Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

I have a love/hate relationship with vacuum sealer machines. I love them because if you have limited freezer space there is no other “nearly” foolproof method of freezing fish with “nearly” zero freezer burn so compactly.

            I hate them because of the “nearly” and when it comes to the vacuum sealing, it’s the machine doing the sealing that determines the extent of the “nearly.” I’ve never used a “home” model that nearly always sealed perfectly. The worst ones I’ve used produced a good seal only about half the time when packaging fish. None have ever produced a perfect seal every time for me. I’ve also often found packages which appeared to have been perfectly sealed when put in the freezer, had lost their seal after a few weeks or months.

            So when NESCO offered to supply me with their VS 12 Deluxe Sealer to use and evaluate, I accepted, but I told their representative, I would be approaching the project as a skeptic.  So far, much of my skepticism has proven to be unfounded.

            An early November trip to Lake Erie provided me a good supply of “test fish” for my evaluation. An opening day buck provided some venison loin chops and late season mallard breasts are now vacuum sealed and packed away in my freezer.

            In all, my wife and I have packaged 32 meal-sized portions of the fish, duck and venison. The two-stage vacuum pump in the VS12 sucked the air out of the packets in a few seconds at which point the machine automatically switches to the sealing phase which takes about 15 seconds more. We used the “double” seal mode so instead of a single “weld” at the top of the pouch, two separate seals are melted across the width of the pouch. The instructions indicate this is best for “moist” products like we were packing.

            It also has normal and low vacuum settings. Low pressure is for sealing things like dry cereal or other crushable items. Normal is for everything else.

            Our results were perfect. All 32 packages sealed perfectly the first time, and after being in the freezer for a several weeks, all the packages still in the freezer remained tightly sealed. So far, five-star results!  Good Housekeeping magazine rated the VS 12 number one in head to head tests against nine other top brands.   

            We did our sealing with pouches and packaging material rolls sold by NESCO. NESCO says other brands of bags or rolls will also work with NESCO machines and NESCO packaging material looks and feels identical with Foodsaver and Cabela’s bags I’ve used previously.

            I thought about waiting six months or a year to open these first pouches we produced to test their longevity, but I was impressed enough with the NESCO VS 12 that I’ll give it my conditional “seal’ of approval for now (pun intended). I didn’t want to hear from GLA readers who had been shopping for their first vacuum sealer or thinking of replacing the one they are currently using with a message like.  “I wish you’d done this review earlier before I bought a brand X,Y or Z machine.”

              NESCO products are widely available at online and retail outlets or directly from NESCO at: http://www.NESCO.com.

     Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD      

There are a lot of really good “ice-fishing” jackets on the market and if you make a check list of all the important attributes of them you’ll see things like: High-tech insulation, durable outer layer, full-cut sizing to allow layering, ample pockets in the right places, a slick lining to allow easy on and off, adjustable cuffs and others.

            What’s often missing is waterproofing. Makes sense since most ice fishing isn’t done in a rainstorm or is done inside some sort of shanty or portable shelter. Why go to the expense of using the same waterproofing layers or fabric treatment needed by duck hunters or early or late season open water anglers? 

            It’s that lack of waterproofing which makes using an “ice fishing” specific insulated jacket (or jacket and bibs combo) a poor choice for the earliest open water action on the Great Lakes. Whether it’s the Fall Brawl in late November on Erie or ice out brown trout in Door County, Wisconsin, cold water anglers need all the features important in an ice fishing coat along with a waterproof outer shell.

            I used a Gill Winter Angler Jacket for my end of season fishing last year and when my boat slides off the trailer in mid-March in search of early season cohos here in southern Lake Michigan, I’ll be sliding back into my Winter Angler Jacket. (I also have matching bibs.) I fish out of an open boat several days a week and seasonal March winds and April showers guarantee precipitation from above as well as spray from choppy waves as I head for the warm water hotspots that concentrate the cohos. From my experience last fall, I know Gill’s multi-layer XPLORE waterproofing technology in the outer shell of the jacket will be up to the task.

            If, like me, you are a function over fashion kind of person you’ll appreciate it comes only in “graphite” color – basically black. While I think a bright red, yellow or other color of suit looks good, I know from experience, after a few trips, after a few flopping, bleeding fish, perhaps spill or two of coffee, that gaudy garb can start to look a little used. I also know, when the sun is shining, those sunbeams are being absorbed by my black coat to add a measure of warmth.  

