Fred C. Young’s Hidden Treasure
A Lost Prototype Gives Birth To “Legacy Lures Balsa Bait Company”
Fred C. Young was a legend in the fishing industry. A pioneer in crankbait design, he created the “Big O” in 1967, a lure that started a long line of “Alphabet” crankbaits that changed the way America fished.
But to Sonny Goodall, he was just ‘granddad’. And like many children who are raised around a historic figure, the awareness of their family member’s fame didn’t really sink in until much later in life.
Sonny fished with his grandfather, and was taught to whittle a “Big O” at the age of ten. But it wasn’t until Cotton Cordell was relaunching the “Big O” around 5 years ago, that Sonny began to recognize the impact his grandfather had on the fishing industry. (Cotton Cordell is now a Pradco acquired company that initially purchased the rights to Fred’s bait in the 70’s).
Another eye opener to his grandfather's historical contribution was increasingly demonstrated by the amazing eBay 'bidding wars' that occurred every time an original hand carved “Big O” went up for sale. Sonny remembers, “Some lures were selling for five and six hundred dollars. So naturally, all of these events happening at the same time peeked again the interest of the family in grandfather’s accomplishments.”
Then it occurred to Sonny, “You know, I have a ton of granddad’s lures and they’re up in a box in the attic.” The rest of the family looked too, and much to their amazement the family collection contained over 400 Big O’s. But the best was still to be discovered...
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Creating Crankbait Confidence via Custom Colors
By Chuck Bailey
Right or wrong, the reality for many anglers is that their crankbait confidence is indubitably connected to color. It may be argued that profile, size, action, depth, presentation, and a host of other factors should hold a higher priority when selecting crankbaits. But ask the majority of anglers to reflect upon a favorite crankbait they used to throw years ago, (perhaps discontinued today), and they will fondly and firstly describe its color.
“I used to throw a brand-x crank in a greenish-yellow with a brown back that just tore them up on my home lake. It broke my heart when they discontinued that bait”. As the sigh begins to fade, their fishing partner may join soulfully in the wishing, “Ah, I used to fish that bait too, but I could never understand why it didn’t come in the chrome with a black back – now that would have been a killer lure!”
Most anglers seemed satisfied to vent their color frustrations, while those “in the know” are finding themselves empowered to do something about it. An increasing number of anglers are discovering and utilizing the services of custom bait refinishers that turn the wishful color desires of today’s anglers into reality.
Keith Eshbaugh of Dutch Forks Custom Lures makes his living selling confidence to anglers through his artistic skills with an airbrush...
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Square-billed Crankbaits – Myths and Truth
By Chuck Bailey
Two baits sit side by side. Their bodies, (shape, size, hooks, and hardware), are the same. They both run at the same depth – three feet. The only difference is the shape of the diving bills; one is round, the other square.
Quiz time: What difference does the shape of the bill make in the way each bait runs? Is the round or square bill known for its greater deflection qualities? (…and should it be?) Why are there no square-billed ‘deep diving’ crankbaits on the market? What is the proper place and procedure for fishing square-billed crankbaits?
No crankbait topic has been more misunderstood, nor accumulated more myths, than the square-billed crankbait. Even the “experts” often disagree. What better way to sort through the conflicting opinions and myths than to find a master craftsman and tournament fisherman who solely specializes in producing premium square-billed crankbaits.
Meet Dave Ryan of Dave’s Custom Baits. Dave started fishing professionally at the age of 22 back in 1994. While on the tournament road he painted a lot of lures for himself, Randy Blaukat, Brent Chapman, and a number of other professional friends on the circuit.
When personal and family responsibilities required Dave to step away from professional fishing, it spawned the birth of Dave’s Custom Baits in 2004. And as fate would have it, this lifestyle change would lead to a love affair with square-billed crankbaits...
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Trolling Crankbaits For Lake Erie Walleyes
By Chuck Bailey
Most of a charter boat’s customers are looking for one thing at the end of the day – a cooler full of walleyes. They come to the Walleye Capital of the World to enjoy a great day on the water, have fun with their friends and family, and catch a few of the nearly 20 million walleyes estimated to swimming in Lake Erie in 2009.
