I write the Tackle and Toys column for Great Lakes Angler magazine. Posts to this blog are about items I've personally tested on my own boat or when fishing elsewhere. These products (fishing toys) are the best of the best and I whole-heartedly endorse.
Silver Hoard was one of the originators of the “cut-plug” design of artificial lures made of plastic. The original plugs Silver Horde plugs were modelled after hand-carved, hand painted salmon lures. In the 1950, the founder of Silver Horde lures was the first company to make lures of this shape from plastic. Hand painting the lures at home made the company into a family business.
Still a family run business, the Silver Horde Company still offers their original Ace Hi plug and the slightly fatter Silver Horde plug along with spoons, dodgers, flashers, trolling flies and other tackle. One of their most popular colors in both their spoons, plugs and dodgers was one of their original colors – green spatter.
The Green Splatter pattern is still available, still a favorite on the Great Lakes and out west, but it’s now painted with what they call Double Glow pigment. This color as well as a large number of other permutations of Double Glow have proven to be absolute king killers in August and September on the Great Lakes when some of the best action occurs in the dark or at the “dawn’s early light. (They are no slouch in the daylight, either.)
Some of these new colors are also made with clear plastic with the painted colors and UV activated mylar inserted or painted inside to give the plugs a unique 3-D looking finish. Silver Hordes are offered in both rattling and non-rattling versions. If you want to add some storied, productive plugs to your line-up this fall, give a second or third look to the Silver Hordes in both the traditional and new color schemes. Check out all the Silver Horde products at www.silverhorde.com which also lists places to purchase them in your area.
Hint: In late summer and fall, I use the 4 ¾-inch versions. In the spring to mid-summer, I use the 4-inchers to catch kings, cohos, steelhead, browns and lakers.
On my first trip to Lake Erie last spring the walleyes were acting more like the fish I normally encounter in early to mid-autumn trips. They were deep. Whether it was the water temperature, the waves or where they were finding the baitfish I don’t know, but my usual deep divers that worked with 60 to 80 feet of line out behind the planers weren’t getting into the zone.
We compensated by letting out more line – much more line to get our lures 20 feet or deeper to get to the level the fish were showing on the sonar and where we were getting the bites. How much more line? With some of the lures, twice as much line was needed to get them in the zone.
If we had been fishing areas where we could troll a few miles without needing to turn, the extra line wouldn’t have been a big deal, but on the calm days we found the most active fish near the Bass Islands where islands were creating currents where the active fish were holding. On the windy days, we used the islands as a lee area where we could fish away from the whitecaps.
Long lines behind planer boards aren’t conducive to whipping around in tight turns without tangling one lure with their neighbors. It started to feel normal to reel in a fish hooked fish on one lure along with the lure that had been running in an adjacent position. It also caused more lost fish since the longer it takes to reel in a lightly hooked walleye, the better the chance for it to pop loose before getting it to the net.
Waddayagonnadoo? A part of fishing is coping with the weather conditions and the moods of the fish.
One of the ways to cope is to examine the “tools” at your disposal. Mostly we’d been using Bandit Walleye Deep Divers and #11 Flicker Minnows let out 140 feet and 120 feet respectively, to get them over 20 feet deep according to the Precision Trolling Data app. One of my friends opened his tackle box and showed a few Berkley #12 Deep Hit Sticks he’d picked up on sale at FishUSA (www.fishusa.com). “Want to try some of these?” he asked.
The colors looked good. “Check the Precision Trolling Data chart to see how much line we’ll need,” I said.
I was shocked to learn we could hit our minimum trolling depth with only 88 feet of line. I wasn’t surprised when the next fish was hooked with the Clown pattern Hit Stick he’d just put out. We added another Hit Stick (Blue Chrome) and in the next couple of days, these two Deep Hit Sticks became our go-to baits. Early in the day the FireTiger pattern was particularly hot, as well.
Hit Sticks come in 20 color patterns (check them out at www.berkley-fishing.com) but color is only one these lures’ enticements. They have a great tail-wagging action and there was nothing subtle about the internal rattles. The walleyes loved them. Though we started using them primarily because they had a much steeper dive curve, we appreciated that they were also fisherman-friendly. Each of the half-dozen “sticks” my friend purchased ran perfectly, straight out of the box.
Me along with countless other anglers have always had a love/hate relationship with their Fish Hawk Electronics X4 models or the X2 model speed and temp measuring systems. We love them because of the many times the information shown on the display is what puts us on fish or keeps us on fish. I’ve had days when it’s meant the difference between a fish in the cooler and limits of fish in the cooler.
