T Brinks Fishing

Ready for the weekend

This time of year in the Pacific Northwest is what I live for...big largemouth and huge smallmouth all shallow or wanting to be there. I plan to get some good fishing in this weekend with a few baits that I have been collecting over the winter months for review. I think I rigged up 17 rods last night. My biggest problem will be trying to test all of the new stuff while also making the most of my chance for my biggest bass of the year. Here are three baits that I have rigged up with the intention of catching fish with.

Z-Man Hula Sticks

When I first saw these I really didn't think I would ever use them, but then I moved from Florida to Washington and now found a use for them. I have one rigged up on a shakyhead and I will be skipping this thing under docks. It's a nice small size and I think it's gonna skip very well.

Freedom Tackle Rouge Hybrid Jig

I've been a fan of these since I first saw them. They have an innovative design and are a new twist (literally) on jig fishing. The hook can be interchanged with a quick twist. It's something you have to see to appreciate.

DUO Realis Crankbait 48SR

This little guy (1.9 inches) is a nice sized squarebill. I have found that early in the year, no matter how big the bass are, they really like a downsized crankbait. I have one of these rigged up in the HR Ayu color. I think it's gonna work.

These are just a few of many baits that will get some action tomorrow. Hope to share some big fish pics after this weekend.

Savage Gear CBL Prey 95 - REVIEW

This Spring I have become a huge fan of jerkbaits. I've always used them here and there and caught fish on them, but until this year I had not become a true believer and really took the time to learn all of the intricacies of them. This review will be the first of many in the next few weeks.

I first became aware of Savage Gear at ICAST last year. They are a European brand that is now available in the U.S. thanks to a distribution partnership with Okuma. They produce a full line of soft plastics as well as hardbaits and all of their products are top quality. Since jerkbaits are my new thing this year, I have been testing the Savage Gear CBL Prey 95 jerkbait. Here are the specs before I get into the review.

Savage Gear CBL Prey 95

Size: 3 3/4"
Weight: 1/2 oz
Dives to: 1-3 feet
Suspending: Yes
Price: $12.99

The jerkbait is a great all around size, not too small and not too big. It also casts extremely well which is vital when fishing jerkbaits in super clear water. I enjoyed fishing this bait and appreciate the quality finish and design of the bait.

One thing I liked about this was the action. As you know, each jerkbait has it's own unique darting it produces as you do the standard "twitch, twitch, pause". It has a nice tight action and I believe this has to do with the very thin lip.

A top quality bait that is right up there with some of my favorite Japanese brands in terms of styling and finish.

Very thin, circuit board type lip

This lip is a nice shape and allows the bait to dart very erratically in a tight side to side motion. The thin plastic is part of the reason for the great action.

Good quality finish and shape

If you look at the hooks you will notice they are different colors. I was curious about this at first but did some research and see that this is by design, they match the color of the bait as closely as possible to get a uniform color going through the water. I can't think of any other baits that do this, pretty cool actually.

Overall, I like the Savage Gear bait. It was my first impression with any of their baits and I believe that if the rest of their baits are in line with this one, the brand will be here to stay in America. The price is a good mid-range price and I feel it is definitely worth the price they are charging.

To purchase, visit TackleWarehouse.com.

Long Lake Classic Recap

Our club's first annual Long Lake Classic has come and gone and it was a success. Helping put this together was a rewarding experience once it was all underway. I can't thank say enough to thank those who helped put it together.

The fishing itself turned out pretty good and as expected, Long Lake proved that it is one of the best lakes in the Northwest with multiple big fish weighed in. I fished the team event with Wes Henry and we ended up in 5th place with close to 31lbs for two days. We had almost 14 one day and just under 17 the next day. If not for a 12 inch fish the first day we might have had an even better bag and moved up in the standings a little.

We caught almost everything we weighed in on a drop shot rig. I think we had one fish weighed in on a tube, but besides that the drop shot was the deal. We fished a few different baits and would rotate through them quite often. Some of the areas we fished we would basically be sitting on one spot for an hour at a time, so switching up bait colors and sizes is a way to get a few extra bites. I can remember casting to the same spot over and over, then switching baits and catching one on my next cast. It happens too much to be a coincidence. The top producers were the Roboworm straight tail, Z-Man Finesse WormZ and the Damiki Pen 2. The colors we used were across the spectrum, dark to light and everything in between. Also have to thank 5Alive Baits for hooking us up with some drop shot weights on the second morning. They are awesome weights, consistent and clean pours. I have realized that if you are not losing weights, you aren't fishing in the right areas.

This weekend was the first time my tournament partner had used braid to fluoro on his drop shot and he was blown away. It was an adjustment in the morning because he was casting so much further than he was used to and ending up across the docks or into the trees. Definitely a good problem to have. I like to use 15lb Seaguar Kanzen braid (4lb diameter) with 6-8lb Tatsu leader. I had two different fish this weekend wrap me around ropes or logs and I still got them in. One was a big smallmouth that got me wrapped around a rope and was stuck six of seven feet under the water. The line didn't break and somehow Wes got it in the net....it was epic.