The boat captain’s daily goal is to meet, and if possible, exceed those expectations; to both entertain the clients and put a limit of walleyes in the boat. When it all comes together, the process looks almost effortless. A few customer’s may be so naive as to assume it’s a relatively simple task in which the captain just runs around the water dragging crankbaits behind the boat, and catching fish. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Trolling is a thinking person’s game. Between giving fishing instructions and tips, telling amusing stories, and answering questions, the captain’s brain is constantly churning; analyzing light, wind, and wave conditions, measuring water temperatures, depths, and clarity, ...computing both boat and underwater current speeds.
As the captain gives instructions to their first mate as to what techniques to set up on what lines, they're taking into consideration fish migration patterns, their sonar feedback, (are those blips sheepshead or walleyes?), seasonal patterns, and approaching weather fronts...
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Cranking Bass on
Deep-water Structure -
The Paul Elias Way!
By Chuck Bailey
Shake hands with Paul Elias. Relax; this bass fishing legend is as glad to meet you as you are to meet him. He’s genuinely excited because he’s heard you’re interested in developing some new deep-water crankbait skills. And there's no need to explain, he’s already been informed that you’re fair with a spinnerbait, plastic worm, or a jig – but your confidence in throwing deep-diving crankbaits just isn’t where you’d like it to be.
With the boat already hooked up, Paul invites you to jump in his vehicle and it’s off to the nearest tackle store to get you set up with the right equipment.
Immediately our mentor begins to discus why there are so few bass anglers skilled and confident in the use of deep-diving baits. Paul tells it like it is, “The first thing that I would say, is the majority of bass fishermen are bank-beaters. Most of the time that eliminates the use of deep-diving crankbaits. Of course, they might have some experience throwing shallower running lures like a lipless crankbait or a Baby 1 Minus, but …the fact is, a lot of fishermen are just lazy. They don't want to crank as hard as is required when fishing deep-diving crankbaits. So they just don't throw them.”
This blunt assertion is not without evidence, “I do a fishing school called ‘In-depth Fishing’ and I have people come in from all over to attend. When we start the actual crankbait fishing portion of the class, probably 90% of them make the comment ‘Man you must be really wore out if you do this all day long.’ So I think it's just the lazy side of a bass fisherman who doesn't want to work that hard to catch fish.”
Paul’s conclusions are also supported by...
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Trolling Crankbaits for Bass
By Gord Ellis
Fish are creatures of habit. They follow behaviour patterns that keep them safe from predators, physically comfortable, and well fed. It's a matter of life and death. If a bass is having its best luck feeding on top of a reef during a west wind, you can be sure it will be there every time those conditions occur. Anglers aren't much different. If a fishing pattern brings success, we stick to it like glue, even after it stops producing fish. A bass, however, will change its habits as soon as its forage moves.
One pattern bass anglers are fixated on is casting crankbaits. Ask any 10 bass busters how they fish and I'd bet my four-drawer tackle box that half would answer casting cranks. The other half would be casting, flipping, or pitching something else. Perhaps it's the tournament mystique at work, or maybe it's the force of tradition, but most bass anglers don't like to troll. Yet, trolling crankbaits allows you to fish a variety of depths more accurately than by casting. Buck Perry, the father of modern structure fishing and an avid troller, put it this way: "If you and I desire to consistently catch fish whenever or wherever we go fishing, we must control the depth we fish at and the speed of our lures or bait." Luckily, trolling crankbaits is one of the best ways to achieve that goal...
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CRANKBAIT INSURANCE – How A Little Piece of Nickel Titanium Can Help You Get a Snagged Bait Back.
By Chuck Bailey
In the closing moments of a competitive bass tournament, Don Yeager needed another bass if he was to hold onto first place. His confidence was high that a certain shallow flat might hold a kicker fish or two. But then he remembered that this small area also contained several large and gnarly logs that threatened to devour his Bill Norman crankbait before the bass did.
Most fishermen would hesitate to throw a crankbait full of razor sharp trebles into similar environments. If the crankbait gets hung up, they might lose their most productive lure. But even worse, a tournament competitor might have to take the boat into the shallows in an attempt to free it – spooking every fish in the vicinity.
But Don Yeager never flinched. His confidently hurled his shallow-diver beyond the logs and commenced his retrieve through the crankbait graveyard.