For me (at least) I hate them because of the battery operated probe that goes down to the depths and measures the speed of the lures at that depth and the water temperature. When it’s working properly, when the batteries are fresh enough, when I can get the cap off the probe without tools or when the O-ring on the cap isn’t leaking water inside – it’s an okay tool. I’ve never thought of any of these examples to be a certainty. Not every time, but often enough, it’s not working, the batteries are unexplainedly exhausted, there is water or at least dampness inside the probe.
Though the battery-operated probe is smaller than similar electronics I’ve used in the past, it’s still quite large. It’s large enough to create blowback on the downrigger cable used to take it into the depths. Blowback is cumulative. At 20 feet it’s negligible. At 50 feet (on your downrigger’s counter) the actual depth is probably off by 10 percent or so, depending on trolling speed. At 100 feet, it’s almost a wild-azz guess about the actual depth (not to mention the angle it’s being pulled through the water which affects the speed at depth reading.
Still, the Fish Hawk unit is one of the best available and widely used in every Great Lake. That doesn’t mean it can’t be improved and Fish Hawk Electronics has made it better with the introduction of their Lithium Probes. One model is the Ultra Probe, compatible with their X4D Bluetooth System, their Pro Probe, compatible with X4 and X2 Systems.
Lithium battery technology is changing almost every kind of electronic tools, eliminating the need for traditional AA, AAA or other types of batteries, they are longer lasting, they recharge more quickly and, important for the Fish Hawk probes, allowing battery powered devices to be made more compact. Fish Hawk says the Lithium Probes are 40% smaller than the battery operated probes. It looks smaller than that – and because the case is more hydrodynamic, it doesn’t create the drag when trolled through the water it acts smaller. That increases underwater accuracy.
I recharge the one I’ve been using all season after every few trips. FHE says it will recharge in two to four hours and the unit will operate 50 hours or more. A quick, 20 minute charge will give you about 8 hours of use. I charge mine indoors since the probe has to sit on end on a charging pad. On a docked or stable boat, the charging pad will plug into anything with a USB port.
I now have a mostly “love it,” hardly ever “detest it” relationship with my Fish Hawk X4 unit. I can say the same thing about most every electronic device I use on my boat. The probes are available at www.fishhawkelectronics.com, as some retailers and plenty of online sellers including Amazon.com.
There was something missing on my boat last spring, a fish cooler. Often called a box or the fish box. If you don’t have a fish cooler on your boat, chances are you rely on stuffing the fish you catch and keep into a livewell or into a built-in fish storage compartment. My boat’s livewell must have been designed for perch fishing. It won’t hold a four-person limit of spring cohos and is certainly too small to hold a decent four-person bag of Lake Erie walleye.
So I “bagged” the fish. Actually, the fish went into Smith’s Products Insulated 36” Bait and Fish Kill Bag. Why not use my old IGLOO cooler? It takes up a lot of space.
Formerly, when my cooler was my only choice, I “made” space for it. It was a piece of necessary gear, so I economized on other gear to make everything fit with room left over for the fish box and the fishermen. Not now.
At the beginning of the day, the Kill Bag takes up almost no room. It doesn’t fold perfectly flat, it is insulated – front, back and bottom with closed cell foam, but a cooler is the same size whether it’s full or empty. Before the first fish is caught I add one or two small (7-pound) bags of ice – depending on air temperature. At that point the bag is about 1/3rd the size of my old fish cooler. On a good day, by the time it’s got 18 or 24 walleyes in the bag (or 15 or 20 cohos), it takes up about half the space of my fish cooler – and there’s space left over to hold a king, a big brown trout or several plus-size walleyes if the fishing was extra-good.
I had four concerns when switching from a hard-sided plastic cooler to a soft-sided kill bag. Would it be tough enough? Would it be hard to clean? Would it keep the fish cool and fresh? Would it be large enough?
The Smith’s bag is constructed (inside and out) with a heavy-duty, marine grade tarp-like fabric. I wasn’t overly concerned the sharp fins on the walleyes I put in the bag would perforate the interior lining, but that thought was in the back of my mind. So, after several walleye trips, I took a flashlight, put on my reader glasses and examined the interior closely so see if there were any visible holes. None were found, nor did I ever detect any leakage around the bottom seams from melting ice had dripping through the inner skin and leaking out the bottom. Additionally, the seams are reinforced with strong nylon strapping material made from the same material as the detachable carrying strap. Plenty tough.
