REVIEWED BY CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

            When braided line was introduced and became popular with salt water anglers, reel makers adapted. They quickly developed new models specifically for the new, skinny line. These braid-crankers were scaled down in overall size, fitted with relatively massive drag systems and engineered with super-high gear ratios. Size, strictly to increase line capacity, wasn’t needed. Six hundred yards of braid will fit on a reel with only a 200 yard capacity for monofilament.

Just half-filling a reel is a lousy option. A reel with a full spool of line may wind on 24 inches of line with each turn of the handle. The same reel with only a half-filled spool will wind on only 12 inches per handle revolution.

By the same token, a tough fighting fish pulling line off a reel at 10 feet per second, spins the spool against the drag mechanism twice as fast with a half-filled reel. A drag system which may handle 100 rpms may fail completely at 200.

Reels for the Great Lakes market didn’t adapt. Though the use of braid (or equally skinny wire line) increased, almost all braid and wire line guys continued to use the same reels they formerly spooled with mono. To make it work, they wound on enough mono to nearly fill the reel’s spool, then topped off the spool with braid or wire. The line under the braid or wire on top was filler used solely to insure a reasonable amount of line was retrieved with each turn of the handle and to make the drag work efficiently.

I don’t know if Shimano’s newly designed Tekota A models were designed specifically to bridge the gap between braid and mono, but they do and quite nicely. Shimano Tekotas (the original model) are, in the opinion of many, the best Great Lakes trolling reel ever made. I have Shimano Tekotas on my boat, I’ve fished with them on other boats and have nary a complaint about them. So why change?

The change isn’t just cosmetic between the old and new versions. Available (at this writing) in 500 and 600 sizes with the same line capacity as the “non-A” Tekota 500 and 600s, that’s where the comparison ends. The originals had a gear ratio of 4.2:1. The “A-Team” has a gear ratio of 6.3:1. (Rough math comparison, with full spools, the A model winds on 37 inches of line, the original 25 inches with each handle revolution.)

The drag on the originals maxed out at 18 pounds; the Tek-As torque down to 24 pounds. The increased power tells me the drag will perform better, smoother and reliably, however tight it’s set, however full the spool.

My test reels (Tekota 500As in the line counter version) performed flawlessly, one spooled with 30-pound braided line, the other with 40-pound 19-Strand Torpedo Wire. I needed a bit of mono backing to bring 500 feet of wire and 200 yards of braid to “full spool.” The reels were mounted on diver rods and used for diver trolling.

I normally use Tekota 600s for trolling divers because the larger spool diameter gave me an adequate line retrieval per crank. The higher gear ratio more than made up for the smaller diameter spool. In use, the smaller, 500A was noticeably lighter, the drag held nicely against the pressure on the troll and slipped smoothly when a big fish hit the lure. I ran each diver, at times, with as much as 200 feet of line out. I really appreciated the high speed retrieve when reeling in just the diver and lure – no fish – on these longer sets.

Tekota lovers, if you are buying another reel, the Tekota As are as good or better than the original Tekotas and the better means you can easily get by with the smaller 500A if the line capacity suits your needs.

 

REVIEWED BY CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

I have a new favorite meat head I use when I’m trolling meat rigs for salmon and trout. I’ve never given much thought to the plastic heads I use to hold the herring strips on a meat rig other than the color. All of them were something of a pain to use what with the toothpicks and rigging the hooks to trail along properly.

No toothpicks needed. Instead, there’s a buckle-like bail with a barbed herring impaler permanently fastened to the head. That’s good reason enough to switch, but the tail of the strip-holder is fitted with a sturdy rubber band to hold the front hook right where it needs to be.

You can buy just the heads or fully rigged set-ups. Check out the Musselhead Tackle website for all the colors available. Order online at www.musselhead.com or look for them at your favorite salmon shop.

REVIEWED BY CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

If you climb into my tow vehicle on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day or most other days between you’d be subjected to an odor reminiscent of the closet in my college dorm room mixed with not-so-faint fish fumes. Hold your nose.