Why was he so fearless? Simple: Don Yeager had purchased “Crankbait Insurance”. Never heard of it? Not many anglers have. Even fewer have purchased it. Too bad, because it’s a promising product that just hasn’t quite found it’s way into the center of the fishing culture. Yet...
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High Speed Trolling for Pike
by Chuck Bailey
Located in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota, the “Mall of America” is the most visited shopping mall in the world with more than 40 million visitors annually. It is so large it has a theme park and an aquarium. When the owners of the aquarium required 50 pike for its tanks, they turned to guide Doug Pirila and asked him if he could provide them.
Without hesitation, Doug set up a date and instructed the aquarium to bring their tank truck to a nearby lake about midday. Doug organized 5 boats of pike fishermen and set them loose to fill the quota. Pirila and his partner quickly began “speed trolling” and limited out within an hour and a half. With the limit of pike being 10 per person, if the others had done as well, Doug figured they would accomplish their goal early.
Seeing one of the other boats nearby, Doug motored over only to discover some frustrated fishermen who were disappointed with it being such “…a slow morning.” After learning of Doug’s success, they inquired as to his secret. Doug generously provided the proper lures, and told them to “speed troll”. He then proceeded to demonstrate the technique, to which the others protested… “That’s too fast!”
That exclamation is typical of fishermen who have never been exposed to speed trolling...
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Out West Crankin’ – Its Just Plain Different! - Part II
by Chuck Bailey
If the shallow presentations (6 - 8 feet) don’t capture the bass’ attention, Bill goes deeper – again, fishing the same stretch of shoreline. “My two favorite deep divers are the Deep-X and The Slither. If I want go 12 to 25 feet, those are the two I go to.”
The Slither looks longer and is more banana-shaped (like something walleye anglers tend to use). Bill acknowledges this but states, “Slithers can get through those tighter spots without getting caught up. For instance, when you are between two different rock ledges, and you actually want to accurately direct the bait – whatever direction your rod tip is pointing towards, that is where The Slither is going. Because of the long, slimmer bill, you can ‘drive it' right and left with your rod tip much better than you can with a wide-billed crank, such as the Deep-X.” Still, Bill uses both because they present a different look to the bass, even though they both fish the same depths.
How does Garcia pick which deep-diver to throw first? Just a glance at The Slither and it’s obvious this bait in no way resembles the shad in the lake. Bill picks it first when he wants to throw something different from what they are used to seeing. Besides, he says “You’re not going to have shad going down to that depth level consistently anyway, and the bass know that.” Anything that reaches that deeper level commonly carries a different profile than the shad. Even the Deep-X is more bass-shaped than shad-shaped – but shape doesn’t seem to be the primary triggering factor at this depth...
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Out West Crankin’ – Its Just Plain Different! - Part I
The Secrets to Fishing the Clear Deep Reservoirs of Arizona
by Chuck Bailey
Intruder Baits prostaffer Bill Garcia shares some hard earned bass fishing secrets to unlocking the clear deep reservoirs of Arizona. If you are thinking of visiting or moving to this part of the country - you will need to make major adjustments in your angling techniques to find success.
Humbling. That’s the term a Midwest or southern fisherman uses to explain their initial fishing experiences in Arizona. Take Navy Chief Bill Garcia for instance. Raised a bass fishermen in Texas, then later stationed in Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin – this Net-Pro Lure prostaffer was a bass catching machine - until he launched his boat for the first time on Lake Pleasant near Phoenix.. How humbling was his baptism into the clear deep waters of the Grand Canyon State? “First four times I went out I didn’t catch anything but a headache.”
It’s a frustrating but typical scenario for fishermen who were raised fishing the stained or muddy waters of shallow Midwest lakes or southern reservoirs. Across America the majority of freshwater fishermen float on darker waters that are often filled to the brim with submerged trees, stumps, and endless acres of vegetation, lily pads, or grass fields.
In contrast, the gin clear water in Arizona is typically encased in sun-baked orange or red canyon rock. The lake’s near-vertical shorelines drop off quickly into depths that only saltwater anglers are used to. Quickly transplanted or visiting bass anglers discover that most of their traditional, ‘tried-n-true’ presentations that faithfully filled the livewell “back home”, now fail to produce. As Bill Garcia says matter-of-factly, “It’s just a different kind of fishing...”
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