Both the interior and exterior is slick-finish allowing fresh blood to just rinse off and even dried-on blood to wash clean with a minimum amount of scrubbing with a soft brush. Once it’s rinsed clean, I just invert it with the zipper open and to let it quickly dry. Cleans up easily.
Cooling ability? One sure indicator of how well it’s insulated is how much ice is left at the end of the trip. If all you have left in your fish cooler is melt water, it’s not doing the job. On my early spring trips when the air temperature and the water temperature (thus the fish temperatures) are in the 40s, that small bag of ice was still more ice than meltwater after a long half-day of fishing. Once the weather and water warmed, the second bag of ice still did the job.
The 36” Bait and Fish Kill Bag is Smith’s middle size offering. It’s perfect for how I used it. Later in the season when king salmon and lake trout figure heavily into the catch where I fish, it wouldn’t be large enough. However, Smith makes a 48” kill bag that is advertised to be larger than my Igloo and there’s a smaller, 30-incher (called Mr. Crappie) that will hold several limits of perch or crappies.
Though the 30 and 36-inch versions are called “bait and fish kill bags,” I don’t think they’d be a good replacement for a bait bucket. Perhaps in a special situation, they’d be ideal – not on my boat. They do come with drain plugs at the bottom, however, to allow melt water from the ice or minnow water if used for bait to flow out the bottom. Available at www.smithsproducts.com at retailers and several online outlets including Amazon.
Though plenty of people fish with Bandit Walleye Deep Diver lures for other species of fish and in other places than in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, there’s no doubt that’s where the Bandit is the king. Either that or the name “Bandit” has become the generic name for deep diving stickbaits like people wipe their nose with Kleenex, regardless of whether it’s a Puffs or some other brand of tissue paper.
If you are only going to buy one, you might as well get the top seller. “So what’s the top selling color?” That’s what I asked one of the product people at PRADCO – maker of Bandit Lures – at last summer’s ICAST. He chuckled when he answered, “Clear.” You might be surprised by that answer; I wasn’t and not because I think walleyes would be a sucker for a clear plastic lure. It’s because turning out popular lures in custom colors has become a cottage industry.
Rick Fascinato is one of those custom painters that has turned his hobby of customizing the lures for his own tackle box into a business to produce lures for yours. I’ve had the chance to fish with some of Rick’s Firebrand recently near the Bass Islands in the Western Basin, specifically his “Bandits” and they were the top producers for the trip. The one I’m holding was tied on one of my lines the first day of the trip and stayed there until the final fish was in the net a few days later. Others were solid producers, as well.
In fact, this photo is the “after” photo and though I’m sure the lure accounted for a half dozen walleyes each day or more, it still looks like new. One of the selling points of Firebrand products is each is given an epoxy coating to keep them looking good, fish after fish, even toothy ones like walleyes.
Firebrand Custom Baits isn’t all Bandits, either. Rick customizes trolling spoons, flashers, dodgers, Thin Finns and other baits in imaginative colors sure to peak the feeding instinct in any Great Lake predator fish. Give them all a look and order a few for yourself at https://firebrandcustombaits.ca/.
I’ll admit when I went to the ICAST show I passed by dozens of booths displaying fishing line with hardly a second look. I have my favorites and with rare exception, when I fish with other brands on other people’s boats, it works quite well. It’s seldom that I spot something so novel or with some unique attribute that it stops me for a second look.
So why did I stop by the Vicious Fishing display? It’s because the Vicious Fishing company is headquartered in Indiana and I’m a lifelong Hoosier. If I didn’t do anything more, I could stop by and say hi. But I when I did introduce myself I was impressed by the line-up (pun intended) of line and options available. Vicious sells braid, monofilament and fluorocarbon in various strengths, spool sizes and colors.
Notice I say they “sell” fishing line, they don’t manufacture fishing line. Few brands of line are self-made, but that doesn’t reflect on quality. Certainly, some fishing line is made in the USA. Lots of it is made in China and often with lax attention to quality. That’s why experienced anglers shy away from “off-brand” lines that may be bargains in the store but disappointing on the line.
What the Vicious did was meet with line manufacturers in Japan and Taiwan and have them produce their lines to stringent specifications to ensure they perform as expected. I spooled up with Vicious braid, fluoro and mono on several of my reels when getting them ready for the 2024 season. I’m writing this review three months into the season and have found them to be all I hoped and equal to any other line I normally use.