            All the other boxes mentioned earlier are checked, as well. Well thought out pockets, cuffs, lining, insulation, hood closures, zippers and storm flaps make the Gill Winter Jacket a perfect choice.

Want to try Gill yourself? The Winter Jacket (and other Gill products) are widely available or order them online straight from the Gill website with a discount:

At checkout, use the discount code- CAPTMIKE10 – for 10% off your order at gillfishing.com

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

The end for most of us will be a short ride in a coffin. The end for many fish in the ice belt this year is a short ride up through the water column on a coffin.  A Coffin Spoon, that is – a new offering from Northland this season. It’s actually the newest addition to Northland’s Buckshot series of jigging spoons. All of these have an imbedded rattle chamber to add sound to the baits and the Coffin Spoon has a tail “flipper” added to the hook-end of the spoon to make this spoon the loudest of the Buckshot line as well as providing a bit more flash. 

            This can be a solid factor all season long and ice-experts especially like loud flashy baits at first and last ice when the fish are often most active. They also know both flash and noise can be the key to wake up the fish on those days when the fish are being reluctant biters.

            When I first heard of the Coffin Spoons, I just thought it was a clever name to catch the attention of fishermen as much as the fish. It is clever, but these spoons got the name due to being shaped like a coffin. 

            I don’t know if Northland’s lure designers came up with the name first and then shaped the spoon or if they made the spoon and someone realized it resembled a coffin. Neither is important in the end. The ice season was in full swing at the time of this writing and reports are, “the fish are slamming Coffin Spoons.” 

            They are available in 1/8 oz, 3/16 oz, 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz sizes and in a dozen fish-catching sizes. Check them out and/or buy them at http://www.northlandtackle.com or find them at retail or online tackle emporiums. 

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

          The good thing about copper wire fishing line is it catches fish. Actually, that’s the only good thing about copper wire fishing line. Other than that, it’s a pain in the ass to use. I think it hates me. Even when I carefully pay attention to the copper when I’m spooling it off the reel, it regularly manages to “swell up” on the reel’s spool. Sometimes I can carefully reduce the swell; just as often, one loop slides under, over or across one or more others resulting in a copper wire backlash more puzzling than a Rubic’s Cube.

             Each kink does two things: one, it weakens the wire; two, each kink, minor bend or spiral in the copper wire between the rod tip and the lure increases line drag as it pulls through the water and decreases the depth the lure on the end will troll. The reason for using copper wire is to stealthily put lures in productive depths.

            Increasingly, I’d been hearing of anglers using Weighted Steel Line (from Torpedo Fishing Products) as a substitute for copper wire. I was skeptical of it.

            For one, steel is slightly less dense than copper. All else being equal, when comparing the depth capability of trolling with a steel wire and copper wire of equal diameter, the copper will troll deeper. But “all else” isn’t equal.

            For one, the strands of copper used to make copper fishing line are coarser than the strands of steel used to make Weighted Steel. More important is the aforementioned drag on the copper line from the inherent kinks, spirals and slight bends in copper as it pulls through the water. Stranded steel doesn’t have these minor spirals and curves as it pulls through the water. In essence, though the diameter of Weighted Steel is very close to the diameter copper trolling wire and the steel weighs less, due to the way the steel “slicks” through the water, the depth capability is nearly identical. 

            Since the depth is similar, the advantage of Weighted Steel is it doesn’t hate me!  Deploying it is no harder than setting out a lead core line. In fact, I often hand a Weighted Steel rig to novices fishing with me with the simple instruction, “Let this one out.”  Would you do that with a copper line rig? 

            Connecting Weighted Steel to backing or to a fluorocarbon or monofilament leader is a bit different than with copper. Torpedo makes a “Termination Kit” to facilitate this. It’s basically a wire crimp and wind-on swivel. Fine, if your reel’s level wind guide is wide enough for the tiny swivel to pass through. It’s not so fine on several of my reels with narrow level-winders.

            I solved it by attaching a short length of 100# braid to the end of the Weighted Steel using an Albright knot and then tying a double-uni to connect wire to the backing or leader. These connections wound on my reels with no problem. 

