Gear Review: Strike King Tour Grade Spinnerbaits

It was back in the spring when I found myself selected to do a gear review by the Outdoor Blogger Network. I remember being thrilled that I would be receiving some Strike King lures in the mail to test out and review. Well, thanks to many circumstances that were out of everyone’s control – most significantly the wonderful Canada Post strike (the one time I expect something in the mail and they go on strike!) – the lures didn’t arrive until this fall.

What a great day - getting free lures in the mail! And all I had to do was write a review...

Anytime I get a new lure is cause for excitement and this was no different. After a few quick pictures I ripped open the packages and sorted the lures into some of the tackle boxes.

I received three different lures to review, and they were put through the test on Puslinch Lake here in Southern Ontario.

Strike King Tour Grade Spinnerbait

www.tacklewarehouse.com

This was the lure I was looking forward to trying out the most.  Until this point the only Strike King spinnerbaits I had in my arsenal were KVD spinnerbaits that never seemed to work quite right for me. The skirts would get tangled in the hooks and the blades took a tug to get going. It’s most likely an issue with my own fishing skills that causes these problems but the Tour Grade spinnerbaits were the opposite, they worked perfectly from the first cast.

I don’t like to take a lot of time modifying baits and without any work this spinnerbait casts a mile, the blades start spinning immediately upon retrieve, and the skirts do not get tangled. Plus, the vibration you feel from that big blade reassures you that everything is working well.

I was only a couple of casts in when this bait landed me a decent pike. It certainly proved that it could be a go-to lure as both Darrell and I kept catching fish on the spinnerbait when nothing else would work.

One of the bass Darrell caught on this lure

While plain white or chartreuse are my usual colors for spinner baits, this white and chartreuse spinnerbait with the orange spot and a painted blade seemed to be the key to triggering bites from these fish. This color in particular does a good job imitating both perch and sunfish – two main types of forage in many bodies of water here in Ontario.

This spinnerbait has found a valued spot on my tacklebox and I just may have to go get more.

Strike King Tour Grade Crankbait

www.tacklewarehouse.com

The Tour Grade Lucky Shad crankbait was included as part of the package. I received a series 3 crankbait which dives to 8-feet. I have not had much chance to use this lure as it kept running through the weeds in Puslinch and pulling up grass. When I did get it into clear water, it wasn’t the right situation. The bait runs well with a subtle wobble but I think it will have to wait until next year to catch me some fish.

Strike King Pro Model Crankbait

www.tacklewarehouse.com

This series one crankbait in sexy shad was just the ticket when the weather was slightly cooler. Fished just above the weeds it proved tempting for both crappie and pike. This color was perfect for Puslinch Lake as there is a healthy population of sunfish.

I found it easy to modify the depth at which this bait ran and could consistently fish it at my chosen depth – often 2-feet – just by keeping the rod tip a little higher. The lure did not have as much action as some of my most used crankbaits, but that was the ticket for the bites I got.

This one was pretty eager for the sexy sunfish!

I really enjoyed the way this lure fished, and on subsequent outings it has become one of my favorite search lures.

Any of these lures would be a great addition to your tacklebox, as they have been to mine, taking some space from other brands I have come to rely on. Strike King produces quality products and I will have no problems throwing these lures when I need a bite.

 

Disclaimer – This review is my opinion and I received these lures for free in exchange for giving said opinion. I have no association with Strike King and was not reimbursed or paid for this review. As I think most fishing stuff is great, many of my gear reviews will be cheerful no matter what

 

Thanksgiving Fishing At Puslinch Lake

This past Thanksgiving weekend provided some spectacular warm and sunny weather. There was no better way to take advantage of such weather than to pack up the boat and head out on the water.

Our destination of choice was Puslinch Lake in Puslinch, Ontario. Since we hadn’t made it out on the water in two weeks we were eager for a bite, and Puslinch has lots of little toothy critters always willing to oblige. Besides the pike there are largemouth bass, a small population of smallmouth bass, crappie and walleye.