I may leave for the lake clean, shiny and smelling like Downy Fabric Softener and Old Spice. I drive home smelling like I just finished running a mile on a 90 degree day carrying a dead fish. My personal “scent,” coupled with smells from clammy clothes coupled with damp wipe down towels, coupled with…. Let’s just say, the essence inside the vehicle by the time I’ve driven home tends to linger and it gets worse on day two, three or longer. Now I plug in my Scentlok OZ20 Active Odor Destroyer into the vehicle’s cigarette lighter when I get home and let it run through it’s cycle. The smell disappears!

Odors don’t last forever. Otherwise we’d still be smelling dinosaur poop, exhaust from Henry Ford’s first car, the stench of the skunk he ran over with it and fumes from my dorm room closet. Smells are complex molecules floating around the atmosphere which sooner or later break down into less complex, odorless molecules. I’m sure there are numerous chemicals which can work odor magic on smelly molecules; few of them do it quicker or better than oxygen – or are as abundant.

But atmospheric oxygen is a very stable molecule. Without getting deep in the chemical weeds, over 99% of the oxygen molecules floating around in the air are O-2, basically two oxygen atoms stuck together. Individual, non-partnered, oxygen atoms are never found but occasionally, three oxygen atoms stick together and are called ozone.

In the world of oxygen, three’s a crowd and once ozone is created, the ozone molecule spends it’s fleeting existence looking for someplace to discard one of the three Os. When an ozone molecule bumps into an odor molecule, bam! The third O quickly jumps away from the other two Os and becomes a part of the odor molecule transforming it into something else – and if our nose is lucky, that something else doesn’t stink.

What the ScentLok OZ20 does is electro-chemically transform atmospheric oxygen into ozone and send it out in search of places (such as the stinky seat in my Suburban) to lose its spare oxygen molecule. The OZ20 is for use in unoccupied vehicles only. It cycles on an off every 15 minutes and shuts off completely after 8 hours.

REVIEWED BY CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

            I’m a coffee drinker but years ago I gave up bringing a Thermos of java along with me when going fishing. I like hot coffee; I don’t particularly like almost hot coffee and I’ll spew cool or cold coffee like a novice sailor spews breakfast in choppy waves.

I’m a hands-on captain on my boat. When there’s a fish on, I’m at the stern. When there’s a fish to be netted, I’m wielding the net. When there’s a line to be set….

Chances are, the hot coffee I poured before the fish bit, the net deployed and the line reset is only spew-worthy swill by the time I get my next coffee break. Not with my Yeti Rambler Tumbler.

Previously, my insulated “go cup” was a promotional item I got at a Pheasant’s Forever banquet. It worked great in my truck on the way to the lake, but only had to do its job for five or 10 minutes in a heated cab.

Tired of my complaining, my wife purchased a stainless steel coffee-on-the-go cup for me as a Christmas gift. Her theory was if my stainless steel Thermos worked great, so would a SS coffee mug. Negatory!

The stainless Thermos is a vacuum bottle. The interior and exterior portions are separated by an airless void and with no air molecules to transfer the heat from the inner container to the outer, the coffee stays warm. The inner container and outer surface on the SS “gift” cup is just air-filled – just as my plastic Pheasants Forever freebie.

The YETI Rambler, however, like my Thermos, is vacuum sealed. The only place heat can escape is out through the lid, but the lid is substantial, fits tight and has a closeable sippy-hole. Will it keep my coffee hot indefinitely? Nope, but I can return to my coffee break after a fish-interruption, take a sip and remain spewless.

The Rambler Tumbler holds 20 ounces, comes in a variety of colors and is available at retail outlets or on-line at http://www.yeti.com. Check out Yeti’s online Custom Shop for products with nifty logos featuring hunting, fishing and other themes.

 

REVIEWED BY: Capt. Mike Schoonveld

         I used to be a filet knife knucklehead. I owned only one medium sized (very sharp) filet knife and used it to turn anything from a tiny trout to a wicked tuna into boneless, serving sized fish flesh.

Last year I switched to a two-knife system for most of my fish cutting chores. I used a rechargeable electric knife to cut the filets off of the king salmon, steelhead, lake trout and walleyes I put on the cleaning table, then I switched to a manual blade to complete the boning and skinning process. I wish I’d made that switch years earlier. I was a knucklehead.

