Tag: black dog baits

March 22, 2010

Trivia Contest: Win a New Black Dog 5″ Lunker Punker Prototype

Announcing the Black Dog Baits trivia contest:

Jeremy Anderson of Black Dog came up with the 9 questions below to test your bass bait knowledge. He will pick a winner from all of the correct answers this Friday at midnight Pacific Time, and we will announce the winner on Saturday. The prize is a highly-prized and otherwise unavailable 5" Lunker Punker prototype.

How to enter: EMAIL the answers to the 9 questions below to wiredangler (at) gmail (dot) com before Friday night. Make sure to include your name and contact info.

These questions are meant for thought and enjoyment. Good luck to all!

1. What was the bait that Rick Clunn called "the perfect bait" that he used to win the 1986 U.S Open?

2. How many VERSIONS of original Castaic wooden trout were made?

3. What is a "Weller's Classic Minnow" and "Simplex Wiggler"? What
years were they produced?

4. I design Ferrari parts for a living but build the finest quality of tackle for fun. Who am I?

5. What lure designer spent countless hours underwater researching the sound frequencies of his lures in order to duplicate the sound of live bait?

6. What extremely popular lure company started their production by hiring whole families to handcraft its lures in their homes?

7. What lures originally came to the USA from Japan in businessmen's briefcases and sold for up to 100 dollars each? Note: this is before eBay.

8. How did "Bone" become such a popular color?

9. Who arguably designed the first topwater fishing lure for black bass?

I hope you enjoyed the questions and hope to ask more in the future! Good fishing too!

Be sure to send in your answers by Friday March 26!

February 28, 2010

Jeremy Anderson: Back from Bassmaster Classic 2010

The Zen Master and I.

Jeremy Anderson reports from the Bassmaster Classic for us. Jeremy is co-owner of Black Dog Baits.

Well, what can I say? The Bassmaster Classic is the most amazing show/tournament I have ever seen.

It is literally awe-striking to see all the professional anglers in one place. Opportunities to meet Hank Parker, Bill Dance, Ray Scott, Rick Clunn and so on abound. These guys are absolutely pleasant to speak with. I felt like a little kid. I got in line for a hot dog and stood next to Paul Elias. I pinched myself several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Meeting other lure manufacturers is always a huge pleasure as well. Grant Koppers from Live Target lures has a beautiful line up of baits and his attention to every aspect of the business is incredible. I picked up some of the crawdad rattle baits, a big 5 inch perch crankbait that runs 12 feet, and a little shad crankbait. The baits scream of quality with a strong Japanese-like inspiration. The finishes are very detailed and executed perfectly. No detail is overlooked from the gill detail all the way to little hairs on the craw rattler. I cant wait to toss these around the river!

Andre Moore of Reaction Innovations has some interesting new designs in the works along with a few colorful stories that put me in tears. He currently is fishing saltwater tournaments for reds and kingfish. Sounds like a fun way to fish that presents a whole new challenge. As usual, his plastic sales were excellent at the show. His following back East is as big or bigger than the West.

Lonnie Stanley and his crew are some of my boyhood heroes. My first jigs were all Stanley jigs I bought from K-Mart. Anybody ever heard of "Hales Craworm"? John Hale is a plastics pioneer from way back. He showed me some new ringed plastic baits with special air pockets to create extra balance and action. The capabilities of these baits are endless. Ken Cheaumont showed me some new jigs and spinnerbaits with some wicked colors. They also had an awesome double frog hook for the ribbits.

I'm not quite sure in 3 days I saw everything there. The new boats were awesome along with the new outboards. The Sho from Yamaha was massive but the 3.2L 300xs stroker from Mercury was love at first sight! WOW!!!!

Baddest motor ever!!!!!!!!!! 3.2 LITER!!!!!!! Yamawhat??????????? Evincrude???????? FAIL

This motor is missing a crown for its regal status.

The Gambler Sterling….. Words cant describe this boat.

Cockpit not console.

New Jaguar. Giant badass cat! Beautiful boat and great people!

Bandit coon. This just made me laugh.

The city was beautiful and oozed old southern charm. I could easily move to Alabama.

The real wow was Kevin VanDam. We are lucky to be able to witness such an unbelievable dominant angler in our lifetime. I'm not sure there will ever be an equal of his. His third classic win along with the angler of the year title. What a stick!

February 27, 2010

Welcoming Black Dog Baits to the Wired Angler

We're no stranger to the allure of Black Dog Baits around here at the Wired Angler, so we'd like to give a welcome and thanks to them for joining the site as an advertiser.

Jeremy Anderson and I have swapped baits for custom paint jobs, and I've been lucky enough to test drive some of his baits before they hit the market.

The classic Lunker Punker is one of my favorite lures of all time, and we're really excited about the new 5" inject Punker that's just coming out. We got our hands on some samples and we'll be featuring it more in the coming days and watch out for a sweet bait giveaway.

Check out some of our past posts on Black Dog Baits:

First Look at the New 5" Punker

First Crack at the New Mini-Shell Cracker

Pimp Your Punker

Black Dog & Vagabond bait Co Join Forces

February 24, 2010

Fishing Flooded Lakes For Bass In The Grass

We've had a good amount of rainfall here in California this year and a lot of small lakes are full already. With each passing storm some are even flooding for short periods of time. This is a luxury we have not had for a number of years and it gets me really exited about going out and shore fishing.