Ehrler on the Rod Glove

I love my Rod Gloves..the only thing I don't like is I don't have enough for all of my rods. Check out this video with FLW pro Brent Ehrler on why he likes them.

Also check out my review of the Rod Glove Pro Series.

Am I reading this right? A 3oz crankbait?

The Strike King 10XD took crankbaits to the extreme and I thought it might be the beginning of a new trend, monster crankbaits. It looks like Lucky Craft is next up, with the SKT Magnum. I'm sure it's an awesome bait, Lucky Craft makes top quality stuff. Here is a comparison of the two, the weights of these two baits is what made me do a double take. The 10XD comes close to 2 ounces, but the SKT Mag is 3.25oz. You should have no problem casting either of these.

Lucky Craft SKT Mag 120 DR

Price: $19.99

Length: 4 3/4"

Weight: 3.25oz

Dives To: 25ft

Strike King 10XD

Price: $14.99

Length: 6"

Weight: 1.92oz

Dives To: 25+ ft

A Forgotten Little Trick

I was rigging up a few rods last night for this weekend and deciding which trailer I should use for my jigs. That was my last post and I have been looking through all of my options after talking with a few people about what they prefer to add to their jigs. My choice for this weekend is a Damiki Air Craw. I love fishing these alone on a Texas-rig or for pitching, but they make a great jig trailer as well.

Looking through all of my gear, I found something that I had almost forgot about, Hitch Series Trailer Keepers. I did a review of them two years ago and loved them somehow forgot them. Chris McDonald just did a review of them so I credit him for sparking my memory.

I was worried the trailer wouldn't stay in place because I shortened the Air Craw a little, but with one of these on there I should be good to go!

Photo: independenttackle.com

What's your favorite jig trailer?

I'm a big believer in selecting the right jig trailer and have plenty of favorites. I think selecting the right one is just as important as the color of jig you use. A few days ago I had the chance to interview Elite Series pro Jared Lintner about jigs for an upcoming article and he had a wide range of choices for each season. A few months ago, I interviewed Bradley Roy for an article and he said that he changes his trailers based on the season and forage in that body of water.

I like to fish trailers with less action when the water is cold. I put away my double tail grubs and Zoom Speed Ultravibe Craw type trailers in favor of more subtle trailers that have craw-like appendages. Here are my favorites for early season jig fishing.

Z Man Chunkz

Zoom Big Salty Chunk

How do you pick jig trailers and what are your favorites?

A Great Early Season Trip

I had a great day on the water yesterday with Dan from FHC Outdoors. We caught some great smallmouth even though the water is still in the low 40's. Since we have an open tournament coming up in a few weeks, I can't say everything but it was an eye opener for sure and we found a new favorite early season spot.

We started fishing our best areas that always produce and came up empty handed, until we changed our approach. Even though we caught some good fish, overall the day was very slow and if it was not for an hour window we probably would not have caught anything besides multiple squawfish, suckers and a pike Dan caught.

I was catching fish on jerkbaits, specifically the Megabass Vision 110 FX and the new ITO SHINER, while Dan caught his on a Warrior Baits jig. One thing I did differently this time was using mono on my jerkbaits. I had nearly given up on it over the past few years besides topwaters, but the last few trips I have been using 10lb Seaguar Senshi as an experiment for jerkbaits and I like it! I won't say it's the only way to go, but when it's really cold I think I can get a little slower action on the bait than I can with fluorocarbon since it has more stretch.

My best three

Dan with a nice smallie

New from Megabass

I don't think there are any bass fisherman that can say Megabass does not make great lures. The attention to detail, finish and fish catching abilities are awesome. Some may balk at the price, but it's hard to deny their effectiveness and design. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of their baits and have been for years.

The problem used to be just trying to find them, but with some recent developments they are much more accessible and their recent merger promises to reduce the costs a little across the board. I have been lucky enough to test out a few of their brand new items, the Vision 110 Jr and Ito Shiner and love what I am seeing. They are also adding more and more items on TackleWarehouse, like these:

X-Dad Crankbait

Dog X Quick Walker

Really, what pound test is that?

Line pound test is one of the biggest misconceptions around, it really means nothing when you consider the actual diameter of the line. I have known for a long time to look at the diameter instead of just believing the pound test that is listed on the box. As a very simple comparison, take a look at the following four fluorocarbon lines and the diameter of their 12lb test:

Seaguar InvizX (also Tatsu, AbrazX and Senshi mono) has a diameter of .011
Gamma Edge is .013
Berkley Trilene is .013
Vicious Pro Eite is .0133

Just looking at those numbers might not mean anything, I mean we are talking hundredths of an inch. But a closer look shows this:

Gamma Edge 8lb, Berkley Trilene 100% 8lb and (roughly) 10lb test Vicious are all the same diameter as 12lb test Seaguar.
This can mean alot of things. This biggest one is that you can probably use much heavier line when using Seaguar and get away with it.

The full screen shots can be seen here. Take a look for yourself at your favorite brands. I looked through a bunch of them and there are some major discrepancies to say the least.