In June 2020, and after several years of experimentation, I brought to market a lure called the MAL Lure. This lure was intended to fill a gap where standard presentations fell short, especially during the summer months.
There was once a time when, as a full-time professional fishing guide focused on the year-round pursuitof white bass, I just dreaded the summer months.
This tough fishing would persist right up until turnover, typically in mid to late October.
Through the years, Ive been successful in eliminating unproductive water and getting white bass to biteduring the summer months by making myself become well-versed in interpreting all forms of sonar, andby covering water quickly and efficiently via downrigging.
Still, during those times when downrigging led me to concentrations of white bass, be they located onbottom or suspended, I was hard-pressed to catch more than just a handful immediately after quicklytransitioning from a horizontal approach to a vertical approach.
Slabs, spoons, soft plastics and jigs generated a spurt of initial interest, followed by a very predictable,frustrating shutdown.
I bought some Do-It lead molds and started making my own custom horsehead jigs, complete with theircharacteristic, underslung, spinning blade. That experiment was largely unsuccessful due to my luresslow sink rates, but I did walk away observing that the jigs small spinning blades were a definite triggerfor white bass.
Several summers ago, I decided to venture outside the box to try to crack the code on warm waterwhite bass. I tried doing things on my home waters that no one else was doing. I also traveled to
Queensland, Australia, to fish for Australian bass with professional fishing guide Matthew Langford onLakes Boruma and Somerset during the Australian summer to check out some of the approaches theAussies had come up with using heavy metal tactics for suspended summertime fish holding above thethermocline.
Next, I made my own modified tailspinners. This kept the spinning blade feature of the horsehead jig,but added more weight. I also tried to engineer out of my tailspinners some of the flaws I noted inthose tailspinners already on the market, namely the tendency for the hook to catch on the line or thespinner shaft, and for the blade to spin lazily.
I enjoyed great success with these tailspinners, but I noted that my clients did not do nearly so well onthem as I did. As I analyzed this, I noted that many did not have the fish-fighting experience needed tokeep hooked fish on the hook as the fish was transferred from the water into the boat; we lost way toomany fish during that transition for my satisfaction.
Additionally, many clients had trouble getting and keeping my tailspinners blades turning as needed toattract fish in the first place. So, now I had an effective lure, but it was not user-friendly.
This led me to begin experimenting with inline spinners. I experimented with making my own spinnerswith brass bodies, lead bodies and tungsten bodies, and after many iterations, found something I felthad both fish-catching potential and user-friendly attributes.
I introduced a few clients to the lure and they did very well with it. Then, I began to keep these custom-made versions tied on for general, daily use by all of my clients, including kids and rookies. No one hadany difficulties catching white bass on these lures during the tough summer months. I was amazed atthe results.
Since I had no desire to get into lure production, I brainstormed about how I might have these luresmade to ensure a continuous supply of these for my business. I assumed it was a long-shot actually, Iassumed it was rejection just waiting to happen, but I called the Mepps lure company of Antigo,Wisconsin.
Mepps spinners were the closest in appearance and construct to the effective prototypes I haddeveloped. I worked with them to take characteristics and components from several of their existing
products to form a new product which was deadly for white bass.
Last year, in December, as the water temperature fell to 58, the magic of the MAL Lure all but ranout. The speed at which the lure had to be moved to get the spinner spinning around the lures wire
shaft was too fast for cold-blooded, lethargic fish.
I knew two things for sure first, that a spinning blade is an ultra-attractive feature so far as white bassand hybrid stripers are concerned, and second, that the slab -- a shad-shaped hunk of lead - has puttens of thousands of fish in my boat in the winter months. I wondered what might happen if I combinedthese two powerful entities.
Long story short, this curiosity gave rise to the newest cold-water bait now on the market, introducedand made public this week.
That bait is the Bladed Hazy Eye Slab. This combines a classic, shad-shaped lead body with a smallwillow-leafed spinner blade which is affixed to the lures treble hook using a tiny swivel bonded to thehook.
This bait comes in three sizes: 3/8 ounce, 5/8 ounce, and 3/4 ounce. The baits come powder-coated fordurability in either white or chartreuse.
Most of my field-testing was done last winter in January and February once the water fell into the 50s.
The Bladed Hazy Eye Slab produced extremely well then, and continued to do so even after the severewinter storm took water temperatures into the mid-40s. I have already begun keeping my rods riggedwith these slabs on my boat for times when fish get too finicky to chase hard after the MAL Lures.
On Wednesday, the last 30 of the 100 fish my clients landed were landed on the Bladed Hazy EyeSlab.