Bass start gravitating towards the shallows whenever there is a high water. High water means food, as all kinds of small forage will get up in the grass and other vegetation that has had a chance to sprout up during the low water period. I really watch the weather this time of year. Whenever there is a stormy, balmy day I will drop everything to go spend a couple hours fishing from shore.

Bass fishing in grass – tackle recommendations:

For the most part I am burning a spinner bait, swim jig or chatter bait. The water clarity is usually not too good but the fish are up feeding and will key in on a fast moving bait. This is a technique I also use fishing out of my boat as well. I will usually wake the bait, otherwise I keep it in the upper six to eight inches of water.

The strikes are usually pretty voracious this time of year. A lot of times you will be watching your bait wake and you will see another wake rise up behind or to the side of your bait moments before you get crushed. Color selection is simple as well: I go for white, chartreuse, a combo of the two, or an orange color scheme.

There is going to be a lot of different forage up in the grass this time of year. Bass will be chasing bluegill, shad, crawdads, worms that have been washed in, salamanders and a number of small prey. Look for coves and areas where water is running in and you will find the highest concentration of fish.

My favorite baits include a Revenge Spinner Bait or Viberator in 1/2 ounce, Black Dog Weedslinger, or a Dirty Jigs No Jack Jig with a small swimbait trailer. The trailer on the jig or spinner bait can resemble either a craw or a small fish. Sometimes they seem to prefer one over the other. I suggest trying the red or orange color scheme as well as the chartreuse or white set up. Sometimes they also like one color over the other.

Not a big fish but this was one of nine in two hours

So there you have it, when everyone else is either fishing deep still or not out fishing at all. You can be out in a crushing bass in the middle of winter in the shallows.

December 13, 2009

First Look At The New 5″ Lunker Punker

5" Punker shown next to 6" Punker inject

When the 6" inject Lunker Punker from Black Dog came out I took my Zara Spook and other topwater box out of my boat, and now this!

This bait is seriously going to hurt the sales of companies that sell traditionally-sized topwater walking baits. I was lucky enough to get ahold of one of the first eight in existance. I threw it for the first time today and could not believe it. It has about the same side to side distance capability as the 6" version, and due to its size can literally be jumped and hopped out of the water. It will sell for about $17.00 to $18.00.

It will be available sometime early in 2010.

Shown here next to a custom painted Reaction Innovations Vixen

This bait is sure to make a splash among the bass fishing world, I would even venture to say its gonna be one of the best new bass baits of 2010. Link to Black Dog Baits

October 13, 2009

Pimp Your Punker

After a couple years of fishing the Lunker Punker there are days when I flat out can not put that bait down. Talk about a fish catching machine.

The other thing about the Punker is that I flat out can not leave the things alone. It is one of the the funnest baits to fuck around with and change up in as many ways as you can. I have had conversations with Jeremy Anderson from Black Dog Baits where we are practically rolling on the ground laughing about some of the ways we have modified these baits. I'm not just talking about custom paint jobs here, I like to do off the wall shit.

I fish Delta and Clear Lake a lot and it is amazing what will intrigue a giant largemouth to come up and eat. The way I look at it is the more off the wall a bait is sometimes, the more response you will get from big fish. Anything that lives on, in, or around the water could potentially fall victim, so why not have that victim on the end of your line. Here is a closer look at some pimped out Punkers

The red wing black bird Punker

The furry critter Punker

The Evil Rat Punker

Have you pimped out your Punker lately?

July 14, 2009

First Crack At The New Mini Shell Cracker From Black Dog

I have known about this bait for quite a while now and have been fiending to get my hands on it, so when Jeremy from Black Dog Bait Co. told me he finally had his first small batch of prototypes, I made the hour and a half drive out to Livermoore to go fish the Delta.

Jeremy had been up half the night painting these little gems. I had talked to him the day before when he told me they had shown up just in time for Grant to bring them to ICAST Tackle Show coming up in Florida from July 15th-17th.

I love swimbaits but have been fishing crankbaits as a go-to technique for many years now, so this bait combines the two into one uniqe hybrid.

Unlike its older brother that is made of wood the new Mini Cracker is an injected plastic bait like its new Punker counterpart.

The advantage to this is durability and price. Like the new 6" inject Punker the new mini Shell Craker is going to sell in the $20.00 price range. (Holly shit, I say) This just means you can buy 5 at a time!

Down to the basics:

So how does it work? Well…..I must say very well.

I opted to throw it on 65# braid with a small moderate 7' 9"swimbait rod made by Rogue Rods. This bait could also be thrown on a heavy crankbait rod as well, but it would need to be pretty heavy.

It cranks down anywhere from 2 to 3 feet and is pretty boyant which will be very beneficial in bouncing off cover, and can also be slowly waked, very effectively.

I have not been this exited about a bait in a long time. Oh and did I mention it catches the hell out of bass yet?

The new Mini Cracker will come in all the traditional Black Dog colors such as Delta Craw, but also be looking for some new outfits with its release.

Here's some more photos of the bait.

Coming to a store near you soon.