            Consider this. I’ve never heard of anyone who tried Weighted Steel going back to copper wire. Many (like myself) spooled one reel with Weighted Steel as a test, then quickly bought additional spools of Weighted Steel to switch all their coppers to Weighted Steel.            

Weighted steel is available at many retail and online sources (including Amazon.com) or straight from Torpedo Fishing Products at www.torpedodiver.com.

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD  

Over 20 years ago my boat’s trailer came with a single roller where the bow of the boat snugs up to the winch stand. It never dawned on me there was anything else available until I was helping a friend load his boat and I saw his bow had a pair of “cones” on the outside of the bow roller support. Maybe I’d seen other boat trailers similarly equipped, but I’d not paid attention to them.

What I did pay attention to was how easily, when my friend nosed his boat up to the trailer, the “side-scoops” helped center the boat’s bow perfectly and protected the boat’s hull if (when) the boat was nosed up to the winch stops a bit off center when power-loading. I’ve since learned these cones or scoops are properly called “End Bells,” at least that’s what they were called on the C.E. Smith website where I found a set of bells that fit my trailer.

My original bow roller was made of black rubber and over the years, I’d replaced it as needed with similar rollers. C.E. Smith does offer black rubber End Bells, sold separately, but since my current bow roller was showing some hard use, I decided to get a complete Bow Bell Assembly which includes both the center roller and the end bells. As long as I was replacing everything, I elected to get a blue assembly made of Thermal Plastic Rubber. The price was the same, it dressed up the front of the trailer a bit, and the blue (or other color) thermal plastic is tougher than the black rubber.  It makes loading my own boat easier, is easier on the bow of my boat and is something I wish I’d found years earlier. 

Check them out at http://www.cesmith.com. 

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD            

I’ve written previously about the “middle” layer cool and cold weather fishermen and women need to incorporate into their apparel layering scheme. Basically, a person needs to have a base layer that wicks sweat and natural skin moisture away from the skin and an outer layer that is breathable to allow that moisture to escape to the atmosphere. The middle layer is the clothes between the base layer and the outer parka or jacket.

I’m also a guy who loves to wear hoodies. I don’t often put the hood up to keep my head warm, but even in the down position, the hood keeps my neck warm and the cold breezes from blowing down my my collar. I love the kangaroo pouch as much as the hood. I a hoody’s rugged look and wear hoodies for work, play and most anytime the weather is suitable.

Most hoodies are cotton or cotton blends and will absorb water like a sponge. They make a horrible middle layer.

The Langland Technical Hoodie looks and feels like any other well-made hooded sweatshirt, but instead of being a poly-cotton material, it’s made from a synthetic fibers imbued with Gill’s unique XPEL stain resistant technology. What’s that?

 When I was looking at the hoodie at the Gill booth at ICAST the rep spritzed some water on the garment to show how it the spray would just bead up and roll off. It’s not waterproof – you’d get wet in a rain shower – but it’s resistant to casual sprays like when boating on a choppy day, or when hosing things down at the fish cleaning station. I’ve also learned in actual use it repels fish blood and slime as easy as it does plain water.

Since it’s what I call ABC (anything but cotton) when comes to cold weather layering, the cloth is a perfect middle layer, allowing and even helping moisture from the base layer continue it’s journey to the outer layer where it can escape, preventing the cold weather angler from getting clammy. When you need to shed a layer, it’s still doing the job.

When I’m wearing a hoodie, I use the pouch pocket almost continuously. This hoodie comes with a special feature inside the pouch in the form of a zippered pocket perfect for stowing your phone, wallet or car keys where they are handy but zippered safe and secure. 

Note: I like my hoodies to be a bit on the baggy size and other Gill products I’ve worn seem to run a bit small. I ordered mine a size larger than I’d usually wear and it’s a perfect fit.  

Want to try Gill yourself? The Langland Hoodie (and other Gill products) are widely available at Amazon or other retail and online sources – or order them from the Gill website with a discount:

At checkout, use the discount code- CAPTMIKE10 – for 10% off your order at gillfishing.com

Reviewed by: Capt. Mike Schoonveld

I’m not dissing the paint jobs that come on production model lures. It’s amazing to think of the work it takes for a manufacturer to paint either wild-looking patterns like fire-tiger on a single lure while painting others so exactingly detailed they look almost real. Then realize these patterns (and dozens of others) have to be recreated countless thousands of times for each model and size of lure.