In mid-January last year, just before the Tuff-Man Series championship event was to take place, I guidedone of my clients to a 38-plus-pound, five-fish limit of largemouth bass on Stillhouse, all of which werelanded on the standard Hazy Eye Shad -- proof positive that largemouth bass congregate in deep waterin the winter and strike slabs despite the lure being more closely associated with white bass and hybridstriped bass fishing.
I count on the lures I have tied onto the rods I carry on my boat to make my clients successful. Theselures have earned a place on my boat from this time of year right up until the water temperature nips at60F once again in the spring.
If you are like me, you want to see and hold a new lure in your hands before buying it, mainly so you canget a sense for its shape, weight, profile, etc., and see how the fine-tuning which went into the creationof this bait makes it different from a standard slab. These are all things which photographs just cannotconvey. For this reason, Dean Thompson has kindly put on display a full lineup of these new baits atTightlines Premium Fishing Tackle on Business Highway 190 in Killeen.
I also have these available online at http://www.WhiteBassTools.com. Just as necessity truly is the mother ofinvention, I believe fine-tuning inventions is the father of success.
Go here to see the original:
BOB MAINDELLE: The evolution of lures for the cold-water season - The Killeen Daily Herald
- Days of our Lives' Suzanne Rogers on the Evolution of Maggie: "She Knows Who She Is Now, and She's Not Relying ... - Michael Fairman TV - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Kylie Jenner Talks About Her Style Evolution - The Cut - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Equator Coffees Unveils New Packaging Design, Reflecting Brand Evolution & Vision For The Future - Sprudge - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Rosewood Hotel Group Accelerates Growth And Evolution Across Its Four Distinctive Brands - Hospitality Net - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Thomson Reuters Unveils New Brand Evolution - Adweek - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Is It Becoming Acceptable to Speak of Design? - Discovery Institute - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Did Charles Darwin Convert to Christianity and Discredit Evolution on His Deathbed? - Snopes.com - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Milk, it's not just for mammals: An amphibian makes it too - NPR - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Discover Puerto Rico Debuts Evolution of Its Successful 'Live Boricua' Brand Campaign Aimed at Engaging Visitors ... - Yahoo Finance - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- A Journey Through Time: The Evolution of Ras Al Khaimah Art - Business Wire - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Empowering Women: The Evolution and Innovation of coto Social Platform - CXOToday.com - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- The Evolution of Da'Vine Joy Randolph - The Root - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Study on mating behaviors offers clues into the evolution of attraction - Phys.org - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Dragonball Evolutions live-action Goku says goodbye to Toriyama: Sorry we messed up - AS USA - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Investec, evolution of SMEs in the materials handling sector - Leasing Life - March 14th, 2024 [March 14th, 2024]
- Pride & Prejudice and the evolution of the female gaze on screen - Yahoo News UK - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Joe Wong's Musical Evolution - Shepherd Express - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- A global survey of prokaryotic genomes reveals the eco-evolutionary pressures driving horizontal gene transfer - Nature.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Redefining Intelligence: Chimpanzees Break Through the Cultural Evolution Barrier - Medriva - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Mollusk Eyes Reveal How Future Evolution Depends on the Past - Quanta Magazine - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Levy Delves Into the Evolution of ADCs in NSCLC - OncLive - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Snake Is The Spearhead of Reptile Evolution, But Why? - ScienceAlert - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- 'A very special day: Birds linked to Darwins theory of evolution reintroduced to Galapagos Islands - Euronews - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Why the Powerhouses of Cells Evolve Differently in Plants - College of Natural Sciences - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Driving the DevOps Evolution: ArgoCD, Tekton and Seamless Migrations - DevOps.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Finding the Balance: The Evolution of Public Health Guidance Amidst Controversy - Medriva - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Insider Podcast: Paolini dishes on her Polish roots and hard-court evolution - WTA Tennis - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Interview: Sara Gruen and Rick Elice Talk About the Inspiration and Evolution of the New Musical Water for Elephants - TheaterMania.com - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of the Laravel Welcome Page - Laravel News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- A Serpentine 'Explosion' 125 Million Years Ago Primed Snakes for Rapid, Diverse Evolution - Smithsonian Magazine - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of Modern Technologies in Car Development - FinSMEs - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Milwaukee Transformed: From Bronzeville to Veterans Park, Aerial Timelapses Reveal City's Evolution - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The eyes are a gateway to evolution of daddy longlegs at least. - University of Wisconsin-Madison - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Adrian Newey: RB20 is the next step in Red Bull's design evolution - PlanetSport - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- LiveScore releases its 'Evolution of Fan' report - Gambling Insider - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The loyalty program evolution makes its way to the full-service restaurant category - Nation's Restaurant News - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin II - Re-Evolution #1 spoiler-free review: goes hard on the action, but ... - Gamesradar - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Exploring U.S. Financial Evolution: DAR Hosts Talk on Federal Reserve History in Thomasville - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Why cloud evolution needs a cohesive approach to succeed - CIO - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Gilead Sciences CEO on Company's Evolution and Commitment to the Bay Area - BioSpace - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Navigating the AI Quandary: Human Supremacy vs Machine Intelligence Evolution - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Denis Villeneuve breaks down the evolution of sandworms in 'Dune: Part Two' - Mashable - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Continued evolution of law improves governing capacity - Chinadaily.com.cn - China Daily - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- The Evolution of the DEX Space with dYdX's CEO Antonio Juliano - Blockster - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- Quick Commerce Evolution: 3PL Firms Aim for Same Day Delivery, Chasing Blinkit and Zepto's Lead - BNN Breaking - March 6th, 2024 [March 6th, 2024]
- What If...? Star Jeffrey Wright Addreses the Watcher's Evolution and 'Epic' Season 2 Finale - CBR - Comic Book Resources - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Evolution of the Connected Autonomous Vehicle - Ward's Auto - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- A project to capture the evolution of human culture. - Psychology Today - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Evolution of a Digital Soul. Beyond Code: A Journey of Heart and | by Mark Randall Havens | Dec, 2023 - Medium - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- 4 Clues That Reid Is Finally Returning In Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2 - Screen Rant - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Evolution of Samoyed and Kitten's Friendship Delights Internet: 'Wholesome' - Newsweek - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Crypto Evolution: Pullix (PLX) vs OKB (OKB) & KuCoin (KCS) - Crypto Reporter - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Alfa Romeos mediocre F1 season heralded its era of evolution: Prime Tire - The Athletic - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Beyond The Uniform: 10 Years of Evolution in SYNC Performance's Custom Program - SkiRacing.com - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Why SZA's evolution into a popstar has earned her recognition as artist of the year - Salon - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- AI in 2023 Rises, Falls and Evolution - Finance Magnates - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Indonesia's Indosat pursues evolution from telecom to tech company - Nikkei Asia - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- EdTech Evolution: 3 Stocks Educating the Next Generation - InvestorPlace - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Informa Tech Interview with Huawei about voice evolution and innovations at 5G Core Summit 2023 - Informa Tech ... - Light Reading - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Looking ahead: What will the DeFi evolution look like in 2024? - Ledger Insights - Ledger Insights - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Why Cat Bohannon wrote 'Eve, How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution' | India News ... - IndiaTimes - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The smart-design evolution of the laboratory space - pharmaphorum - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The WILD Evolution of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TMNT (VIDEO) - FandomWire - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The supernatural invades American museums via indigenous artifacts - Why Evolution Is True - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Baleen Whales First Evolved Large Body Size in Cold Southern Waters, New Fossil Shows - Sci.News - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Evolution of Identity in Taiwan The Diplomat - The Diplomat - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- From the Archive: The Evolution Of Hockey Pools - The Hockey News - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- 'X-Men: Evolution' Is Better Than 'X-Men: The Animated Series' - Collider - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Unveiling the Silver Screen: The Evolution of Celebrity Nudity in Cinema - The Hype Magazine - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Are Humans Still Evolving? 'Maybe More Rapidly Than Ever,' Says Scientist - Newsweek - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- The Intersection of Real Estate and Fintech: Evolution, Impact of Policies, and Global Dynamics - CXOToday.com - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Kyle Richards' Style Evolution: Her Best Looks - Us Weekly - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 2's "Deeper Secrets" Teased By Aisha Tyler - Screen Rant - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- Saturday: Hili dialogue Why Evolution Is True - Why Evolution Is True - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- NBA 2K24 MyTEAM New Year Resolution Adds 14 Evolution Cards - ClutchPoints - December 31st, 2023 [December 31st, 2023]
- dive into the history of NASA's logo evolution from the space ... - Designboom - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Resolving the puzzle of same-sex sexual interactions - Nature.com - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- The History and Evolution of Black Friday And How It Got Its Name - Yahoo Life - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Evolution of Terran R, with Tim Ellis (Relativity Space) - Payload - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]
- Brownell Raves About Breakout Junior's Evolution - The Clemson Insider - November 8th, 2023 [November 8th, 2023]