Let’s talk about lure action and retrieve speeds shall we. I was looking on the back of the package of the Blue Fox Vibrax Minnow spinner today and read this. The Minnow Spin from Blue Fox offers anglers the flash and attraction of a tuned spinner with a deadly action of a sinking balsa lure. Perfection in every detail, the Minnow Spin has proven deadly for smallmouth and Panfish/crappies and Trout. Controlled sink rate is perfect when fish are at certain depths. For best results retrieve slowly.

Here is what I want to discuss with you. This statement usually rings true but is not ­always the way to present your lure. In the winter the water is quite cold obviously, so this is a good retrieve speed (slow) when fishing for Trout in the winter months or in spring when the water is cold due to mountain run off. Another time of year when a slow retrieve is effective is high summer when the water temperature is warm or hot. Those days when it’s say 25-30 degrees Celsius. The fish tend to not exert too much energy at these times of the year so a slow retrieve speed is highly recommended during these times. Early in the morning when water is cooler, a slow retrieve speed is also recommended until the water has a chance to warm up a few degrees.

When the water has warmed up that few degrees, than start to increase your retrieve speed a little at a time to key in on how fast the fish are willing to swim to hit your offering. In the summer time, say at 10:00 AM, I present the lure at a medium speed and usually do very well with that type of retrieve speed. Later on in the day however, I slow down the retrieve speed as the day starts to warm up. The speed I use then is a medium slow retrieve speed. At dusk in the summer months I will pick up my speed to a medium high speed as the fish are very active at this time of the day and will usually hammer on anything that they can see or hear. I hope this helps all you beginners who are new to the sport of fishing or those who are not new.

Hello every one of my fishing friends. I have not had a chance to go fishing lately as I have been quite busy doing other things. I have Monday to Thursday off so I am going to Fish the Bow River those days. I just made a big order of Vibrax Minnow Spinners so I hope to get those in the mail very soon. I’m going to keep this post small and once I have done some fishing I will add to the Blog. I will give you a quick tip here and then elaborate later.

Here is the tip: Change the factory hooks that come with your lure if possible to a hook that is stronger than the factory hooks which come with your lure. I use Eagle Claw super sharp hooks which are 2X stronger than factory hooks. It drives me nuts losing fish due to bent hooks or cheap factory hooks that break. The Eagle Claw will help you not to lose fish this way. Try to match the factory hook with exactly the same size of replacement hook you are going to use. This will not change the action of your lure.

Let’s talk about what lures or hooks if you will, work best for Brown Trout all over the world. When I target Brown Trout I usually will tie up a plug first thing. The reason for this is simple; Brown Trout love to eat baitfish. They do not eat baitfish because they are necessarily hungry, the will also eat baitfish mostly because they are very territorial. When a Brown trout hears or takes sight of a baitfish imitation moving through its territory, it will aggressively strike at this baitfish to protect its territory from this predator, YOUR LURE. I have several presentations I like to use when I target Brown Trout.

One is, when fishing a river I will cast the lure at a ten o’clock position and slowly reel the lure across the river finishing at a three to four o’clock position. Another method which is one of my favorites is, cast your lure directly upstream and retrieve the lure downstream towards where you stand. The fish are looking upstream to find their food so this presentation is the most natural looking to the fish. I like to use the Rapala Brown Trout pattern when fishing for Brown’s. The Berkley Frenzy has produced some of my biggest Brown’s as well.

This lure has a silver under body with a black top. Looks like a silver shiner. And finally when all else seems to fail I will use what’s called a Buzz Bomb. This is also a baitfish imitation with a kick, its loud noise or “buzzing sound” attracts big fish wherever they hide. Also try the Zinger made by the same tackle company which is the Buzz Bomb & Zzinger lure company.