This is one of the best tow vehicles I've ever seen at a launch...

All about spinnerbaits…

We launched on Sunday morning with the sun shining and the water temp at 64F. A quick tour around the lake got the motor warmed up and we settled first into a bay containing a large amount of lily pads (surprising given the time of the year). With the amount of weed still in good condition we started with topwaters and spinnerbaits. Without any action we left the bay and started casting along the shoreline. A rocky point near weeds seemed prime for a fish but again, nothing.

I decided to change it up and tie on a new Strike King spinnerbait I had won for a gear review from OBN. The 3/8oz spinnerbait with a painted blade and a bit more color than the white one I had been throwing seemed to be the ticket. On my 4th cast I felt a thud, set the hook, and pulled in a decent little pike.

The first pike of the day. The only pic was on him in the net because getting the hooks out required some time and we didn't want him out of the water any longer than necessary.

I can’t say the fishing was fast – we went some time between bites. But to be out on the water, enjoying the sunshine and catching some fish, was just incredible. We eventually established a pattern as we picked up a few more pike and some largemouth bass. With the exception of two bass I snagged with a drop-shot off a swim platform, the fish came out of the weeds in about 6-8 feet of water, next to the deep lake basin. The one spinnerbait reigned supreme and it was fortunate we had two of them so both Darrell and I could toss it.

One of the bass Darrell snagged on the spinnerbait

While we had an amazing day on Sunday there was one scary moment when we were running between two islands. There was a marker to indicate the rock shoal extended far out from the island. What we didn’t realize was that the shoal extended the entire width between the two islands. The sound of the motor popping up after hitting the rock is not something I want to hear again.

All about the crankbait…

Holiday Monday morning dawned as beautiful as  the day before, and despite the fact we had a turkey dinner to get to, the lake lured us back for the afternoon. Instead of picking up with our pattern from the previous day, the increased temperature (the water temp was now 66F) had us heading back to the bay and tossing frogs. There is little I like doing more than frog fishing, and having little bass smashing at my frog was great fun. The bite, however, wasn’t really there, so we moved off to recreate our pattern from Sunday.

This time the spinnerbaits were catching nothing but weeds. Since I’m not a patient angler it wasn’t long before the spinnerbait was put down and a new Strike King square bill crankbait was tied on. It took me a few casts to get the feel of running it just above the weeds, but then I felt a pump and reeled in a pike.

One of the pike caught on the crankbait

A few casts later and I finally reeled in a Puslinch Lake crappie! We had tried to target them the day before with no luck and now I had one on the crankbait.

A pretty nice crappie

Again, our day turned out to be about one lure. No matter what we threw, the only lure provoking a bite was the crankbait.

The hot lure on Monday

A few hours later, and after I lost another fish, we decided to be responsible people and pack it in so we were only an hour late for Thanksgiving dinner. I could have stayed out there a lot longer. There really is nothing like a beautiful day on the water and catching fish, especially when the fish are coming in fairly steady.

The boat, waiting to be packed up. The boat has had much more use since we bought it than it ever did with it's previous owner

The lake at sunset...

It’s always a surprise how therapeutic time on the water actually is. Getting out for two days and catching fish just seemed to make everything better. Puslinch Lake proved to be an excellent destination and we weren’t the only ones who thought so. Many people were out on the lake, taking advantage of the last gasp of incredible weather. I hope everyone was able to enjoy their holiday weekend as much as I did!

Sitting In The Rain

Thanks to a tremendous amount of rain, I am currently sitting in the truck in an attempt to sit on something more comfortable than the ground inside the very damp tent. And since I actually have reception on my phone out this way, why not write a blog post?