That is amazing, but most mass produced lures are put to shame when compared to the work of custom lure painters who create one of a kind patterns they invent or collaborate to create for other fishermen. One of these custom painters up in the heart of the western walleye belt is Dane Heid who can put your favorite pattern (or one you invent) on any lure – or pick one of the DH Custom Baits’ proprietary patterns he paints on popular bass and walleye baits.

An option I’d never thought of previously however, was to have Dane (or another custom painter) create your favorite paint scheme on something else. Then I saw a pic on TargetWalleye.com of a group of filet knife handles Dane had painted in popular walleye patterns. They were beautiful – almost too beautiful to use.

I instantly wanted one but not to just add to my fish cleaning kit and dazzle fellow knife wielders at fish cleaning stations. I wanted one to add to the “outdoorsy” decor of my office/work room/man cave. So I sent Dane a magnum “original” Hot ‘n Tot and a filet knife, asking him to paint each of them in a matching Blue Tiger color. Once I got them back, I mounted them in a shadow box.  

If you want a custom painted lure of any color or want some other item painted to look like your favorite lure, contact Dane at http://www.DHCustomBaits.com. He does fabulous work at a reasonable price.  

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD  

What’s better than having a high quality spoon with a “fish-popping” color scheme?  Having six of them – and that’s what you get with a Captain’s Pack of spoons from Great Lakes Tackle like GLT’s Hot Mag Mix shown here. The Hot Mag Pack is a mix of their most popular individually-sold patterns and more. It includes a pair of their Zombie Apocalypse SuperGlows, another pair of the Head Hunter SuperGlows and includes a pair of ladder-back patterns only available in the Captain’s Pack. The spoons come packed in a six compartment Plano box.

 If I were designing the “perfect” salmon/trout spoon for the Great Lakes I’d start with a super glow blank, then I’d add some bright color highlight colors – my favorites are fluorescent green and hot red – then finish with some Mylar or painted-on patterns. I’m going to make sure my spoons are UV “activated.”  I’ve seen non-UV patterns fail, when the same pattern with a UV coating is the top producer.  Tom Schultz’s spoons check all the boxes.

 Lots of spoon builders end it there. Not GLT. First, put a top quality, name brand hook on the fishy end – none are better than Owner. Hang a small, hammered “flipper” spinner blade on the hook-hanger as well. Most of the time, that flipper doesn’t do squat, but every once in a while that tiny bit of flash might be just what gets a skeptical fish to chomp the blade, or perhaps the minor amount of clatter the spinner creates when it ticks on the hook shank attracts the attention of a big salmon which otherwise might ignore it.

There’s a nose swivel at the angler-end of these spoons. Again, it may or may not be a deal breaker most days, but when the few extra strikes it may produce come on one of your lines – success! 

More important, in my mind is the back side of the spoon. Many spoon builders go all out on the face of the spoon – to catch the fisherman – and leave the back of the spoon bare. Fish see both sides as a spoon trolls through the water and the backsides of these spoons all have something other than just plain metal.  You’ll like them and the fish are proven to like them.            

Check out the available “Captain’s Packs” and order one for yourself or for your favorite captain at https://www.gl-tackle.com.  

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

Decades ago I won a spinner-bait tackle box in a raffle. I am not an avid bass angler so I didn’t need a special box just for the few spinner baits I owned but I did have dozens and dozens of trolling spoons I needed to keep under control. The spinner bait box did the job well enough it’s been on my boat ever since, despite my trying numerous versions of spoon storage “options” from several companies.

The spinner-bait box wasn’t perfect, however, just better than the others. So when frequent Basics and Beyond contributor, Doug Morash, mentioned he had started a new business producing and selling tackle boxes specifically for the Great Lakes market, I wondered if he was on to something or being overly optimistic. Competing with the established lure storage “big dogs” with an American made product is like opening a general store next to a Walmart.

