|
Part 3
The tide was changing in the lower stretch of the big river.
The spinner set up the two heavily dressed anglers had been using just wouldn’t function as they did when the water had been going out.
“Charlie,” the guy in the stern said as he picked up his rod, “I think we might as well get out of here. There’s just not enough water movement to make the blades on this gear I’m using along with my bait keep turning.”
“Yeah,” his partner replied, “I’m having the same problem. I wish the heck somebody would come up with a rig that would somehow continue to function in slack water like we have here right now. We know darn well the fish are here, but we’ve got to get their attention.”
Well, friends, someone has done exactly what those two anglers---and a passel of other just like them---have long wanted. That someone is Mack’s Lure, marketer of the world famous Smile Blades.
“We’ve just added two new special Smile Blades to our inventory,” says Bob Schmidt, general manager of Mack’s Lure marketing. “These new blades are larger than anything we’ve carried in the past. Like our other Smile Blades, our new models turn with a minimum of water movement.”
|
| Hang one of the new large size Smile Blades ahead of your bait and you might wind up with a beauty like Bob Schmidt is holding here. Schmidt is general manager of Mack's Lure. |
There’s a darn good reason these new blades are being added to the Mack’s Lure line up. Bobby Loomis, the company’s marketing director, told me why it has happened. It turns out Mack’s Lure did so because of a request from one of the Northwest’s top river guides. That man is Herb Good, of Hood River, Oregon.
Good is one of those guys legends are made of. He’s been operating on the lower Columbia and elsewhere for more than three decades. I’ve been lucky enough to fish with him a time or two myself. His last name “Good” really fits because he’s a good as they come if its migratory fish like salmon and steelhead you’re after.
“Herb had been using smaller Smile Blades,” Loomis says, “and he wanted larger blades to use in the near slack water during tide changes. He wanted them especially for big Alaskan rivers like the Kenai as well as similar spots like Tillamook Bay in Oregon.”
|
| These new large Smile Blades were designed especially for use in tide water areas of major river systems. |
Like me, Loomis is totally familiar with the results Herb Good has been getting for his clients for so long. When a fellow with the track record of this likeable expert has has something to say about fishing it pays to listen close and careful.
If you’re familiar with Smile Blades, you’re already aware that they’re made of lightweight Mylar plastic. These blades have a hole in the center. All you need do to rig them up is slide a couple of beads on your leader for the blades to ride on and you’re in business.
“As with our regular blades,” Loomis says, “you’re not limited to any one way of using the new large models. Some prefer to have them positioned right above whatever bait they are using. Others prefer to place them farther up their leader.
“There are those who also like to use the blades along with one of our Wedding Rings or a float. Any way you decide to go, you know you’re going to get the flicker and flash that anglers all over the country are using to put fish in the boat.”
As I’ve mentioned many times before in my columns, Mack’s Lure Smile Blades also do something else. That something else is to impart a wiggle and waggle to whatever bait or lure is being used behind them.
Walleye fishermen around the country were among the first to use this blade-induced action to great advantage. Now some bass anglers are taking the same approach by adding a Smile Blade ahead of their plastic worms. The blades give the worms a seductive wiggle fish just can’t resist.
If the smaller Smile Blades create this extra bait movement, it figures the larger blades will do even more of it. It’s going to be extremely interesting to see just what happens around the country as more and more fishermen begin putting them to work for a variety of species.
|
| While the new large Smile Blades like these were designed especially for salmon and steelhead fishing, they are already creating interest among walleye anglers in places like the Great Lakes. |
“We figure the new big blades might also do really well for walleye,” Loomis says. “I recently talked to Troy Walwood, a member of our pro staff from Michigan. “He’s eager to show these new blades to the walleyes in the Great Lakes as well as the salmon in Lake Michigan.”
The new large Mack’s Lure Smile Blades are now available in two sizes and in six different colors. One of the new blades is 2.8-inches; the other is 3.3-inches.
This is the time of year when a lot of us have vacation time coming. Does fishing play a role in your vacation plans? If it does, and especially if your trip is to involve salmon fishing in tidal waters, keep what you’ve just read here in mind.
Better yet, give Mack’s Lure a call and lay in a supply of these new big Smile Blades before you go. If my longtime friend guide Herb Good recommends that approach---and he does---I’m gonna do it. Wouldn’t you? The toll-free number is 1 800 525-8737.
-end-
|