Our first day of vacation yesterday, did not start exactly as planned. While hoping to leave the house by 6AM, the boat and our housesitter were still MIA at 5! Darrell is the organized sort when it comes to fishing trips and was hoping to have the boat back on Monday – to give it a once over and have it ready for to go. Instead, he picked it up at 6:30 Tuesday morning and we crossed our fingers.

Finally on the road, I could not help but get excited. It’s been a long year since our last vacation and I was ready to leave everything behind and get busy fishing! With Jack (our dog) sleeping between us in truck, we cranked the music and headed north.

It was only a few short hours before we reached our destination at Sturgeon Bay Provincial Park. After a quick tour of the open campsites we selected a location, setup camp and launched the boat.

It was while launching the boat that we realized something was seriously wrong with the boat trailer. The inside treads in both tires are almost bald. Further investigation revealed the axle has a huge bend in it. *sigh* Guess Darrell was right to want the boat back early.

Leaving that behind we decided to rig the rods while having lunch and drive them back to the boat. When you take as many rods as we do, walking them to the boat is not an option. It was when we arrived back at the boat that I was greeted with a horrific sight – something had fallen on my G. Loomis GLX drop-shot rod and broke the tip off! *sigh* I had really been looking forward to using that on this trip.

With the day starting to feel like it was jinxed we climbed into the boat and set off. I got a nice tour of an absolutely beautiful area – Sturgeon Bay and further out into Georgian Bay are stunning – before we settled down to start casting.

We had decided to come here to fish because both of us were hopeful to catch our first musky. We had bought some heavier gear and lures before leaving and spent a long time tossing them to no avail before giving our slightly tired arms a break and switching over to bass gear.

It was while drop-shotting off a rock point that Darrell landed the first fish – a beautiful 4lb pike. It was more than a little angry and proceeded to splash the boat as I kept the net in the water for a minute.

After getting rid to the skunk we managed to come across a nice school of crazy smallies. I’ve caught a lot of smallies but these things were even more torpedo-like than normal. What a blast. The drop-shot was nailing them.

After crossing the ‘highway’, which is what this waterway often resembles, we drifted into a channel between two islands and found another school of smallies that were eager to smash the drop-shot and crankbaits. Already having had an awesome day of fishing, we drifted into the little bay behind the islands and there we had our greatest moment.

Still tossing for smallies, Darrell was reeling in a chartreuse and white Booyah bait and as he pulled it into the boat there was an explosion of water followed by the yell, ‘I’ve got a musky!’ I threw my rod down and ran for the nets. Darrell played in the absolutely beautiful 6lb musky and I got it into the smaller of our two nets. Then as Darrell turned to get the pliers, the musky jumped, got out of the net, shook the hook, and was gone. I felt awful for not getting Darrell a picture with that fish!

However, we were both on a high after that fish, and although we had to pack it in for the night (both Jack and I were wanting dinner), we had an incredible day.

Despite the rain that has been falling since nine last night, we have decided to spend another night here before moving on, in hopes of landing another musky, and this time snapping a picture.

Bitsy Bounty On Bass Opener

Happy Southern Ontario bass opener! I hope everyone was able to get out fishing this weekend, at least for a little bit.

With bass now open we couldn’t help but take all our new toys collected over the winter as we got ready to hit the water. The boat was looking pretty full with 12 rods and many flat boxes packed inside as we headed out today on the Grand River.

Instead of hitting an area we knew, we decided to hit a stretch of the river neither of us had done much fishing in before. The water was murky and very slow, with a water temp of about 66F (which rose to 69F before the end of the day).

We started by trolling crankbaits as we made our way up river and quickly found that to be a problem with all the ground weed and clumps of floating weed that left us picking salad off our lures.

When I finally got tired of the salad bar, I tossed out a white Mini-King and continued to troll along.  I was busy watching a family in another boat – the father was tying a hook on for his son – when I felt my rod bend.