If I’d remained a knucklehead, when I saw Church Tackle’s “reinvention” of the filet knife I’d have laughed it off. With my new-found open mindedness about fish cleaning knives, I decided to give the Church Filet Knife a closer look.

Now I realize not only was I a knucklehead, I was a knuckle-dragger. So are you, most likely when you filet small fish or remove the skin from any of your filets unless you move them to the edge of the filet table or cutting board. The Church Filet Knife should be named the Knuckle-Saver.

The handle is molded with an offset so when the blade is against the cutting board the knuckles on my hand aren’t dragging on the surface of the board. That’s different, but even more different is how the blade is turned 90 degrees from the direction every other knife is positioned. When the holding the knife, blade down on the cutting surface, knuckles positioned nicely above the slime and blood on the filet table, the blade is flat on the board. What sort of knucklehead wants that?

The truth is, for skinning a fish, the configuration of this knife is perfect – conventional knives, not so much. Sure, I’ve skinned thousands of perch, walleye, bluegills and other fish over the years with a normal knife by sliding the fish to the edge of the cutting board so I can get the knife blade parallel to the cutting surface, slice off the skin and not be a knuckle-dragger fish skinner. I’ve also cleaned up buckets full of fish garbage from the floor of the fish cleaning station where it dripped off the edge of the table while cutting and skinning my filets.

One more departure from normal is the knuckle-knife is only honed sharp on one side (the top side), much like you should sharpen mower blades. When skinning a fish, that ensures the blade cuts razor close to the skin, less likely to slice through the skin and doesn’t leave any excess meat on the skin.

I did filet a few fish, first cut to last with the knife. Other than feeling a bit weird in my hand, the filets came out just fine. I’ve pounded nails with a rock before and the nails stuck in the wood just fine. If you want to be a knife snob and just use one knife, start to finish, this isn’t the knife for you. However, if like a carpenter, you recognize certain tools are better than others for specific jobs, having the Church “Knuckle-Saver” Filet Knife for skinning your catch makes sense.

The Church Filet Knife is currently available only for right-handers and has an 8-inch blade complete with a snug fitting sheath that won’t slip partially off when bouncing around in a boat or vehicle. Available at retail outlets, online retailers or order from http://www.churchtackle.com

Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

Until recently, there were only two types of throwables meeting USCG standards. One type is a relatively large buoy type, either ring-shaped or horseshoe shaped. The other type is a floating seat cushion.

By far, the better of these for the guy in the drink or rescuer in the boat is the buoy type. By far, due to ignorance, space consideration or cost, most boaters rely on the seat cushion type – if they rely on anything at all.

Though legal, a floatable boat cushion makes a very poor throwable float. I tested one in my yard. In perfect conditions (on land, no wind) I was able toss one almost 20 yards with a mighty, Frisbee-like throw, though with very little accuracy. I could toss it 10 yards, pretty much on-target.

Into the wind? Not so great. At wind speeds of 10 to15 mph, a mighty heave could result in the cushion going any direction – even backwards! Is that what you want as your first emergency response tool? Should you spend the money and sacrifice the space to get a USCG bouy type throwable? Perhaps.

Or, look into a recently USCG certified inflatable throwable called a Throw Raft. Using similar technology to what’s used in CG approved inflatable PFDs, these pack into a small, dense container – roughly the size and weight of a football – which, like a football, can be thrown accurately for a fairly long distance.

Once the throwable splashes down in the water and the swimmer grabs on, it will either self-inflate or the user can pull the rip-cord to inflate it. It initially inflates using a compressed CO2 cylinder. There’s also a manual blow-up tube for double emergency use. It can be repacked, rearmed with a new CO2 Cylinder and reused.

Once inflated, the floatation is a square raft measuring 22 by 24 inches which provides more buoyancy than non-inflatable throwables meeting minimum USCG standards.

Since this is a device 99 percent of boaters will never use (other than for being legal), the above stats and specifications have little importance. What is important is the fact the throwable Type IV is only one-fifth the size of a seat cushion type and a tenth the size of a ring buoy.