Check out Vicious Fishing lines (and other products) at www.getvicious.com. You can buy them direct online as well as many other online outlets including Amazon.com. Every time I hook a fish I’m relying on the line between the reel and the lure. The Vicious lines I’ve been using have never let me down.
I will admit the first time I squirted a teaspoon or so of Fisherman Hand Scrub out of the handy squeeze bottle, I was less than impressed. I know what a liquid or gel type hand soap is supposed to look like. It should be clear, or perhaps tinted an electric blue or green; perhaps a creamy pearl color. This stuff looks like something that comes out the nether-end of a lake trout that has been feeding on gobies.
That was the end of my negative opinion. I had just finished cleaning enough Lake Superior lake trout planned to be the dinner entrée for an eight-man crew at Moss Island Lodge, Ontario. I don’t know what the lakers had been eating, but like all lake trout, these were slimy on the outside, slimy on the inside and fresh enough to still be pumping blood on the fish cleaning table – all of which coated my hands.
I sprayed off my hands while cleaning up the fish cleaning area, delivered the fish to the chef and grabbed the bottle of Fisherman’s Hand Scrub I’d brought along for the trip and had set by the kitchen sink. That’s when I found out the FHS comes out of the bottle as a gritty looking, light-brown goop.
I gave it the sniff test first, thinking perhaps it had spoiled on the long, hot drive to Canada. It actually smelled just fine with a firm hint of lemon. I continued and immediately noticed the gritty feel as I scrubbed my hand, reminiscent of the pumice infused hand cleaner I use after I’ve been working on greasy lower units or other machinery. The grit (actually, ground up walnut hulls) is more coarse than pumice and is just one of the natural ingredients blended into the recipe.
It’s not a high-suds producing product, but it quickly cleaned my hands and left them scent free immediately – and I gave them a second good “sniff-test” fifteen minutes or so later once the lemony smell subsided. My hand remained fish-smell-free. It passed my test.
A couple day’s later while I was packing for the trip home, I grabbed the bottle of FHS to take home with me. That evening, the camp-cook asked the group if anyone had seen the Fisherman’s Hand Scrub. We were having a fish boil that evening and the cook was prepping the fresh trout for its turn in the boiling caldron.
“You like this stuff, eh?” I said in my best Canadian accent as I dug the bottle out of my duffle.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I’ve been using it not only for fish, but it cleans off the onion, the bacon and all the other smells I get on my hands here in the kitchen.”
I left him the rest of the bottle instead of bringing it home with me. Once I was home I ordered another bottle, using my Amazon Prime account so I got free-shipping. I could have gotten it for the same price but with shipping costs at www.fishermanhandscrub.com. Check out the other Mackensie’s “made in America” products as well.
It must suck to be a shad. Every predator fish you share the lake or river with wants to eat you. That’s why I enjoy being at the top of the food chain when it comes to fishing. I know if I want to catch a fish to eat – and I’m not particularly picky about the fish I eat – I know where ever I’m at and whatever fish I want to catch, a good choice of lure to show to the fish is a shad-imitating lure. That’s what caught my eye when I found the Vexan booth at the ICAST show last summer. Among the rods, reels and other lures on display was a concise collection of shad-shaped diving crankbaits called Rattin’ LIL Super Cisco.
I tried fishing for cisco with them last fall at Grand Traverse Bay with little success, but that’s the only time and place they didn’t score. They did catch a steelhead and a lake trout in the bay. I caught plenty of cohos on them in southern Lake Michigan and using them with the 50 + 2 Method on the Precision Trolling App got them down to Lake Erie’s walleye last spring. The Chrome Perch color scored well early in the day and we did just as well with the Diesel and Kitty Kat patterns when the bright sun started penetrating into the depths.
Check them out at www.vexan.com. They are available at WalMart, Amazon.com and other outlets.
There are three reasons to buy a high-dollar fishing rod. In no particular order, 1) They work better. 2) They last longer. 3) They are prestigious.
To most anglers, #3 is least important. There are solid arguments for both #1 and #2. Trika rods are built to satisfy #1 and #2 – time will tell if they become a prestigious brand.
Trika is a new product from an established company – established, that is, if you are a bow or crossbow hunter. The same company makes Ravin Crossbows, often listed at the top of “best of the best” lists. Where’s the similarity? Many of the components of their hi-tech crossbows are made from the same materials – composites, carbon-fibers – and exacting processes it takes to produce the best quality fishing rods right here in the USA.