I went fishing for bass and ended up with a crappie

It turned out to be a nice-sized crappie that put up quite the fight. The Mini-King was tied on to my least favorite of our fishing rods, but the rod and I made up our differences after I caught another couple of crappie, a bass and some sunfish on it. It was a pretty hot combo today.

We finally hooked into some bass a little further up river. The first one I saw turned out to be just a follow but I had to admire it’s spunk – it was only a little bigger then my lure.

For the next couple of hours, Darrell and I drifted along the river, casting a variety of lures and trying a mix of techniques. This section of river did not contain a lot of great structure, so when we came to rocky sections along shore, areas where cooler water was trickling in, we made sure to slow down and work the area thoroughly.

Lots of itsy-bitsy bass today

We ended up reeling in a good number of bass, but none of them were a great size. There was a stretch where it felt like I was reeling in a bass on every other cast, but, fight as they did, they were tiny. It never fails to amaze me just how ambitious smallmouth bass are. They don’t care if the lure is the same size as them, they’re still going to try and bite it!

I did get a chance to use my new G. Loomis GLX drop-shot rod, paired with a Shimano Stradic CI4. Wow! What a great combo! Have you ever heard the phrase “so sensitive you could feel a minnow fart’? Well it certainly applies in this case! I felt every little piece of weed the weight ripped through and even the tiniest nibble from the smallest sunfish came through loud and clear. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best place to use the combo today and my only catch on it was a very tiny crappie.

Eventually the bite shut down and we packed up and headed for shore. Despite the lack of a big fish it was a wonderful day on the water and great way to open bass season!

After Work Fishing

On my drive home from work yesterday I felt an urgent need to go fishing. I told myself there was a lot of work to do at home and I should catch up on those jobs before hitting the water…but by the time I walked into the house I knew where I was heading. I quickly looked after the horses and gathered up the fishing gear.

By the time Darrell got home the rods and tackle were sitting on the front porch and we only had to throw the canoe in the truck and go.

It was a quick walk from the truck, down the trail, to the river (at least it was for me, I wasn’t the one carrying the canoe!). The water level had dropped since we were last there a week ago and was much slower. Knowing we only had a few hours before dark we quickly climbed into the canoe and set out.

The first catch of the night

Only two casts in and Darrell managed to hook into a decent brown trout. It took me a few lure changes and many more casts but I finally hooked into a brown of my own a little while later. We had quite a few hits but didn’t have the best gear for catching the browns that night – we would have been far more successful if we had brought our fly rods. We watched them surfacing on the hatch everywhere.

There is some amazing scenery on this stretch of the river.

The canoe enabled us to get into stretches of the river we can’t normally reach. The views are stunning and the rock faces are awe-inspiring. I spent of a lot of time looking around at the rock walls instead of focusing on my retrieve.

The advantage of having two people in the canoe is one gets to sit up front and take pictures and enjoy the view, while the other is stuck in the back having to steer . Darrell's always in the back seat.

When we reached the waterfall and the fast water I decided to throw on a crankbait. I had heard some good-sized walleye are in the area and I was looking to land one. I took a few casts into the fast water before deciding to throw my lure into an eddy…and wham…fish on! Instead of the walleye I was looking for I found an incredibly ticked-off smallmouth bass on my line.  They just don’t realize their season doesn’t open until Saturday!

My first smallie of the night. Darrell had to grab it because I couldn't get it near enough to the canoe for me to reach. My balance, while never great, is even worse in a canoe and I didn't feel like twisting around too much to grab the fish.

After a quick picture and a release, Darrell moved us back up to the waterfall to try it all over again. And again I had a solid bite and found another acrobatic smallie on my line. This one put in a few jumps before letting me grab it. They may not have been the biggest smallies, but catching them made me pretty darn happy.

It turned out to be an absolutely awesome night, the kind we rarely get to have during the work week. It just goes to show that every now and then we need to cast off the responsibilities for a night and just enjoy ourselves. Fresh air, the outdoors, time on the water, and catching fish…it’s hard to beat.