A boater can stow or mount it in a handy location without it taking up valuable space. Being dense, it won’t blow out of the boat while underway or at normal trailering speeds on the highway. Throw Rafts are available in some retail outlets, on-line at www. throwraft.com or at Amazon.com.

Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

With normal use, the “pointy” end of your boat is the location on the outside of the hull most likely to be subject to normal wear and tear as well as abnormal distress. Until I found a healthy chip in the gelcoat of my boat close to the water line, right at the bow, I hadn’t given this much thought. I have no idea of whether the ding was caused by running into one object one single time while running at speed or hitting dozens, maybe hundreds of miscellaneous chunks of flotsam or jetsam.

Regardless, I fixed it, but the repair left me wondering how long it would be until I’d need to fix it again. I found the answer at the ICAST show a week or so later at the Gator Guards’ booth. Never!

Among the Gator Guard products on display was KeelShield. KeelShield is a six-inch wide, roughly quarter-inch thick, incredibly tough, flexible polymer strip which bonds to the boat’s pointy-end to protect it from impact with floating items – as well as docks, boat trailers, concrete ramps or rocky shorelines.

KeelShield will adhere to aluminum boats from most manufacturers and all fiberglass hulls. Following the detailed instructions, I was able to install a KeelShield on my boat in about an hour. Surface prep is simply cleaning the area with a scrubby pad (included) with isopropyl alcohol (not included). Once the keel is ready, just follow the steps to carefully remove a thin backing to expose the 3-M bonding surface as the KeelShield is pressed in place. If you can stick packing tape on a box, you can stick a KeelShield on your boat.

The product is exceedingly tough and if you manage to wear it out (doubtful), it comes with a lifetime warrantee. I chose a navy blue color that matches the accent stripes already on the hull of my boat. KeelShields come in nine colors to mix or match, and various lengths depending on the size and slope of your boat’s bow. Get KeelShields online at http://www.gator-guard.com or amazon.com. It’s also sold at marine retailers and big-box outdoor outlets.

Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

Perhaps this fishing tool would have a better following if Church Tackle could come up with a more descriptive name. The Stern Planer doesn’t plane. It just drags along back behind the boat. Perhaps the name is just a marketing ploy. Would you buy a Stern Dragger?”

Regardless of the name, what does it do? You attach a planer to keep trolled lines from simply dragging straight behind the boat’s stern. If a troller wants a lure to troll straight behind the boat, why not just let it out and stick the rod in a rod holder? What advantage does the Stern Planer offer? More than you might guess.

I didn’t understand the concept of a Stern Planer until I fished with a walleye-guy who used a measured amount of line between his in-line planer boards and the lures he was trolling. The measured length of line kept his lures swimming at specific depths.

Bingo! The light bulb in my mind clicked bright.

There are charts which will show the trolling depth various lures will achieve with more or less line is deployed (measured from where the line enters the water to the lure.) Say you want your lure to troll 12 feet deep. The chart shows you need 50 feet of line in the water. Let out 50 feet of line, attach a side planer (or the Stern Planer) and it’s set perfectly.

Let out 50 feet of line without the SP, then put the rod in a stern-mounted rod holder and 20, 25 or 30 feet of the line will be out of the water. So let out more line but how much more? There’s no chart for this. The depth of the lure on the stern line is little more than a guess.

On my boat, I don’t often run an unweighted stern line, but I do often put a six to ten color lead core line “right down the chute.” Right down the chute often means “right in the way” when a fish bites one of my other lines and it’s being reeled into net range.

            The Stern Planer comes in two sizes (TX-005 is small, TX-007 is large). The TX-005 will tow any sort of crankbait or other lightweight lure. The large size will pull 10 colors of lead core line. When I have a chute line out, the Stern Planer not only makes it easy to spot where the  chute line enters the water, but makes it possible to just let out 25 or 30 more yards of line when a fish bites some other line. The stern cone slides back so the fish being caught on other lines can be fought under the stern line, not along side it.

Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

Many people fishing the Great Lakes for the first time catch the biggest fish of their lives. Often, that fish is the first one they’ve ever caught with teeth. Almost always as soon as the fish is in the net or on the deck, out comes the cameras or cell phones to record the catch for posterity.

Usually, the next thing that happens is the just-caught, just-lifted fish wiggles, flops and drops back onto the deck as the proud angler gets a finger poked by a sharp tooth or simply fails to get a good, solid grip. That’s if the proud angler even attempts to pick it up in the first place.

Many youngsters, women and a surprising number of men-folk are happy to reel in a fish; not so happy to actually touch one. Actually, I don’t want a person of any age or gender with that mindset trying to do a grip and grin with their fish on my boat. At best they are going to drop the fish. At worst they are going to get cut by a gill or scraped by a sharp tooth, then drop it.

I’ve used several brands of fish-holding tools and have used both boca-grips and spike-handle types on my boat. The spike style relies on poking the spike up through the gills and then gravity takes over. They actually work pretty well until you skewer on a big trout or salmon and then hand it over to the nine-year old who just caught it. His or her arm will soon sway like a palm tree in a hurricane and then down goes the fish.

The boca-grips allow a two-handed grip and straight up lift, but (and I have three brands), I’ve watched dozens of twisty active cohos manage to come un-boca gripped when lifted. Down goes the fish. These fish grabbers were all sidelined once I got a pair of Fish Grip, vice-plier type fish holding tools last summer.

Fish Grips are modeled after Vise Grip locking pliers (except no adjustment is needed.) Just get one of the jaws of the Fish Grips fish lifter into the mouth of the fish and squeeze the handles to pinch the other jaw shut. It will stay put until the handles are pulled apart to pop open the jaws. No further instructions needed.

They do come with a cord you can put around your wrist if using them to grip pike or muskies over the side of the boat. (Don’t worry about not strapping them on – they will float.) More importantly, I’ve never seen a person drop a fish once the tool is pinched in place, either because the tool slipped loose or the fish ripped it out of the lifter’s hands.

Fish Grips, made in the USA, are widely available at retailers or online at www. TheFishGrip.net. They come in two sizes (original and junior) and in a variety of colors. I have two sets. I chose bright pink for the fisher-ladies who come on my boat and a bright red pair, easy to locate in the compartment where I stow them.

 

Reviewed by CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD

There’s probably not an ice fisherman in North America who doesn’t use products manufactured by the Clam Corporation. So when I approached Clam’s new product display at an outdoor writer’s meeting I was surprised to see a line of salmon/steelhead trolling spoons on display.

I asked the Clam rep at the booth if they are starting to branch out into the Great Lakes lure business. He looked at me as if I’d just asked if they planned to start selling designer coffee products. I quickly grabbed one of the Peg Spoons being displayed and simply asked, “What’s up with these?”

Back on a familiar topic, the Clam-guy said, “These are our new Peg Spoons, the name “Peg” being short for Lake Winnipeg where they use this sort of spoon regularly when ice fishing for walleye.”

I’m far from being up on the latest ice fishing tactics, especially at Lake Winnipeg, but I’ve attached similar-looking flutter spoons to my salmon and steelhead trolling lines thousands of times. Maybe walleyes will gobble them eagerly in Winnipeg or elsewhere; I was sure early season coho on Lake Michigan and browns and steelheads in all the lakes would find them equally attractive.

I was right – at least about the Great Lakes cohos, browns and steelies where I tested the spoons. Available in eight colors, I used the Rusty Craw (orange/gold/pink) and the Orange Tiger (chartreuse/orange) with good success in the chalky, churned-up water I fish at the beginning of the season when bright colors always do better. I know the other colors would be equally successful in areas where clearer water conditions prevail.

At 3 1/4 inches, the Peg is stamped from a zinc alloy which makes it slightly lighter than steel or brass spoons. I couldn’t detect much difference in the action from the similarly sized spoons of other brands but humans don’t view spoons and other lures the same way as fish.

The next time you are in the ice fishing aisle at your favorite tackle shop (or heading for Lake Winnipeg) check out Clam’s Peg Spoons in your favorite salmon and trout colors. Or see them at http://www.clamoutdoors.com.