Morash had first hand knowledge that Great Lakes trollers’ tackle storage needs are much different than what works for inland lake guys fishing for bass, pike or panfish, especially when it comes to trolling spoons and those super long diving crankbaits popular with walleye trollers. He developed two sizes of boxes, the shorter one converts to a crankbait and/or spoon box, the taller one is perfect for walleye trollers using extra long, “deeper-diver” models.

Both are built on the “ammo” box design with the hinge on one end and a secure closure on the other. Inside are 10, hinged-at-the-bottom dividers – each divider with nine hook slots so you can dangle 90 spoons inside (more if you want to double up). The hinged dividers allow the user to flip through the selections like flipping through folders in a file cabinet and easily remove a selected spoon. Genius! 

Add five bucks more to the bill and get a stack of partitions which snap firmly on the dividers creating individual cubicles to hang up to 50 crankbaits and never tangle hooks or end up with the lures getting more scratched from being stored than from catching fish. Many people will be able to use the partitions on some of the dividers, leave them off of others and put all of their trolling lures in one container.

The original Spoon/Crank box will hold magnum (five-inch) spoons and/or cranks and stickbaits to 6.75 inches. The Deeper Diver box has the same footprint but is deep enough to hold lures like the Reef Runner 800s, deep running Bandits and other, similar lures to 9 1/2 inches.

I tested the smaller box and ended up using it just for my spoons assortment. It passed all the my tests.

Test one: It held 90 spoons and made them easy to find – easily beating my old spinner-bait box.

Test two: One of the knuckleheads fishing with me managed to drop the full box of spoons upside down onto the deck. On my old box, that would have resulted in a mess requiring a half hour and several curse words to fix. When the Spoon Box was righted and opened, all of the spoons were still in place. The foam lined lid pushes down on the top of the divider keeping the lures in place.

Test three: My old spinner-bait box is now permanently retired.

“But wait, there’s more!” as any infomercial salesman would say. The lid opens to reveal an additional storage area to hold tools, terminal tackle or other items. That’s where I keep a Tackle Tamer with pre-tied slider leaders and other supplies. 

To see more about or purchase Morash’s Spoon, Crankbait or Deeper Diver Boxes go to www.spooncrankbox.com.

Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

Do you have a pair of scissors on your boat?  I never did even though they do a terrific job of cutting braided line. I had traditional nail-clipper style line cutters on board and I used them to “gnaw” through braid when needed. Line clippers are basically, single task tools – perhaps dual task if you find yourself in need of an emergency manicure while fishing.

I don’t like single-task tools – especially on the boat. I imagined including a pair of scissors just for when I needed to cut braided line would be just another single tasker.

But when I saw the SPRO 9″ Sportsman Scissors at the mid-summer ICAST show, it caught my eye. Not only are they top notch “braid cutters,” they are decidedly a multi-use tool.

 So I got a 9″ Sportsman Scissors to add to my fishing tool assortment and used it the last half of the 2021 fishing season. I was worried about the size – a nine-inch scissor is a rather robust tool, especially compared to a fingernail snipper. However, what I found is it’s easier to do “micro” jobs with a large scissor than to tackle a “macro” chore with a mini-set of clips or snips.

 A few of the details about the scissors: they are stainless steel, naturally; have a serrated edge (necessary to cut braid) and a non-slip, man-sized, rubberized grip. Inside the grip is what SPRO calls a nut (as in walnuts) and claw cracker (as in crab claws). I’ve not cracked any walnuts or crab legs with them, but I have grabbed the scissors several times to use the crab-cracker as pliers when I needed a better grip on a stubborn something. When the blades are opened fully, the two blades of the tool will pop apart allowing the fish-scaler and bottle opener to be used.

Besides cutting braided line, I’ve used the scissors to open new blister-packed lures, clipping fins, trimming flies and other chores. Maybe they are a multi-tasker.

There are some brands of fishing products that are recognized as being the highest quality. SPRO is one of those. From snaps and swivels to tackle storage to tools, if it’s a SPRO I know it’s well made and isn’t going to let me down. I’ve used the SPRO scissors for half a season now and I wish I’d had them for the last half of my life (or longer.) If you don’t have a pair of scissors on board your boat, you need a pair and the SPRO nine-inchers will do the multiple jobs you’ll find for them.

To check out the SPRO scissors, go to http://www.SPRO.com.