevle can be relied upon to be a good selection for a broad number of species when fished with a consistent, moderate to rapid retrieve.  If you haven’t used the Dardevle while trolling, you could be in for a surprise.