I checked this out before I said yes to accepting a pair of Trika (one casting rod, one spinning rod) to put to the test last summer and write about in this Tackle and Toys column. During the summer, a friend of mine and I put these to the test in different places, conditions and styles of fishing their builders never imagined.
One of the unique features of Trika rods is though they have seven models of casting rods and five spinning rods, each is priced at $299. The sales hype on their website (www.trika.com) states independent tests show Trikas weight slightly less than their high-end competitors, they are twice as sensitive and they cast 23% farther.
The tests my friend and I put them to were less specific. Between us, we fished Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Erie and some inland lakes in Ontario for salmon, lake trout, walleyes, bass and pike. Some of the fishing was “conventional” where we were casting lures or jigging and getting a hands-on appreciation of the weight, feel, sensitivity and fish-fighting capabilities of the rods. Some of the test was unconventional, to say the least. I used the 7’7” casting rod as one of my downrigger sticks most of the spring for salmon and trout in Lake Michigan and on a trip to Lake Erie.
This was my best chance to see rod in action on bigger fish, and I did. It caught lakers to 18 pounds and browns to eleven pounds in that position, as well as bunches of cohos. Most telling, however, was at Lake Erie, I didn’t mention to my fishing companions there was anything “special” about the rod I positioned on the port-side out-down. My other ‘riggers had similarly sized Ugly Stick ‘rigger rods. After reeling in a solid five-pound walleye the angler commented he’d thought the fish was twice as big. “It felt like it was huge,” he said. There’s not much sensitivity in an Ugly Stick.
I too, noticed the sensitivity in both the casting and the spinning rod when I used them more conventionally. I’m sure the sensitive feel was magnified because compared to the rods I normally fish with, the Trikas were much lighter. Though whisper-light, however, neither rod felt undersized, when a good sized fish was on the line.
For scenario #1) It passed the test. Time will tell how if measures for #2, though it does carry a one-year satisfaction guarantee and lifetime warranty. Number three? That doesn’t matter to me.
For many, Ford’s F150 is the pick-up to which other such trucks are measured. To many, walleye anglers, Lund boats are the watercraft to which other such boats are measured. To many anglers, from bluegill lovers to wicked tuna catchers, St. Croix rods are the fishing “sticks” that all other brands of fishing rods need to measure up to for quality.
So when St.Croix decided to add a line of fishing reels to match to their rods (or to be used with other rods), I had little doubt they’d measure up with the best reels available. I had little doubt, but seeing (and using) is the way to know for sure. The model I selected to pair with a St. Croix Bass X casting rod I already own is the GF Series with the 7.3:1 gear ratio. It’s also available in 6.6:1 or hi-speed 8:1:1 in left or right hand versions.
I used this combo for an early autumn trip to Minnesota inland lake where it handled baits sized for perch to pike, both casting and jigging. Later in the fall I jigged and trolled for deep water ciscos and lake trout in Grand Traverse Bay. It gave me flawless performance on every cast, every drop and on every fish reeled in.
In talking with Josh Lantz, the media rep for St.Croix, he told me, “SEVIIN Reels aspires to deliver anglers with the most reliable and dependable reels available.” He said, “St. Croix didn’t jump into the reel business, our engineering teams examined and tinkered with every component to ensure the quality would match the reputation St. Croix has established in the fishing industry.
To this end, the SEVIIN team designed and built its very own testing laboratory inside the St. Croix factory in Park Falls, Wisconsin. Here, purpose-engineered, custom testing equipment continuously performs 12 distinct tests on every production run of its GF Series baitcasting reels. Specific individual tests include 1) temperature, 2) humidity/salt spray, 3) chemical resistance, 4) ultraviolet exposure, 5) dunk, 6) trip lifecycle, 7) gear endurance, 8) drop, 9) line guide retention, 10) pinion engagement, 11) gear strength and 12) drag performance.
Number six is most impressive to me. The trip lifecycle test consists of putting GF Series low-profile baitcasting reels through 200,000 cycles on a custom-engineered and precision-constructed instrument within the testing laboratory. A cycle consists of depressing and then releasing the thumb bar, then re-engaging the spool with a partial turn of the handle. I don’t know how many casts I make on an average fishing trip, but I’m sure it will take me several years to get to the 200K cycles number and when it does, I expect it to continue on and on. Seviin Reels are now widely available at a modest price in tackle stores, at online outlets including Amazon.com or at http://www.seviinreels.com..
FISHING TOYS 